Turkey: Can Washington and Ankara find common ground on Syrian Kurds?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to expand military operations against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in Iraq and Syria after a local leader of the group reportedly ordered the execution of 13 Turkish hostages on Feb. 13. The PKK claims the hostages were killed in airstrikes by the Turkish military.

Background: The PKK, founded in 1984, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Turkey and the European Union. It maintains bases in the mountains of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, on the Turkish border. The US-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) include Syrian Kurdish groups linked to the PKK. The 13 hostages killed this week included Turkish soldiers, policemen, civilians and perhaps intelligence officials abducted between 2015-2017.

The Inside story: Turkey “hoped to hit two birds with one stone” with its combined military and rescue operations in Iraq’s Gara mountains that began on Feb. 10, according to this scoop from Metin Gurcan: The goal was to “rescue the captives and kill or capture top PKK commanders Murat Karayilan and Duran Kalkan, who were supposed to travel to Gara for a meeting in the same cave, according to human intelligence Ankara had obtained. The PKK, however, appeared to have gotten wind of the plan and the meeting was canceled at the last minute, well-placed sources told Al-Monitor. Still, the PKK in the area had no time to escape as the first stage of the operation began around 3 a.m. Feb. 10 with about 40 Turkish F-16 jets bombing the area, backed by armed and surveillance drones. It was at this point that the local PKK leader is believed to have executed the 13 captives.”

Not acting like allies: The killing will add pressure to already-strained relations between Turkey and the United States. At his confirmation hearing on Jan. 19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Turkey is “not acting like an ally” and called Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system, which triggered US sanctions on Turkey, “unacceptable.”