My friends in Istanbul tell me, “It isn’t perfidy.  It’s the classic power plan of a political savant.”

The “political savant” is Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erodogan.  The plan is to rid the area of those pesky Kurds without appearing genocidal.  And how could the West object if it’s done under the cover of fighting ISIS?

Turkey admits bombing Kurds the past couple of days as it also attacks ISIS.  Kurds on the ground report many, many more strikes against the Kurds than against ISIS.

This push against the Kurds comes just days after Turkey agreed to let the U.S. use the Incirlik airbase to attack ISIS.  Without Incirlik, U.S. jets have a one-thousand-mile journey.  So, were the Kurds the price of using Incirlik?

Today, July 28, 2015, all 28 NATO allies will meet in Brussels at the request of Turkey.  Turkey is calling the meeting under article 4 of the NATO treaty, which allows for an emergency meeting when “the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened.”

Turkey wants NATO help establishing a 60-mile-deep safety zone along 500 miles of border with Syria.  Besides safety along the border from the fanatical ISIS, the zone would permit the repatriation of some of the 1.8 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.

The Irish Times reports that Syrian rebels are skeptical of Turkey’s plan, pointing out that “Ankara has yet to provide details of how it will drive jihadists from the Syrian border and create a safe zone for refugees.”

The Kurds are the fighters who face ISIS on the ground.  During the heroic battle to save the border town of Kobani, the Kurds proved to the world they are the only successful ground forces against ISIS.

The front man for the plan is Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davuloglu.  He told Turkish media that his country will not send ground troops into Syria.  Additionally, he is quoted saying Ankara will work and support the Syrian Kurdish fighters, the PYD, if they “did not irritate Turkey.” 

Ankara claims it is fighting the Kurdish terrorists, the PKK.  Hard to do, because according to the female Kurdish fighter interviewed in the July 25 Wall Street Journal, “Sometimes I’m a PJAK, sometimes I’m a YPG. It doesn’t really matter. They are all members of the PKK.”

A former diplomat to NATO tells me that while the Turks have been bombing the Kurds for years, NATO has never gotten involved.  However, “the safe zone is another matter, one NATO could support.”

Meanwhile, the peace hammered out between the PKK and the Turkish government seems to be ended.  Kurds are attacking inside Turkey.  The government is rounding up Kurds, and now NATO may find itself drawn into the quagmire.  Let us pray cool heads prevail in Brussels.

Update:

Will NATO fall for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodogan’s ploy to get the 28 nation military alliance to aid his efforts to wipe out the Kurds and in the process get the US and NATO deeply embroiled in the Syrian civil war?

 Turkey tried to pawn the line it was going after ISIS while in reality unleashing most of its fury against the Kurds.  In the past four days Turkey has launched 16 strikes against ISIS and 600 against the Kurds according to a Kurdish commander in a BBC interview.  Yesterday Kurdish sources told me there had been 161 strikes against the Kurds and 3 against ISIS.

As a member of the alliance Turkey called the emergency meeting of NATO claiming under article four that it’s “territorial integrity, political independence or security …. is threatened.”  Apparently, Turkey is more worried about its own Kurds than ISIS given the ferocity of Turkey’s attacks. Turkey claims its just returning fire from the Kurds.

Erodogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davuloglu claim the Kurds are terrorists just like ISIS. But, Turkey and the militant wing of the Kurdish separatist party, the PKK, have enjoyed over 3 years of peace after a 30-year guerilla war.  With the Kurds having proven themselves the best, bravest fighters on the ground against ISIS, why does Erodogan choose now to resume the attacks?

The answer may lie in the fact that in last month’s parliamentary elections Erdogan’s party failed to win a majority.  There are rumblings he wants new elections to try and push the Kurds below the 10% threshold and thus out of Parliament.  Possibly he believes bombing the Kurds will inspire Turkish nationalism or just plain smash the Kurds into submission. Then who will fight ISIS on the ground? Turkey has said it will not send in ground troops.

Many Kurds believe Erodogan is up to his old tricks.  July 20 a suicide attack in the Kurdish town of Suruc in southern Turkey killed 32 young activists preparing to go across the border into Syria and help rebuild Kobane.  Survivors tell of Turkish police teargassing vehicles carrying the wounded. Across Turkey there were protests condemning the massacre allegedly carried out by a Turk with ISIS ties.

 Many Kurds believe the government was behind the attack because state intelligence was closely monitoring the meeting of the students.  They believe the attack could not have been carried out without state support. And, they point out that shortly after the Suruc attack another suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at a checkpoint across the border in Kobane.

Kurds have taken to the streets. At least 3 police officers have been killed by Kurds in retaliation. Apparently that was Erdogan’s justification to go after the Kurds again. Or perhaps its headlines like Time magazine’s June 23, The Kurds Are Building a Country With Every Victory over ISIS.

Turkey has entered a pact with US allowing the use of its Incirlik airbase. Surely the US would not abandon the Kurds for the use of the base to attack ISIS.  The plot thickens and picture grows murkier.