27 November 2013

NUSAYBIN, Turkey: Cut into the grass on one of the mountains overlooking the winding highway leading to the far southeastern Kurdish quarter of Turkey is the countrys crescent flag, along with a statement reading: How happy I feel when I say Im Turkish. Arriving in the Kurdish city of Nusaybin, the site of recent protests against a wall constructed by the government to enforce separation with its twin city of Qamishli over the Syrian border, Mayor Ay?e G?kkan issues an entirely different greeting: Welcome to Kurdistan.

The Wall of Shame, as it has been dubbed, has prompted an outcry in Turkey, where G?kkan, a member of the pro-Kurdish opposition party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), went on a nine-day hunger strike to protest the barrier.

The concrete and barbed wire, 1,300-meter wall has divided the neighboring countries Kurdish community, with its history of intermarriage and cultural ties. It has also thrown sensitive peace talks between the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) into doubt, as the two sides try to end a decades-old conflict.

But it has also exposed a deepening rift between Kurdish rivals in Syria as they try to exploit the countrys war to extend influence over a potentially autonomous territory, while escalating a battle over resources.

The Turkish government says it is for security, but if that is so, why are they sending Islamists across the border? G?kkan says, in reference to Turkeys earlier support for Islamist rebels fighting both Assad and the Kurds along the Turkish border.

The PKKs Syrian arm, the PYD and its armed wing the YPG, have been making steady territorial gains in northeastern Syria, including territory that hosts some of the countrys key oil and gas wells and reserves. PYD leaders told The Daily Star that they now control approximately 70 percent of the 40,000 square kilometer area, known as Rojava and, in a controversial move, last month declared a temporary autonomous Kurdish authority.

The apparent ease with which the PYD appeared to consolidate control over the territory has prompted repeated allegations that the party is working with embattled President Bashar Assad, who, locked in battle against mainly Sunni Arab forces backed by Turkey, the U.S. and Gulf States, ceded the territory to the Kurds in an attempt to strengthen his hand against Turkey.

The YPG forces have also been engaged in intense and bloody battles with Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels fighting Assad along the Turkish border that have killed hundreds on both sides.

Al-Qaeda-linked rebels also seized control of Syrias largest oil field last week, the Omari oil field in eastern Deir al-Zor province, raising the possibility that the Syrian state will now be completely dependent on oil imports.

All of this has served to unnerve Turkey, analysts say, at a time of delicate peace talks with the PKK, just months ahead of elections in early 2014, and while Erdogan negotiates an extended pipeline deal with the PYDs staunchest Kurdish rivals, the Kurdistan Region Government in Iraq, headed by Massoud Barzani.

Analysts and Erdogan opponents say it was no coincidence that the wall construction coincided with Barzanis landmark visit to Turkey last month, when he stopped in the Kurdish city Diyarbakir. Barzani and Erdogan are believed to be negotiating an extension of an energy deal that would see the KRG pipe oil in to Turkey, bypassing Baghdad, at a time of growing Turkish energy needs.

Barzani has closed the borders between Kurdish Iraq and Turkey, accusing the PYD of autocratic moves in Syria and a lack of consultation with Syrian Kurds in their announcement of autonomy.

The PYDs leader, Saleh Muslim, retorted that the PYD enjoyed majority support among Syrias Kurds and accused Barzani of interference.

Barzani is claiming he is for Kurdish rights in Syria because of the benefits he gets with the Turkish government, he told The Daily Star from Geneva, where preparations are underway for peace talks.

Yes, we want an autonomous Kurdish state in Syria in the future, but right now what we are working toward is a temporary, civil administration until a peace process is concluded.

Muslim also denied that there had been any sale of oil from wells under YPG control.

Some of them are under the control of YPG forces and some of them are under control of ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria, an Al-Qaeda-linked militia]. From what we have heard, ISIS is selling some of it on the black market, he said.

The YPG is not selling any. It is secured by their forces. This oil is for all Syrians later on.

Even if the PYD does manage to secure an autonomous zone in the future, the party faces many obstacles to profit from its oil resources, according to Soli Ozel, a lecturer of international relations at Istanbuls Kadir Has University and a columnist with Turkeys Haberturk newspaper.

The PYD will have a really hard time because it will be surrounded by enemies. Barzani wouldnt have any sympathy for them, Al-Qaeda wont deal with them and I am not sure the Assad government would recognize any autonomous state. ... So how they can get out of that position, I have no idea, he said.

But it does strengthen their hand in negotiations. They can go to the USA and at least have something in their hand to bargain with.

Ozel believes that neither the PYD nor the KRG front will back down on its ambitions in northern Syria.

Obviously the entire choreography of Barzani visit and the wall and everything that came was geared toward putting pressure on Syrias Kurds, he says.

The PYD has gained the upper hand and that made Turkey and Barzani very unhappy.

Barzani probably thinks that there is a lot of sympathy for the PKK in Iraq, in his own base, and he doesnt want another area in his own neighborhood controlled by his rivals.

Ozel described Turkeys strategy, as manifested in the border wall, as classic divide and rule.

The Turkish government wishes to weaken the PKK as much as it can and part of that strategy is to weaken the PYD, he said.

Ozel said the battle for control of resources in Syria was frequently overlooked in discussions of the Kurdish issue but it remained essentially political and ideological.

Everyone knows there are resources there but my sense is that, even if there wasnt oil in Rojava, you would still have conflict between Turkey, the PYD and Barzani.

Nusaybins mayor, G?kkan, acknowledges that the wall has served to galvanize Kurdish anger in Turkey, but says fears of calls for similar or united autonomy in Turkey are unfounded.

Everybody knows that Kurds will support Kurds, she said, saying the divide was an issue of human rights.

We want rights and democracy in our country. But we dont want a greater autonomous Kurdistan. We want the right to have dialogue with our people, she said.

We believe that the Kurds in Syria should decide for themselves how they want to live.

Gazing listlessly out across the wall separating him from his hometown of Qamishli, Abu Raed, with a toddler on the end of each arm, says he fears further conflict will erupt over Syrias Kurdish areas.

I came here one year ago because my wife is from here and because of all the trouble. Turkey says this is to prevent terrorists from crossing ... but we havent had anything like this between Kurds for 50 years. Its so cynical, he said.

I am not happy with the way the PYD is making decisions, but at this stage I dont care. I have a family and just want to get them out, he said, before furtively moving away as a Turkish armored police van lumbered alongside menacingly.

Copyright The Daily Star 2013.