title: levers of power flushing the vote down the memory hole
text: kurds worried turkey will stab them in the back as they fight isis turkey publicly opposes isis while supporting them behind the scenes image credits kurdish ypg fighters kurdishstruggle  
  two months after being purged from the border town of jarablus in northern syria by a turkishled force  and just days after being targeted by turkish airstrikes near albab  syrian kurds now fear a stab in the back from turkeys military as plans for a usled push to clear isis fighters from raqqa are carried out 
  it is very important raqqa is liberated a chief political leader of the main syrian kurdish party the pyd told reuters  but one point which is bothering us is that if we go toward raqqa we will be stabbed from the back 
  at the end of august turkish forces took part in a usled operation to eject isis from the northern border of syria once inside syria however turkish forces  leading free syrian army fsa rebels  took aim at kurdish fighters in the town of jarablus which sent them scurrying across the euphrates river in retreat 
  the issue here is that the us claims to find the kurds useful in the fight against isis the kurds in fact make up a significant portion of one of the primary ussupplied rebel forces in the region as reuters explains  
  kurdish militia have played a big role in the past year in the syrian democratic forces sdf a usbacked umbrella group as it has seized large areas of territory from islamic state laying the ground for an assault on raqqa 
  however turkeys intervention in syria in august in support of rebel groups fighting under the free syrian army fsa banner has complicated that equation leading to clashes between them and kurdish groups allied to the sdf 
  the problem is one of trust turkey believes the kurdish militants are aligned with the kurdish pyd party which the turks believe is allied with kurds within turkey whove been waging a religious insurgency for over three decades 
  so regardless of whether the us finds the kurds useful turkey has made it clear it intends to sleep with one eye open for the foreseeable future in fact its taking a much more proactive stance than that 
  last thursday in a campaign of airstrikes that were the heaviest against the ypg since turkey launched a military incursion into syria turkey targeted three kurdishcontrolled villages along the northern syrian border the turkish military later confirmed it had carried out  strikes on areas recently taken by the kurdish ypg militia and had killed between  and  combatants 
  turkeys major concern is that kurdishcontrolled enclaves will physically unite thereby creating a de facto kurdish ministate along the turkish border as such turkey has warned kurds to keep out of towns like manjib which is just northeast of the heaviest fighting in aleppo 
  this tangled web of strained alliances and old feuds will likely only grow more confusing as the usled operation to purge isis from raqqa draws nearer in any case turkish president erdogan seems to have discovered a newfound independence  and the days of him obediently  even if somewhat grudgingly  bending to the us will appear to be fading as well 
  from now on we will now wait for problems to come knocking on our door we will not wait until the blade is against our bone and skin we will not wait for terrorist organizations to come and attack us erdogan said from his palace last week let them go wherever until we find and destroy them i am saying this very clearly they will not have a single place to find peace abroad newsletter sign up get the latest breaking news  specials from alex jones and the infowars crew related articles