Intel: Pentagon pauses program that helps Turkey target PKK
The United States has suspended providing real-time intelligence to Ankara that helped it target militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.
The United States has suspended providing real-time intelligence to Ankara that helped it target militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The change followed Turkey’s Oct. 9 offensive against a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkey insists is part of the PKK. The news, broken by Reuters, is further evidence of the fraying relationship between the two NATO allies.
Why it matters: Both Turkey and the United States classify the PKK as a terrorist group. The CIA played a key role in helping Turkey catch PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.
The paused program began in 2007 in a joint operations room in Ankara, where images of PKK operatives filmed by US drones were flashed in real time on a large screen.
In 2017, the United States weighed helping Turkey kill Cemil Bayik, one of the top PKK commanders in the field, to placate Ankara over the Pentagon’s ongoing partnership with the Kurdish-led and PKK-friendly Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It also placed bounties on Bayik and two other veteran PKK commanders.
