The Turks have fire and fury with Israel despite the caliphates of the Erdoğan regime
When it was revealed last month that Israel had asked the United States to prevent a new Turkish military operation in northern Syria, it served as a necessary reminder that Tel Aviv’s role in Syria is not just limited to conducting drone strikes on the Syrian regime and Iranian targets in the country.
The move revealed that Israel also has its own interests in northern Syria, not only to secure military bases or neutralize Iranians or Syrians in the region, but mainly to provide support to the hundreds of Kurdish militia fighters fighting to form a separate and independent Kurdish state, Arab media reports.
The Israeli lobby in Washington is doing everything to prevent the Turkish attack on Syria.
On the other hand, Tehran does not directly oppose the Syrian Kurdish militias and does not support Ankara’s military plans.
Instead, Iranian militias currently have a presence in some cities and regions of northern Syria, with the aim of helping Syrian regime forces that have recently been deployed to help in turn, Kurdish militias against the Turkish operation.
Israel has long supported Kurdish organizations over the years, with the goal of creating a separate Kurdish state in the region.
Information and reports have indicated that Israeli support is material and military, while Kurdish forces are conducting military training with the support of Israel.
Israel’s political support for an independent Kurdistan is, of course, clear and unequivocal.
This was particularly evident in 2017, when then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government openly supported Kurdish independence from Iraq during the controversial referendum held that year.
According to an article in the Jerusalem Post newspaper by an Israeli journalist, it became known that “an independent Kurdistan would be a second Israel in the Middle East.”
The article called on Tel Aviv to “supply the Kurds with the heavy weaponry the Kurds need to fight for their independence.”
The Israeli journalist envisioned “a Kurdish-SDF-French-Israeli alliance as an obstacle to Iran,” stressing that the decline in support for the Palestinians among the Gulf states would mean that “the Saudis and other GCC leaders [Συμβούλιο Συνεργασίας του
Κόλπου] they will be persuaded to support the Kurds in the name of deterring Iranian aggression in the Middle East.”
In 2019, Israel’s pro-Kurdish stance was rekindled when Turkey launched its 3rd military operation in northern Syria to seize border areas from Kurdish militias it claimed threatened its national security.
At the time, Netanyahu condemned the operation as “ethnic cleansing” and offered Israeli aid to the militias.
“Israel is ready to extend humanitarian aid to the brave Kurdish people,” he tweeted.
Israel’s then-deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotoveli, then publicly confirmed that the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) had accepted Netanyahu’s offer of help.
“The possible collapse of the Kurdish occupation in northern Syria is a negative and dangerous scenario as far as Israel is concerned.
It is absolutely clear that such an event would lead to the strengthening of negative elements in the region, led by Iran,” he said.
With such an Israeli sympathy for an independent Kurdish state in the region, it would require significant territorial concessions from Iraq, Iran, Syria and especially Turkey.
“Ankara and its government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are, above all and without a doubt, pragmatic and willing to make seemingly short-term tactical sacrifices for long-term strategic gains.
They will soon realize that any Turkish rapprochement with Israel will come at the cost of continued Israeli support for Kurdish separatist aspirations. This would primarily have an impact on Turkey and its national security”, says an Arab expert.
USA and Israel have their own national and regional interests in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean.
“These could, at some point in the future, lead to unforeseen consequences, which would multiply in the event of a crisis.
As such, the Kurdish forces will remain a card in Israel’s hand, which it could always use as leverage against Turkey and other regional states.
After all, Israel views the Kurds as a bulwark against rivals in the region and as a potential tool to one day be used against the Arab states, Iran and Turkey simultaneously.
Ankara perceives this threat, as it has already expressed concerns about the possibility of Israel supporting the PKK, as a counterweight to the Turkish government’s relations with the Palestinian organization Hamas”, he concludes, among others.
Many argue that the Kurdish state will be created and at the same time the Turkish state will be divided, since the real Turks are much less than what Erdogan is counting on today.
All the movements of the USA and Israel in this wider area are considered as the beginning of the creation of a Kurdish state by the union of the Kurds of Iraq and Syria.
The aftermath of such an undertaking will surely include SE Turkey and western Iran along with earth shattering events that will change the map of the region.
