DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Developments in northern Syria, which has a large Kurdish population, have long been on Turkey’s agenda. Turkey considers the growing power of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the region seriously disturbing.
Turkey has consistently warned that it could intervene militarily in the region. But the prevailing view was that Turkey refrained from military action so as not to confront the United States and Russia. That restraint ended April 25 when Turkish jets bombed YPG facilities at Mount Karachok, near the Syrian town of Derik, and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets near Iraq’s Sinjar.