Ankara capitalizing on ISIL bombing to hit Kurds: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mimi al-Laham, a Syrian activist and political commentator from Australia, to get her take on Turkey’s silence on the activities of the ISIL terrorist group.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Talk to us about a recent report a divulge by the CHP regarding Turkey turning a blind eye to the activities of the ISIL in the south.

Al-Laham: Well, there’s a lot of evidence to support what the head of the PKK is saying. And the leader of the PKK ... has recently stated that the Turkish government is actually targeting Kurds in its airstrikes in Syria and not the ISIS (ISIL). And in fact, those airstrikes are supporting the ISIS (ISIL) in pushing back Kurds from certain areas. And for the last four year, there has been a deluge of evidence to support the fact that Turkey has been supporting and backing ISIS (ISIL) in order to try to overthrow the Syrian government and destabilize Syria. Recently, the authorities in Turkey have confirmed that the Islamic State’s commander Emrah Cakan was being treated in a Turkish hospital. There seems to be no real evidences, this is as just that Turkey is fighting ISIS (ISIL) as they’re claiming. Even some officials in the US government are starting to admit that there are ties between Turkey and the ISIS (ISIL). Unofficially, this was reported by The Business Insider article.

Press TV: About the recent events and attacks Turkey’s carried out in Iraq and Syria, many believe that given this support that Turkey has shown to the ISIL and other terrorist and militant groups in Iraq and Syria that they do have ulterior motives in carrying out these attacks and it’s not fighting the ISIL. What are those motives in your opinion?

Al-Laham: Those motives are to try to suppress a Kurdish separatist movement or any kind of Kurdish uprising in Turkey. That’s clearly the greatest threat to Turkish state at the moment not ISIS (ISIL). ISIS (ISIL) seems to be actually supporting the agenda of the Turkish state, in destabilizing Syria and in fighting back the Kurds. So, even this recent attack happened, the excuse that the Turkish Government used was a bombing by ISIS (ISIL) inside Turkish territory. But that bombing was against a ... Kurdish group not against the Turkish state itself. In fact, the group that ISIS (ISIL) targeted was against the Turkish state. However, the Turkish government did, in fact, claim this was the reason, they started launching attacks  in Syria and this was actually already stated in Turkish war room leaks, the private conversation between Erdogan and his generals in 2013 that came out and was spread all over social media. They stated they wanted to use the ISIS (ISIL) in a false-flag attack on Turkish territory in order to attack Syria. And that’s exactly what’s happened.

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