15 October 2014
The South African Communist Party joins millions of peace-loving people around the world in expressing outrage at the continued passivity of the Turkish government while forces of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) pursue their genocidal offensive against the Kurdish town of Kobane on the Turkey-Syria border.
Since mid-September, outnumbered, out-gunned and against all the odds, brave Kurdish fighters inside of Kobane have resisted the brutal ISIS advance. The Turkish parliament has voted in favour of allowing Turkish forces to cross into Syria to defend civilians from ISIS`s wave of terror. But still the Turkish government stands idly by. To add salt to wounds, yesterday Turkish F-16 and F-4 planes bombed PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) forces who have been seeking to aid besieged Kobane. The Turkish government is playing a deeply cynical game, limply condemning ISIS terrorism, while secretly hoping that ISIS will crush the Kurdish people`s legitimate struggle for greater national autonomy.
The Kurdish people continue to be the victims of colonial-era borders. Their land has been partitioned between four countries: Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. In recent times, the Kurds in Syria have had a non-confrontational relationship with the secular government led by President Bashar al-Assad. This is in contrast to Turkey, which has been brutally suppressing them, leading to a protracted conflict between the Kurds under the leadership of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish government.
Like Nelson Mandela, the Kurdish leader, Abdullah Öcalan, has been imprisoned on an island where he is guarded by over 1 000 Turkish soldiers. He has been imprisoned for almost fifteen years alone with limited visitations. Recently, the Turkish government has imprisoned more Kurds. The SACP calls for an unconditional release of Öcalan and all other Kurdish political prisoners and freedom fighters.
ISIS was established, developed and armed with the assistance of the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other imperialist states and their client regimes. It was seen as a "useful instrument" for regime change in Syria which was meant to be the next domino (after Libya) in an imperialist inspired "Arab Spring". The US has belatedly come to realise that their own creation is the real threat to the region and indeed even to their own domestic security. This `Frankenstein`s Monster` has now become a danger to its creators. The dangerous double-game being played by the Turkish government is bound to back-fire on them as well.