The strategic analysis team in the Geostrategic network for studies
What does this development mean in the operations of the PKK, and the start of carrying out air operations with small drones in the Turkish depths? Has the party entered new stages of the conflict after five years of calm inside the Turkish interior and the confinement of confrontations in the border regions?
As a result of the peace dialogues that took place between the PKK and the Turkish regime on May 8, 2013, it resulted in the withdrawal of a large number of PKK fighters from the Kurdish region in northern and eastern Turkey to their bases in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, especially the rugged triangle between Turkey, Iraq and Iran, which controls Accordingly, the workers since the end of the eighties, this development was a rationale for the easing of the party's military operations in the Turkish heartland. As the way was open for the peace process and positive exchange in political discourse and media between the two parties, and the atmosphere was created appropriately to be a good ground for the Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party to play an important role in these negotiations and dialogues that continued between the party’s leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in his prison in Amrali prison And the Turkish system represented by the Justice and Development Party. However, events in advanced stages have taken a different path from the state of optimism and hopes that were built around ending this conflict, and all aspirations for a solution that would satisfy both parties dissipated after Turkish President Erdogan criticized the solution paper presented by the PKK leader in his prison, and put forward 10 points to end it. This war, and thus the Turkish regime retreated from the solution project, for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to respond to it later in the election campaign with the slogan “We will not make you president, Erdogan.” Thus, the partners of the political process entered the political process, and the solution was previously on opposite sides.
On July 10, 2015: The PKK announced the cancellation of the ceasefire resolution and the freezing of the settlement process, and the emphasis on Turkish retreat from the peace process, calling on the Kurdish people to take up arms to confront the Turkish regime under the name: "Revolutionary People's War."
A few days later, the party carried out small-scale military operations, which were the spark for the Turkish regime's announcement of a military operation on July 20.
The Kurdish and Turkish regions witnessed during 2016 violent confrontations and bombings against Turkish military bases and soldiers, in which the Turkish regime accused the Workers Party of standing behind them, while the party confirmed its implementation of bombings in military sites in which dozens of soldiers were killed and wounded, whether in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir or the capital, Ankara. These bombings are a development in the resumption of confrontations between the two parties, especially enabling the party to carry out such operations, whether in the headquarters of the Turkish army and security and in sensitive security sites where it is very difficult to carry out war operations, which showed the vulnerability of the Turkish security capabilities to the tactics of the PKK.
Meanwhile, the Workers' Party’s military operations in the Turkish rear after 2017 significantly decreased, and were confined to the border triangle between Iraq - Turkey - Iran, where the Turkish regime announces large military operations in which tens of thousands of soldiers, modern mechanisms and warplanes are used, and during that the party was succeeding In blocking those large-scale attacks by the Turkish army, and each operation ends with the Turkish regime's announcement of achieving its goals, while conditions on the ground have not changed in favor of the Turkish regime.
Kurdish developments in Syria imposed their weight on Turkish policies to move south towards opening military fronts against the Kurdish Autonomous Administration, especially after the American-European intervention in the war on ISIS, and the alliance with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey considers a wing of the PKK in Syria. Between 2013 - 2016 Turkey had close relations with the extremist ISIS organization that occupied the region and managed the economic conditions in cooperation and partnership with the Turkish regime. During the operations to liberate the region by the Kurdish units and the international coalition from Kobani to Manbij and Raqqa from ISIS control, the Turkish fear of the expansion of these operations towards the Al-Bab areas and thus the geographical connection with the logic of Afrin, which are controlled by the Kurdish units.
At the end of August, the Turkish army occupied the Jarablus area, in coordination with ISIS, which evacuated the area and withdrew to the southeast of al-Bab, so that the Turkish occupation army could block the road in front of the Syrian Democratic Forces, which was established from the Kurdish units and Arab tribes on October 10, 2015.
The expansion of ISIS's control to the Sinjar / Sinjar regions in Iraq and Kobani in Syria prompted the PKK to provide support to the Kurdish units in Syria, and thus the party reduced its operations inside Turkish territory in exchange for intensifying its activities to protect the two regions witnessing violent confrontations between Kurdish forces and ISIS supported and coordinated with The Turkish regime, as Turkish territory has turned into a center for collecting and sending extremist elements to Syria and Iraq.
On February 17, 2016: The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, a group close to the Kurdistan Workers Party, claimed responsibility for the car bomb attack that took place on Sunday in Ankara, which killed 37 people. It said that it was a response to the security campaign launched by the Turkish forces in southeastern Turkey, where the majority of the Kurds are.
On November 4, 2016: The PKK carried out a large operation in the city of Diyarbakir, where the large security complex in the region was attacked and more than 100 people were killed or wounded in the ranks of security officers and police, using a car bomb.
This period witnessed violent confrontations in most Kurdish cities after the Turkish army carried out military operations against the Kurdish people and activists, which forced the people to take up arms to defend themselves against the ethnic liquidation carried out by the Turkish regime, and the Turkish army destroyed a large number of Kurdish cities, including the city of Sur In Diyarbakir and some other cities and villages, thousands of Kurds have been killed, wounded, and arrested.
During this period between 2016-2020, the Workers' Party’s military operations were relaxed in the Turkish rear, and the party’s strategy of motivation and appeasement was clear through the party’s taking a period of developing itself, its capabilities and organization, which was evident during the party’s recent operations, as its movements developed over the years The last three were in the border region, operations and confrontations confined to border areas, to the Turkish depth, where during this month of May, two air operations were carried out in Diyarbakir and Schernach against a military site and airport, in which the party used a new attack method with drones.
Are we facing new confrontations, style and quality between the two parties?
The drone war between the Workers' Party and the Turkish regime The Turkish regime is trying through the media outlets to promote the "Bayraktar" drones and give them the advantage and importance for purely commercial purposes, while these marches failed in the field of confrontations, whether in the Turkish battles in northern Syria or in its war against the PKK in the northeast The country and within the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and the ostentation and exclusivity that the Turkish regime highlights did not give it preference in using this type of aircraft, because smaller drones became more capable of directing and carrying out operations, and this is what we saw in the PKK operations, where they were carried out with drones, according to The recognition shown by the Turkish regime about the recent attack against an airport by drones in Batman - 50 km from the city of Deir Bakr, and another for the leadership of the 23rd Infantry Division in Sharnach, as it dropped small bombs at sensitive airports and military bases.
This attack is not the first of its kind, as the Turkish press revealed that Diyarbakir airport was exposed to an attack and a huge explosion, and sirens sounded in the city.
Consequently, military air technology is no longer limited to any party, and any advanced use of asylum by the Turkish army is matched by developments in the tactics of the Workers' Party, and this means that this conflict is heading towards more escalation and complexity and takes a new direction in which the Turkish side cannot be given priority as long as the other side It works in the development of its air operations, although the power factor is not equal between the two parties, and the Turkish superiority and its capabilities far exceed the capabilities of the PKK, but the reality on the ground shows an important development, and this brings with it more heated events that cannot be predicted with the end of these confrontations between the two parties. .
