OPINION:
In a statement that most likely would not have been made without Russian approval, the newly minted Kurdish representative to Moscow says Russia will attack Turkish forces if they cross the border into Syria, a move that would spark a NATO, Russian war.
“We take this threat very seriously because the ruling party in Turkey is a party of war,” Rodi Osman, head of the Syrian Kurds’ newly-opened representative office said in Kurdish via a Russian interpreter. “Russia will respond if there is an invasion. This isn’t only about the Kurds, they will defend the territorial sovereignty of Syria,” reported Bloomberg. Osman said the Turkish move would lead to a “big war.”
Tensions are spiraling between Russia and Turkey as Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed Kurdish separatists for a terrorist bombing that killed scores of people in Ankara on Wednesday.
“We are continuing to liberate our territory and it would go faster if it wasn’t for Turkey,” Osman said. Russian warplanes are providing support for the Kurdish offensive, which is aimed at securing full control of the Turkish border, while Russia has also promised to support the Syrian Kurds’ goal of federal status, he said.
It seems Russia has decided to support the Kurdish goal of an independent Kurdish state on the Turkish border, an outcome Turkey says it will not tolerate. Russia is supplying arms in addition to providing air support to the Kurdish rebel fighters in a bid to obtain revenge for the Russian aircraft shot down by Turkish forces in late 2015, according to Syria’s former Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil, a Kurd who is now an opposition leader based in Moscow and is in close contact with the Russian government and the PYD.
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