August 19, 2015 | FDD Policy Brief

Closer Iran-Turkey Ties Face Hurdle over PKK

August 19, 2015 | FDD Policy Brief

Closer Iran-Turkey Ties Face Hurdle over PKK

Turkish and Iranian leaders have each expressed a desire in recent weeks to enhance bilateral cooperation on regional issues. Meeting that objective, however, will require overcoming some significant differences regarding the Kurdish question.

In the last week, pro-government Turkish media have been spreading alarmist stories about Iran’s alleged support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey’s fragile ceasefire with the separatist terror group fell apart last month.

The PKK’s decades-long insurgency in Turkey has claimed over 30,000 lives. The government has been in peace talks with the group since 2009, and has kept a ceasefire since 2013, but recent gains made by the PKK’s Syrian affiliate People’s Democratic Union (PYD) have put Ankara on edge. Turkey now fears that a prospective PYD-led autonomous region in Syria could strengthen the PKK politically and militarily. Moreover, Turkey’s ruling party is hoping to use the war against the PKK to weaken the main pro-Kurdish opposition party riding a wave of popular support since the June elections.

Although Ankara and Tehran both oppose an independent Kurdish state, Turkey’s main regional priority now is to degrade the PKK and the group’s regional allies, while Iran is more willing to cooperate with them in the short term as it works to expand its regional influence.

Iran’s calculations are different. The country’s last major Kurdish rebellion was led by the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Tehran waged a fierce counterinsurgency against the group, including the assassination of its leaders in Europe, which left the group decimated. In 2011, the government also struck a truce with the PKK’s Iranian affiliate the Party of Free Life Kurdistan (PJAK). Despite some recent low-level violence, the peace has mostly held.

With Sunni militants, including the Islamic State, threatening Iranian allies like the Shi’ite-led government in Iraq and the Alawite regime in Syria, Tehran has no qualms enlisting the help of Kurdish fighters. Turkey, meanwhile, has made it a regional ambition to counter the PKK and its affiliates. As Iran grows stronger and is emboldened by the nuclear deal with the P5+1, and as Turkey fights for stability amidst a political crisis at home, the two are unlikely to find common ground on the Kurds. Rather, the two regional powers may be headed towards further disagreement, with the Kurds at the crux of their competition for influence.

Merve Tahiroglu and Amir Toumaj are research analysts at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow them on Twitter @MerveTahiroglu and @AmirToumaj

Issues:

Iran Kurds Turkey