by Uzay Bulut  •  March 7, 2022

• The Turkish government uses the pretext of “fighting terrorism” for its military attacks against Iraq and Syria. Its “fight against terrorism”, however, does not mainly target the Islamic State (ISIS), al-Qaeda or its affiliates such as the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
• Turkey, home to leaders of Hamas until just a few days ago, has for several years been granting citizenship to collaborators of ISIS.
• Instead of targeting and defeating jihadist forces in Syria and Iraq, Turkey’s military evidently chooses to cooperate with them and targets the [People’s Defense Units] YPG, which is the principal military ally of the United States on the ground against Islamic State. Turkey’s military attacks thus weaken the US-led global coalition against ISIS and continue to devastate the Yazidis, Christians, Kurds, and other civilians in the region.
• “Many governments, including the USA and others, as well as the UN, are trying to rebuild Sinjar. Meanwhile, Turkey is bombing the city regularly.” — Pari Ibrahim, Executive Director of the Free Yezidi Foundation, to Gatestone, February 2022.
• “While Turkey claims it is trying to attack PKK in Sinjar, in reality they are killing the Yezidis who fought and defended Sinjar against ISIS. Turkey, by the way, did not express any interest in bombing Sinjar when it was occupied by ISIS. It is only now, when the area is once again inhabited by Yezidis, that Turkey is bombing. So we see a very nefarious hand by Turkey, which is bombing basically all of the allies of the Global Coalition against ISIS. While the Coalition is fighting ISIS, Turkey is fighting the Coalition’s allies on the ground.” — Pari Ibrahim to Gatestone, February 2022.
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