The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has warned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has given the Turkish state “the green light for genocide against the Kurds”, with Turkey’s dirty deal with Sweden and Finland as the price of the latter states’ membership of the United States-dominated military alliance.
Finland and Sweden made the agreement — on the eve of NATO’s June 29‒30 Madrid summit — to resume arms exports to Turkey, tighten their anti-terrorism laws, expedite Turkey’s requests for the deportation of alleged Kurdish supporters of the PKK to Turkey and to deny support to the Autonomous Administrations of North and East Syria (AANES), popularly known as Rojava.
Bans on arms exports to Turkey were imposed by the Swedish parliament at the initiative of the Swedish Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) after Turkey’s unprovoked invasion of Rojava in 2019.
The agreement was made under the auspices of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Sweden and Finland will also step up cooperation between law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which Kurdish organisations fear could endanger dissidents and asylum seekers.
A statement issued by the PKK's Foreign Relations Committee on June 29 said: "The fact that the achievements, the values, the freedom and the struggle of the Kurdish people are being turned into a bargaining chip for NATO enlargement is a declaration of enmity against the Kurdish people. The agreement reached in Madrid between Finland, Sweden and Turkey on the policy set by the Turkish government shows the hypocrisy of a system that calls itself a ‘Western democracy’.
“The true face of this system has thus been shown once again. The support for the Kurds decided by the Swedish Social Democrats at their party congress has been undermined and it has become clear that anything can be negotiated for the sake of profits. This is also an injustice against their own members and society in Sweden.
“NATO has agreed in Madrid to support and adopt the policy of massacres and genocide conducted by the Turkish state against the Kurdish people for a hundred years. Kurdistan has been turned into a colony through the [1923] Lausanne Agreement. The Kurds are denied and annihilated on their own land. Today, it is the Kurdish people who are enforcing democracy in the Turkish state with a high political consciousness and in an organised way. No power in the world will be able to defeat this people.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan confirmed his intentions, on June 26, to launch another military operation into northern Syria to take over several more towns and cities in the Kurdish-majority areas, which the AANES warns will lead to instability and a possible resurgence of Islamic State (ISIS).
According to ANF News, Erdoğan announced in May his plan to “create a 30-kilometre-deep ‘security zone’ in those parts of northern Syria that Turkey and its jihadist allies have not yet been able to occupy”.
The cities of Manbij and Tel Rifat were identified as priority targets to be “cleared of terrorists".
In the days following the NATO summit, Turkey and allied jihadist terrorist groups escalated their attacks in Rojava and against the Makhmour refugee camp in northern Iraq.
The General Assembly of the AANES declared a state of emergency on July 6, in response to escalating attacks on the civilian population and civilian infrastructure with heavy weapons and drones.
"The Turkish state wants to occupy more areas in Syria, bring about a demographic change, displace the local population, create a security crisis and start a flight movement. This action is intended to expand the Turkish zone of occupation, which will allow the return of terror and extremist aspirations.
“At the same time, the interests of the Autonomous Administration, which has been fought for by members of the ancestral peoples in Syria, will be significantly affected. Moreover, the action will affect the security and territorial integrity of Syria. The Turkish state has been committed to the occupation of Syrian territory since it suffered defeat in the war against northern and eastern Syria waged by extremist groups," the AANES statement said.
Three days earlier, 34 parties from AANES/Rojava delivered a letter of appeal to the United Nations calling for a no-fly zone over north-east Syria to prevent Turkey from carrying out a new invasion and further harming its civilian population and civil infrastructure.
"We are concerned about the threat of a new encroachment in our regions where the idea of equal, multi-ethnic and multi-religious coexistence is being put into practice by all communities together with the autonomous administration. We condemn these threats and consider them a violation of Syria's territorial integrity and sovereignty," the letter said.
Dr Hüseyin Koçer, member of the Syrian Democratic Forces Euphrates Region Command, told ANF News that the SDF was prepared to resist a Turkish invasion.
“We have prepared for a long-term war. Our society also follows developments and sees what needs to be done in a better way. The fighters and people will not leave settlements. There will be resistance at the highest level. We will continue our resistance until the victory of our community is secured. Just as Erdoğan-backed ISIS was removed from these lands, his troops will also be removed.”