▲ Turkish air raid screen
On the morning of April 18, local time, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced that the Turkish military had launched a large-scale cross-border military operation code-named "Operation Claw Lock", aimed at attacking Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq. Judging from the video information released by the Turkish military and Russian media, before the ground operation was launched, the Turkish army used fighter jets, helicopter gunships and drones to carry out targeted clearance of multiple PKK bunkers and ammunition depots, which shows that the Turkish side has been brewing for this military operation for a long time. But the sudden action also caught the outside world off guard and gave rise to a series of questions - why fight? Why choose to play now?
Why fight?
The relationship between Turkey and the PKK can be described as a long-standing grudge. Historically, although kurds make up 15 percent of Turkey's total population, the concept of "Kurds" has been denied from the very beginning of Turkey's statehood. This fundamental denial has led to deepening contradictions between the Kurds and the Turkish government, including the PKK (PKK), which was established in the 70s of the last century to demand independence and autonomy, which has been in constant friction with the Turkish government since its establishment, coinciding with the deterioration of relations between Syria and Turkey and the launch of the Gulf War by the United States, a series of external factors that have provided an objective environment for the development of the PKK.
▲ Turkey borders Iraq
In the 21st century, the PKK has repeatedly launched attacks on Turkish security forces in order to achieve so-called independent autonomy, which has also caused a large number of civilian casualties in the process. In order to solve this problem, the Turkish parliament directly passed a bill in 2006 that allows Turkish security forces to cross the border to attack PKK in Iraq, so that in this military case alone, it is reasonable and legal in Turkey.
However, due to the internal strife in Syria and the expansionary development of the extremist organization ISIS, it once again provided an excellent opportunity for the development of the PKK, and at this time there were new external forces to join - the United States and Israel, which continued to provide armed assistance to the PKK in the name of fighting ISIS, like Israel is responsible for providing personnel training, while the United States secretly provides intelligence and equipment support. With these two major backers, in the second half of 2015, PKK successively occupied a number of cities in southeast Turkey, in Turkey's view, PKK is a complete terrorist organization, so as long as the organization exists, it is reasonable to suppress it, no matter when.
Why choose to play now?
▲Footage of the Turkish army operation
In fact, since the approval of the 2006 Border Crossing Act, the Turkish military's cross-border strikes have never stopped, but in this special period, it is indeed somewhat sensitive to carry out such a large-scale cross-border strike, but it has to be said that this is exactly what the Turkish government has carefully planned.
First of all, in the special context of the current large-scale military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the United States, NATO and even the entire Western countries have focused most of their attention on Ukraine, not only providing Ukraine with large-scale arms and equipment, but also providing a series of intelligence support, and even mercenaries. As for PKK, no one pays attention to it, and at this time, the Western countries naturally have no time to take care of it.
▲ The special geographical location has allowed Turkey to always have the dream of a great power
Secondly, do not simply think that the Turkish government is just to eliminate PKK, from a deeper point of view, it is not excluded that it wants to take the opportunity to become bigger and stronger. As we all know, Turkey has always had the dream of a great power, and this performance has become more and more intense in recent years, and there is a tendency to become the "boss" of the Middle East. But helplessly, the outside world does not believe in its strength. In sensitive periods, choosing a "suitable" object to carry out large-scale military operations can be fully understood as "showing muscles" to enhance regional influence and regional discourse, and choosing to shoot at this stage can really be described as killing two birds with one stone.
It is foreseeable that the resistance encountered by the Turkish army in this military operation will not be too much, and the losses will not be too large, but there are also variables, especially whether the United States and some Middle Eastern countries will really stand by and watch, which may need to be tested by time.