Turkey anti-ISIL aerial attacks just for show: Kurd leader

A top leader of Turkey’s main Kurdish party has denounced as nothing more than a “show” Turkey’s alleged anti-terror police raids and its military campaign against Takfiri ISIL militants in Syria.

In an interview with AFP on Thursday, Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the People's Democratic Party (HDP), accused the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of using purported anti-ISIL airstrikes as a "cover" to bomb positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"A few air raids were launched by Turkey against” ISIL targets “for show only and it is over," Demirtas said, adding that the suspects were also detained in the county "with a few operations for show and most of them were released.”

Turkey recently launched airstrikes allegedly against the PKK bases in northern Iraq as well as ISIL positions in Syria after a deadly bomb attack which left 32 people dead in the southwestern town of Suruç, across the border from the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.

Ankara also launched a far-and-wide arrest campaign following the July 20 Suruç bombing, which was blamed on the Takfiri ISIL militants. However, figures from the Turkish government demonstrate that only around one tenth of those detained in police raids were ISIL-linked with the rest being Kurds.

Ankara is believed to be one of the main supporters of the terrorist groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2011, with reports showing that the Turkish government actively trains and arms the militants operating in Syria, and also facilitates the safe passage of would-be foreign terrorists into crisis-hit areas.

Ankara, PKK peace process

Elsewhere in his remarks, the HDP co-chair accused the Turkish administration of putting the peace process between Ankara and the PKK "in deep crisis" by its military campaign and efforts to equate the ISIL with the PKK.

"This (the peace process) was going to be settled," before the Turkish air offensive, said Demirtas, adding that Erdogan was trying to put the PKK and ISIL on the "same scale."

The comments came as a ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was recently declared as null by the PKK following the Turkish airstrikes against the group, all but killing the chances of the warring sides reaching a deal in the near future.

Erdogan's AKP election defeat

Demirtas also noted that Erdogan is orchestrating the crisis in attempt to bolster his own powers after he failed to gain his desired outcome in the country’s parliamentary elections.

Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) "is dragging the country into a period of conflict, seeking revenge for the loss of its majority in the June election," he said.

Last month, Erdogan’s AKP failed to obtain an absolute majority in parliament for the first time since coming to power in 2002.

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