Turkey won’t ‘provide’ weapons to Turkmens

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The leader of the opposition Syrian Democratic Turkmen Movement, Abdülkerim Ağa (C) and deputy chairman Bekir Atacan (R) talks to HDN reporter İpek Yezdani.

Syrian Turkmens requested humanitarian and arms aid from the Turkish government during their meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, but Ankara has refused their request for arms, the leader of the opposition Syrian Democratic Turkmen Movement, Abdülkerim Ağa, said.

“We wanted arms to protect ourselves. Foreign Minister Davutoğlu told us they were ready to share their bread with us, however he refused our arms request because he said they didn’t want more blood to be shed,” Ağa told Hürriyet Daily News in an interview Aug. 14.

‘Kurdish state is impossible’

Ağa, originally a mechanical engineer from Damascus, escaped to Turkey last year after the revolt in Syria began. “Turkmens have been always oppressed in Syria.

Al-Assad regime changed the names of our villages, they forced us to forget our language and identity, they accused many Turkmens of being spies for Turkey and put them in jail for years,” Turkmen leader said. Ağa said the distribution of population in and geography of those regions where Syrian Kurds have territorial claims make it impossible for an autonomous Syrian Kurdish state to be founded.
“There are not only Kurds living in these areas, there are also Turkmens, Christians and Arab tribes living in these areas where Syrian Kurds have territorial claims. So it would create big problems if the Kurds tried to build an autonomous state there,” Ağa said.

Syrian Turkmens and Kurds don’t have any problems with each other, but the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is held by some to be the Syrian arm of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) creates big problems, “due to their cooperation with the current regime,” Ağa said.

“Kurds in Syria don’t have any power, but the PKK is really strong in Syria. They have been cooperating with the Syrian regime since the beginning,” Syrian Democratic Turkmen Movement deputy chairman Bekir Atacan said.

The Syrian regime has consciously left some areas in northern Syria under PYD control. “The regime is provoking a division in Syria. They want an autonomous Kurdish region to be built in order to build up their own state for the Nusayris,” Atacan said.