by Uzay Bulut
When the civil war in
Syria started, Salafis were a minor element of the Syrian opposition.
But since the beginning of 2013, five of the most powerful
organizations in Syria have been Salafi groups. ISIS was only one of
them. Today, ISIS is the most powerful group in the region.
It is widely
acknowledged that three countries back the Salafi groups for their own
political or economic motives: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
Turkey and Free Syrian Army
What happened to the Free Syrian Army?
The Free Syrian Army is
not an organized, militarily trained or ideologically homogenous
group. This has resulted in its weakening in conflict zones. And the
political rivalry between countries that support the FSA has also
played a role in its loss of power. Turkey, for example, supported the
FSA groups that fought against Kurds in Syrian Kurdistan and Aleppo but
the Saudis supported other FSA groups in the same region in order to
establish political hegemony there. This has made the FSA even more
fragmented, open to corruption and ideologically divided. And the
empowerment of the Salafis was a final blow to the FSA.
Turkey and the Syrian National Council
Despite its influence
in the Istanbul-based Syrian National Council, Turkey has not striven to
turn the council into a democratic and pluralistic organization. What
has mattered for Turkey has been the loyalty of SNC persons and
groups to Turkey's "red lines." Most of the SNC consists of Arab
nationalist and Islamist groups whose political agendas are in line
with the state ideologies of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Actually,
members of this council have not been free to express their demands
openly and their fates depend on the steps to be taken by Turkey,
Saudi Arabia and Qatar. With its current structure, internal power
struggles and ineffective members, it seems that the SNC does not
promise hope for the Syrian people.
Moreover, the SNC has
not taken a concrete, independent step toward expressing its own
demands other than issuing written statements. The SNC's support for
anti-pluralistic Islamist groups, its hostile stance against the
Democratic Union Party (PYD), which administers the autonomous regions
of Syrian Kurdistan, and its silent approval of Salafi attacks against
the PYD's armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), are other
signs of its anti-democratic nature.
Turkey and Salafis
Turkey's anti-PYD
stance in Syrian Kurdistan and its desire to gain power in the
post-Assad era have caused it to invest in jihadist groups in Syria.
Its main criteria in determining which plans and groups to support in
Syria were the Kurdish issue and Islamism.
With those criteria in
mind, it has reportedly provided intelligence, logistics and monetary
support to groups fighting against the Kurds, enabling the flows of
fighters and ammunition to them.
It has reportedly
hosted the leaders of some Salafi groups in Ankara. For example, it
invited Ahrar ash-Sham's leader, who was already living in Turkey and
had close relations with the Turkish Foreign Ministry, to help him
negotiate with the FSA.
Turkey's policy -- or political games -- on Syrian Kurdistan
On the one hand, Turkey
has supported all forces, including ISIS, that are fighting the
Kurdish YPG. It has provided these forces with health services and
logistics, facilitating the flow of their fighters to Syria. On the
other hand, Turkey has formed other military groups that it can
control more than ISIS.
For instance, an armed
group called the Ahfad al-Rasul Brigade, which fought against the Kurds
in Sere Kaniye (in Syrian Kurdistan) in 2012, was reportedly
established in the Turkish province of Urfa, with the support of the
Turkish government.
In November 2013,
Turkey and Saudi Arabia reportedly formed a new Salafi front, called the
Islamic Front, which consists of groups such as Al-Tawhid Brigade,
Ahrar ash-Sham, Suqour al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam, and Ansar al-Sham. As a
result of this project, Salafism in the region became even more
intensified.
Turkey's relations with
the Islamist and jihadist groups in Syria have further deepened the
ethnic and religious divisions in the region. Even though Turkey is a
NATO member and an EU candidate, it has been fueling the civil war in
Syria, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, intensifying armed conflicts
and increasing the suffering of civilians.
Islam, ISIS and the West
Most Western analysts
and politicians choose to overlook the fact that the rise of jihadism
has much to do with literalist interpretations of the Quran.
The idea that ISIS is a
reaction to U.S. and Western foreign policy is unrealistic. Without
studying the history of Islamic jihad from its beginnings in 620 C.E.,
the current rise of jihadist groups and the influence of the historic
jihadist mentality on today's challenging times cannot be fully
understood. Whether the West intervenes in Islamic countries or not,
jihadists will always desire to conquer Western, non-Muslim, and
secular Muslim countries. This will continue for as long as they have
adequate funds and logistical support.
Turkey chooses ISIS over the Kurds
Turkey has openly
chosen ISIS over the Kurds. It would also choose another radical
Islamist, Salafi force that it could control more easily, but under
the current circumstances, it has chosen ISIS over the PYD. Turkey
does not want the PYD administration on its southern border. The fact
that Turkey does not have a preventive stance toward ISIS and overlooks
the flow of ISIS fighters to Syria are indications of this.
The AKP government's understanding of "democratic resolution"
The stance of Turkey's
ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) toward the Kurdish issue is
complex and ridden with contradictions. Unlike traditional Kemalist
governments, the AKP government seems to be trying to resolve the
Kurdish issue by expelling armed groups from its own territory.
The resolution of the
Kurdish issue, however, is not only about ending armed conflicts. Kurds
demand the right to self-rule, and especially, linguistic rights.
To this end, the
Kurdish Language Research Foundation, Democratic Society Congress and
Teachers' Union established three schools that would give education in
Kurdish in the Kurdish provinces of Diyarbakir, Sirnak and Hakkari.
The schools were opened on September 15, 2014 but were closed by police
on September 16, as the governors of those cities had declared the
schools illegal and the Turkish Interior Ministry had ordered that the
schools be sealed. The students, their parents and local politicians
opened the seals of the schools to start education on September 17.
But the police sealed the schools on the same day again, this time
using pepper spray, gas bombs and water cannons against the protesters
(including elderly people) who demanded that the schools be opened.
This must be an
unprecedented, Turkish-style resolution of a national conflict through
"democratic" means. Turkey has given a unique meaning to
democratization which should be analyzed in sociology textbooks under
the chapter "How Not to Make Peace with Oppressed Minorities."
The AKP government
presents the Kurds' desire to have education in their native language as
"a demand thwarting the resolution process." Its intolerance against
Kurdish schools alone shows that the AKP government is seeking not to
achieve peace with its Kurds, but to establish a new kind of hegemony
over them.
As if Turkey's
oppression of its own Kurds did not suffice, now it aims to annihilate
the autonomous administrations of Syrian Kurdistan with all the means
at its disposal, particularly with the military might that it owes
mostly to its NATO membership.
Be it the AKP government or former Kemalist governments, Turkey has always made it its hobby to oppress the Kurds.
But it was the West that paved
the way for dividing and separating Kurdistan with the Sykes-Picot
Agreement, leaving Kurds stateless and marking the beginning of their
tragic fate. So it is the same West that should end this injustice and
help the Kurds realize their centuries-old dream of statehood.
Uzay Bulut
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=10243
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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