In its quest to become part of the Mosul operation, the Turkish government has been warning that the predominantly Shiite volunteer Popular Mobilization Units will ethnically cleanse Sunnis from Mosul and its environs. But since that argument has not yielded the desired results of being able to intervene in Iraq, Ankara is now using the argument that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has turned Sinjar into a base. By declaring that “Sinjar is on the way to becoming a new Qandil, we cannot allow that,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made Turkey’s position clear.

Turkey’s Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar warned US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford of Turkey’s potential intervention during their Nov. 6 meeting in Ankara. According to a senior official who spoke to daily Hurriyet, Dunford said Turkey is justified to intervene in such a situation that concerns its national security.

This unidentified official explained Turkey’s position, which is to prevent the PKK from taking control of Sinjar and turning it into a logistics base that will provide access between Syria and Iraq. The question is whether the historical center of Yazidis in Sinjar is truly becoming a new base for the PKK, like Mount Qandil, and are Kurds really taking over control of the town?

The PKK presence in Sinjar did not begin on Aug. 3, 2014, when the Islamic State (IS) occupied the area. In fact, the PKK have been with the Yazidis for at least 20 years. After the occupation of the region by the United States in 2003, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) attempted to annex Sinjar to Kurdistan by increasing the size of peshmerga forces, while the PKK intensified its efforts to expand its sphere of influence. About 8,000 peshmerga forces withdrew from the area without challenging IS in 2014, but the PKK’s armed wing, the People's Defense Forces (HPG), began fighting to open a corridor from the Sinjar Mountains, while Rojava’s People's Protection Units (YPG) began doing the same from the Syrian side. These moves boosted the PKK’s popularity among the Yazidis, while the KRG leadership under Massoud Barzani and peshmerga forces affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) suffered serious blows to their prestige when they were accused of abandoning the Yazidis to the murderous IS.