What Turkey stands to lose in its hunt for Syrian Kurds
Turkey may face an unexpected backlash within its borders from its goal of undermining the gains of the Kurds in Syria by launching an operation in Jarablus.
Dozens of civilians have been killed by Turkish fighter jets in the country's recent intervention in Jarablus, Syria. Turkey and a number of armed groups it is supporting have attacked the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
So the Kurdish question in Turkey has now spilled over to Syria. The Syrian crisis is now a domestic issue for both the Kurds and the Turks.
Turkey entered Syria under the pretense of "the fight against the Islamic State [IS]." But there has been no clash between the Turkish army and IS. Turkish officials continue to deem the Kurds more dangerous than IS. Soon after the Jarablus operation started, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim confirmed that the targets were the Kurdish forces and the local Arab groups working with them.
Last week we predicted that the situation was going to get worse before it gets better, and some had found this a pessimistic analysis. Unfortunately, we were proven right.
