Wasn’t it “SOS Kobane”?

As of today, ISIL’s attacks on Kobane had entered its 41st day. Maybe if the coalition under the USA’s lead hadn’t started actively bombing the ISIL emplacements in the region since the 8th of October (after the October 6-7 incidents had broken out), then Kobane might have been annihilated by now.

Although, when we think of the Iraq Army’s soldiers, who had ran away the moment they had seen ISIL, the fact that the YPG forces had managed to resist against ISIL since mid-September until the first week of October, without much support in a vast scale, is a noteworthy success. However, against an organization, which possesses latest model heavy weaponry that is mostly American-made, it’s not possible to survive only with air support. Because of this reason, the peshmerga corridor, which Turkey suggests to open, and the support that will come from the Free Syrian Army has a vital importance literally. However, the leader of the PYD, Salih Muslim, is not of this opinion.

PYD, which is under the leadership of Muslim, is almost standing at a position against the possible military support. Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Administration’s President Mesut Barzani was preparing to send 2000 peshmerga, who are from Rojava and had taken special training, in order to support PYD. As it has been a week since Turkey had declared that they would be granting an approval to the passage of peshmerga, the PYD side had extended the negotiations and they had recently announced that they would only allow 150 peshmerga to pass.

Then, what is PYD leader Salih Muslim thinking, while Turkey had declared that they are ready to initiate support for PYD, because of their struggle against ISIL and even in the reinforcement of up to 1,300 warriors from the moderate Syrian antagonists, despite PYD's being listed as a terrorist organization? In the interview he had given to ANF, the media organ of PKK, he claimed that Turkey is still supporting ISIL, and he openly demanded the international community in the coalition, in which Turkey is included, to interfere with Turkey. If Turkey had said no to the opportunity of military reinforcement to PYD, then possibly, Muslim wouldn’t be making such a calling.

As Turkey’s support scale to PYD’s struggle with ISIL is being extending, the dosage of PYD’s expressions of hostility is increasing. I guess that this contrary and weird correlation is confirming that Turkey had presented the union of Kurdish groups and thus Rojova’s soon-to-be-established political structure’s pluralism as a pre-condition, in exchange for the military reinforcements to PYD and the opening of the corridor in their negotiations with the USA.

As much as it is noteworthy that the Kurdish union had become our red line, rather than the “Kurdistan is our red line” statement, in the sense of being the indicator of the distance we had covered as a nation, it is also not arbitrary in terms of regional geopolitics.

First of all, the objective behind providing PYD’s  joint mobilization with other Kurdish groups is building a bridge between PYD and the Syria National Council. (And by the way, the PYD’s flag is displayed at the destinations where the officers’ salaries are still paid by the Assad regime that is supported by Iran.)Thus, defending the Kurds’ unity is a strategy parallel to defending their common future with the Syrian public.

Besides, it is being cited that PYD is trying to neutralize the peshmerga without rejecting them categorically, and that if there are any achievements in the region against ISIL, then they would like to acquire them on their own. This could be taken for granted as a political strategy, though, at the same time it is neither legitimate nor sustainable. Because, while doing this, PYD wants to preserve archaic and monist structure like the Soviets, and also their relations with the Assad regime. Being obliged to opening the door to the peshmerga, and decisions in the direction of a union taken in the meeting between the Kurdish National Council and PYD members, which had been held at Duhok and under the patronage of Barzani, are also important in terms of understanding that this strategy is not sustainable.