16 May 15, 2016 News & Analysis Ankara and Washington walk separate paths on Kurdish issue

Abdulrahman al-Masri United States, has emboldened the PYD. “All of these factors heightened Ottawa Turkey’s fear of an independent Kurdish state.” he declaration by Syrian Although the toxicity of the Kurd- of a federalist sys- ish question is on the rise in Turkey, tem for northern Syria is Tol said, the Turkish army is unwill- posing serious challenges ing to unilaterally intervene in Syria to neighbouring Turkey, a against the PYD without internation- Tcountry that has historically fought al legitimacy. Kurdish separatism. The announcement by the Kurd- The options ish semi-autonomous local admin- available to Ankara istration, led by the Democratic are limited. Union Party (PYD), is at odds with the Turkish government’s policy The United States and some Euro- Mourners carry the coffin of a policeman during a funeral ceremony at the Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara for Syria, especially considering the pean countries are in support of the on April 8th. Kurdish militants killed five members of the Turkish security forces on April 7th. group’s consistent territorial ad- PYD’s fight and advances against the vances along the Turkish border and Islamic State (ISIS). Turkey considers harmed Turkey’s security interests. others are already stationed in areas garding the Syrian Kurdish militias, Western backing. the PYD and its armed wing, People’s “Turkey is trying to convince its of PYD control, to advise and assist Tol noted that both countries have Many have argued that the possi- Protection Units (YPG), offshoots of allies, such as US,” he said. However, in the anti-ISIS war. found a middle ground on the PYD. bility of Kurdish autonomy in north- the Turkish Kurd separatist group “if it deems necessary, [Turkey] may “The US continues that policy [of The compromise, according to ern Syria is very toxic for the Turks the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) somehow use its rights to defend its supporting the PYD] and Turkey is Tol, would allow the PYD to make and that such a move by the PYD and terrorist organisations. territory from terrorist attacks and speaking against it but is not doing small advances towards the west would prompt Turkey to intervene Though the United States lists the incursion coming from northern anything… We [are] still using Incir- from its eastern cantons and retake in Syria. However, the options avail- PKK as terrorist group, it views the Syria, whether it is [ISIS] or PYD.” lik [airbase in Turkey] and the Turks the city of Manbij, which is con- able to Ankara are limited. PYD and YPG otherwise. Considering growing complexity haven’t retaliated in any form,” add- trolled by ISIS, in exchange for al- In an opinion piece in the Daily Sa- of the war in Syria and the increas- ed Pollock. lowing the Free Syrian Army (FSA) Washington seems to bah newspaper, Turkish presidential ing number of involved parties, During his visit to Washington to advance, under US air cover, and be reluctant to alter its spokesman Ibrahim Kalin blamed Washington seems to be reluctant for the nuclear security summit in eject ISIS from a 20-25km-wide strip policy regarding the the YPG for a bombing on February to alter its policy regarding the PYD. March, Turkish President Recep along the Syrian-Turkish border. PYD. 17th and criticised the United States “At this point, I think the US is Tayyip Erdogan spoke to US foreign “I don’t think Washington is ready for its support of the group in Syria, very unlikely to change its policy,” policy specialists at the Brookings to dump the PYD,” she said. “If there “The situation in Syria has a direct saying Turkey is reacting to US sup- said David Pollock, former US State Institution, saying that the inter- is no alternative to PYD, at some influence on Turkey’s Kurdish ques- port for the YPG. Department senior adviser and fel- national community has to fight point, [Turkey] really has to adopt a tion,” said Gonul Tol, director of the Birol Akgun, head of the inter- low at the Washington Institute. “I all terrorist groups “with the same pragmatic approach.” Middle East Institute’s Centre for national relations department at think the Turks deep down under- level of earnestness”, referring to Turkish Studies in Washington. “I Yildirim Beyazit University and stand that and accept it,” he said. the Syrian Kurdish PYD. He added Abdulrahman al-Masri reports on think the PYD’s success in fighting director-general of the Institute of US President an- that his country would not tolerate politics and news in the Middle East the Islamic State and the diplomatic Strategic Thinking, an Ankara-based nounced that an additional 250 US the threat posed by Kurdish militias. and Syria in particular. He can be and military boost that it received think-tank, said Washington’s “half- special operations forces would be Despite the different agendas that followed on Twitter: from Western world, especially the hearted approach” in the region has deployed to Syria, where about 50 Ankara and Washington have re- @AbdulrhmanMasri. Turkish yogurt billionaire sparks controversy at home

