PYD Not On Turkey's Terrorist List, Report Reveals

The Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is not recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, a daily maintained on Tuesday, although top Turkish officials have recently affirmed that they see no difference between the PKK and the PYD.

“The PYD has not yet been included on Turkey's list of terrorist organizations,” Murat Yetkin, editor-in-chief of the Radikal news portal, wrote in his column on Wednesday.

The information was revealed to him by state officials who asked to remain anonymous, Yetkin said.

However, top Turkish officials have said on various occasions that Turkey sees no distinction between the PKK and the PYD, which has been defending the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani against the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Mahmut Akpınar, a security analyst at the Ankara-based Center of Law, Ethics and Political Studies (HESA), also said Turkey does not recognize the PYD as a terrorist organization, to his knowledge.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan objected last weekend to arms transfers to the PYD, arguing that it is a terrorist group no different from the PKK, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.

“There has been talk about forming a front against ISIL by giving the PYD arms. But the PYD, for us, is equal to the PKK; it is a terrorist organization,” Erdoğan said, criticizing the West for not supporting other groups in Syria that have been fighting against ISIL.

Many analysts agree with Turkey's perception of the PYD, which, they underlined, is clearly a Syrian branch of the PKK.

Noting that the PYD in Syria has always provided terrorists for the PKK in its fight against Turkey, Akpınar, who is also a political scientist, told Today's Zaman, “It is only because no terrorist act has been committed on Turkish soil by the PYD that Turkey does not recognize it as a terrorist organization.”

After conducting a bloody war against Turkey for almost 30 years, the PKK has been negotiating for a settlement on the Kurdish issue with the Turkish government.

“The PYD is the same as the PKK,” Akpınar added.

Turkey had to backtrack, obviously under US pressure, from its stance on the PYD shortly after Erdoğan's statement, agreeing to provide a corridor for military support and reinforcements to be transferred to the PYD.

“It would be very wrong for the US, a NATO ally, to openly talk of such [military] support [to the PYD] and expect us to agree,” Erdoğan said in remarks published on Sunday.

Although Turkish officials have said they see no difference between the PKK and the PYD, Saleh Muslim, the PYD's leader, is known to have met with Turkish officials in Turkey and abroad several times since the Syrian civil war began in 2011.

İdris Bal, a former deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), has drawn attention to the contradiction in the government's attitude, saying: “On the one hand you say the PYD is no different from the PKK and ISIL while on the other you receive the PYD leader in Turkey. This is a contradiction that is hard to explain.”

Aydın Albayrak (Cihan/Today's Zaman)