Turkey Adds Fuel to Fight Of Iraqi Kurds for Independence
Despite Turkey’s age-old fear of Kurdish independence in contiguous regions near its border, energy ties are growing between Turkey and Iraq's Kurdistan Region.
The capture of the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain near the Turkish border by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) from al-Qaeda-linked Islamist groups has activated Ankara’s Kurdish phobia once again, given the close ties between the PYD and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging a campaign of terror in Turkey for autonomy.
Turkey’s age-old fear is that any political advances toward autonomy or independence by the Kurds in contiguous regions near its border will also encourage separatism among its own restive Kurds. Turkish-Kurdish relations, however, are proving to be more complex than meets the eye. Ankara’s fears about Kurdish political ambitions has not prevented the growing energy ties between Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), even if this cooperation could be paving the way to independence for Iraqi Kurds.
