While the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government still is listing preconditions for the Democratic Union Party (PYD) to meet in order for Turkey to help the Kurds in Kobani, the fight for that Syrian border city has turned into Turkey’s war. As the coffins of Turkish Kurdish youth who crossed over to Syria to join the People's Protection Units (YPG) in battles keep returning, the nature of the conflict appears to be changing. On Sept. 24, seven coffins of YPG fighters were brought to Turkey via the Habur border crossing. On Oct. 1, three more bodies, one of them a woman, were brought to Diyarbakir through the Mursitpinar crossing.

As coffins cross the border under the shadow of allegations that Turkey is using the Islamic State (IS) to terminate the autonomous Kurdish entity in what the Kurds term Rojava (western, or Syrian, Kurdistan), the sensitivity of the Kurdish public is becoming more acute, and with every funeral the rhetoric against the AKP gets more bitter. Certainly, the options of the Turkish government, squeezed between the Kurds and IS, are narrowing.

Those who don’t recognize borders

How is the mood on the other side of the border? I met YPG spokesman Redur Xelil in Qamishli, the most prominent town of Jazeera canton, in a building used as the Ministry of Defense on a street blocked off with concrete barriers. Xelil said the number of Kurds coming from the north he calls Bakur (Turkey) is increasing and that they have no animosity toward Turkey. He said, “The number of YPG fighters has reached 45,000; 35% of them are women. The percentage of PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] fighters who have joined us is not more than 10%. They serve mostly in command and training functions. The number of those coming from Turkey is also increasing. Recently, 300 youth passed into Kobani. There are more now waiting to cross, but I don’t know their numbers.”