A Syrian Kurdish militia that has been effective in combating the Islamic State (IS) claimed Aug. 1 that the Turkish military is targeting its forces in Syria.

The Turkish decision July 24 to take military action against IS and to allow US use of the Incirlik Air Base, which was announced with great fanfare, coincided with a massive Turkish air campaign against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Turkish targeting of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) would be both unsurprising and complicating for US policy, especially as the United States has now given in to a long-standing Turkish demand for a “safe zone” in northern Syria.

Semih Idiz reported on July 1 that Turkish military leaders were wary of preparations for a Syrian buffer zone and that, if it happened, the preoccupation of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in such an operation would be the Syrian Kurds, not IS.

This week Idiz writes that “the disproportionate manner in which” Turkey is conducting its military operations against the PKK “compared with the campaign against IS has raised questions about the AKP’s motives. Many argue that the government, egged on by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is trying to shore up its base of support by using the anti-Kurdish sentiments of nationalist Turks with a view toward regaining its pre-eminent political position in early elections, which could be held in November.

“According to this argument, the AKP, to curry favor with the nationalists, wants to end the peace process it initiated in 2012 with the PKK through the mediation of members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which got 13% of the vote in the June 7 elections. The AKP’s coalition negotiations are ongoing, but there are indications that the party is under pressure from Erdogan, its 'spiritual leader,' to prepare for early elections instead of working to form a government with another party.”