Thomas Seibert crisis that brought about 1 million 40,000 people and turned millions migrants from Syria, Afghanistan of Kurds into refugees. and other countries to Europe in Kurdish media have trumpeted Istanbul 2015. “It could have been stopped Ulukaya’s ethnic identity as a Kurd. a long time ago.” Rudaw, a Kurdish news network Kurdish-Turkish busi- Ulukaya said he will eventually in northern Iraq, called him a “son nessman, who has lived donate half of his personal fortune of a Kurdish shepherd, who has a picture-book, rags-to- to help refugees around the world. his roots in northern Kurdistan in riches tale from humble He has taken on refugees as work- Turkey”. But Turkish commenta- origins to making bil- ers in his yogurt plant in New Ber- tors have questioned why Ulukaya lionsA of dollars in the United States, lin, . is marketing his Chobani as “Greek is raising eyebrows in his home The Chobani chief donated $2 yogurt”, as opposed to Turkish yo- country with statements about the million to support Kurds fleeing gurt. Kurdish conflict. from Kobane, a Syrian city on the Hamdi Ulukaya, 43, made head- border with Turkey that was un- “I left Turkey because lines in April when he announced der attack by Islamic State (ISIS) in I was Kurdish and I he would give shares worth hun- 2014 and early 2015. At the time, dreds of millions of dollars to the the Turkish government was ac- was very serious approximately 2,000 employees cused by critics at home and abroad about Kurdish at his yogurt factory in New York of refusing to help the Kurdish de- rights.” state. Ulukaya’s company, Choba- fenders of the city, who were led ni, is worth at least $3 billion, ac- by a group linked to the Kurdistan Hamdi Ulukaya cording to news reports. Workers’ Party (PKK), seen as a “Starting today, I will have 2,000 terrorist group by Ankara and the Remarks by Ulukaya in the CNN partners at Chobani,” Ulukaya West. interview enraged some commen- tweeted on April 26th. “This is one Ulukaya has been treading care- tators in Turkey. “I left Turkey be- of the finest moments in my life!” fully as he navigates the political cause I was Kurdish and I was very Most media in Turkey treated minefields of the Kurdish conflict serious about Kurdish rights,” Ulu- the move by Ulukaya as a part of and the Syrian war. “I’m not inter- kaya said. “A lot of Kurds in Turkey the fairytale story by a generous ested in the political aspect of the flee the country; their villages were man determined to give back to situation or whoever plays what bombed.” his workers after they helped make game,” Ulukaya told the Turk- Ali Saydam, a columnist with the him a billionaire. However, some ish Hurriyet newspaper when he pro-government Yeni Safak news- criticised statements by Ulukaya President of yogurt company Chobani Hamdi Ulukaya attends a made his donation for Kobane in paper in Turkey, wrote in May that about the Kurdish issue in Turkey, session at the in Davos, , in 2014. “Either we will be watching Ulukaya had said things that were a point that is polarising the coun- January. the massacre there and will live on “hard to swallow”. He added he try as clashes between security with a guilty conscience or we will would not believe that the busi- forces and Kurdish rebels kill sol- save people.” nessman was employing refugees diers, police officers, militants and is based on the Turkish word coban gee relief, running his own non- While his philanthropic work at his factory “until I see it with my civilians almost every day. for “shepherd”. governmental organisation, the has won praise, some of his com- own eyes”. When Ulukaya was born in the Ulukaya once told a Turkish in- Tent Foundation, which says its ments have angered supporters of Saydam wrote that although eastern Anatolian province of Er- terviewer his success would not mission is to “aid refugees and to the Turkish government, which Ulukaya was marketing Turkish yo- zincan in 1972, his family ran a have been possible in Turkey be- end displacement everywhere”, is locked in a bloody confronta- gurt as Greek yogurt and was talk- dairy farm. He went to the United cause business in his home coun- according to the group’s website. tion with the PKK. Peace talks be- ing about Turkey’s oppression of States to study in 1994, stayed on try was all about connections. By He visited the Greek Aegean island tween the government and jailed Kurds, he was being presented as and started a small business sell- contrast, he said he did not know of Lesbos in 2015 to meet refugees PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan broke an “exemplary Turkish entrepre- ing feta cheese in the early 2000s. anybody in the United States but who had crossed from Turkey. down in 2015. Since then, a surge in neur”. His breakthrough came when he still did well because he was selling “This issue shouldn’t have come violence has shattered hopes for a began producing yogurt in 2007. a good product. to this point,” Ulukaya told CNN In- peaceful end to a conflict that start- Thomas Seibert is an Arab Weekly Chobani, the name of his company, Ulukaya has been active in refu- ternational, referring to the refugee ed in 1984, has killed more than contributor in Istanbul.