President Erdoğan needs to side with the Syrian Kurds, and so does the rest of the World

The Observer a Sunday newspaper editorially similar to the Guardian published a worthy article, posted below. Emphasis adde in blue.

This article understates Erdoğan's opposition to Syrian Kurdistan ;  his forces shell Rojava repeatedly.

Here is Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) as it is today:

Northern Syria offensive (2015) - Rojava - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Plans are to extend it eastward to the Sea and westward to join Iraqi Kurdistan.

To understand why the success of Kurds in creating a free  Syrian Kurdistan, see, e.g.,  A Dream of Secular Utopia in ISIS’ Backyard - The New York Times

The Kurdish Women Warriors are the most successful of all groups fighting the Islamic State.  Here are some images:

To see how remarkable the Syrian Kurds experiment in direct democracy is (non-sectarian, multi-ethnic, feminist, democratic, in  a sea of  radical Islamic bigotry), see The Financial Times article:   Power to the people: a Syrian experiment in democracy - FT.com

The Observer view on Turkey’s fight against terrorism

Observer editorial

President Erdoğan needs to decide which is the bigger threat to his country

 Turkish special force police officers stand guard at Ataturk airport. Photograph: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images

Saturday 2 July 2016 19.07 EDT

Turkey has suffered more than its share of terrorist attacks in the past year, yet its plight has received relatively little attention when compared to the intense international response to recent, similar incidents in France and Belgium. This apparent double standard has not gone unnoticed in Istanbul, where three suicide bombers attacked the airport last week, killing more than 40 people.

The modus operandi of the attack was immediately likened to that employed at Brussels airport in March, when 32 people and three bombers died. Both outrages have been blamed on Islamic State jihadists, who have now added Turkish cities and civilians to their targets. One reason is that Ankara is a key member of the US-led anti-Isis coalition. It allows fellow Nato countries and Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia to use its bases for air strikes.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s neo-Islamist president, was quick to claim, not for the first time, that the world has failed to recognise his country’s sacrifices in Syria’s five-year-old civil war. Turkey was on the front line, but it was everyone’s battle, he said. “The bombs that went off today could have gone off in any city in the world, in any airport. I want everyone to understand that, to the terrorists, there is no difference between Istanbul and London, Ankara and Berlin, Izmir and Chicago.”

There is no arguing with that. Since sweeping to prominence in 2014, Isis has repeatedly struck at so-called “infidels”. Yet Erdoğan’s repeated calls for stronger international efforts to combat terrorism would carry more weight if he were less of a problematic partner. For centuries, Turkey has been regarded as a key strategic ally. But it is not entirely clear whose side Erdoğan is on.

Mostly when Erdoğan talks about terrorism, he is talking about the Kurds, not Isis. Not long ago there were hopes he would settle with the Workers’ party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency. But after losing his parliamentary majority last year, largely due to the success of a moderate, pro-Kurdish party, Erdoğan tore up a hard-won ceasefire with the PKK and propelled state security forces into a scorched earth campaign. The predictable result? More terror attacks.

Erdoğan has also opposed, or at least not supported, campaigns by US-backed Iraqi and Syrian Kurds to rid their regions of Isis fighters. He has been accused, meanwhile, of turning a blind eye to the connivance of Turkish spooks and middleman in Isis oil sales, recruitment and arms smuggling. Erdoğan fell out with Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, in 2011, when the latter rebuffed Turkish attempts at mediation. But Erdoğan apparently prefers the survival of Assad and Isis to Kurdish self-governance in northern Syria.

If Erdoğan showed more respect for democracy and did not try to bar opposition MPs from parliament; if he were not trying to railroad through constitutional changes that will greatly enhance his already considerable powers; if he did not make misogynistic pronouncements that a good Muslim woman’s place is in the home having babies; and if he were not engaged in perhaps the most illiberal crackdown on free speech, independent journalism and academic freedom in modern Turkey’s history, Erdoğan’s appeals for western solidarity in his hour of need might receive a more active response.

But as matters stand, all these considerations, coming on top of Erdoğan’s self-defeating vendetta with the Kurds and his cynical wrangling with the EU over Syrian refugees, mean Turkey’s western allies are more likely to keep their distance than to line up along side him. That is a pity. Turkey deserves our friendship and support. And it deserves better leadership. Last week’s rapprochement with the leaders of Russia and Israel led some to suggest Erdoğan is belatedly adopting a more conciliatory approach. That would be very welcome. Defeating terror requires a united front.

And see, also, Al Monitor,  Erdoğan’s latest wake-up call on Islamic State, urging, among other things, US-Russian coordination in air attacks on Salafi Jihadists aligned with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, protected by Turkey.