Esther Mordecai Can the US afford to bypass the PKK?

Esther Mordecai Can the US afford to bypass the PKK?
By Hamma Mirwaisi (about the author)
kurdistan freedom fighters


Moreover, when the Syrian civil war began in the early spring of 2011, the Kurds seized a long awaited opportunity to organize their defenses against the Arabs' infighting by forming the YPG forces the under the leadership of the PYD. However, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogen of Turkey and President Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG) perceived the move as against their interests. While the Islamic Prime Minister of Turkey feared the increase of Kurdish forces in Syria would provide significant support for PKK forces in Turkey, Barzani regarded the growth of the PYD and the YPG in Syria as a threat to his family's corrupt control of Iraqi South Kurdistan.