The Kurdish Victory in Kobani
As war rages on between the numerous religions and countries of the middle east one ethnic group has begun to rise among them as it has grown more powerful in the last two years then it has in the last hundred. The Kurds are the largest ethnic group on Earth which do not have their own nation, at least for now. Along with their growing autonomy and boldening actions on the world stage the Kurds are also attracting far more media attention than ever before, and with that comes numerous articles written by multiple news agencies who are either in support of the Kurd’s ongoing fight against ISIS or fear that the continued Western intervention may foster something far worse than an air campaign against the large terrorist organisation of ISIS.
As of late the Kurds have had victory after victory. With each successive one bringing more land into the Kurd’s domain. But their largest victory as of late has been ending the siege of Kobani. A strategically important Turkish/Syrian border town that has been called the “Stalingrad of the Middle East.” Not only for its importance to keeping Kurdish forces supplied in Syria but its symbolic resilience to the siege conducted by ISIS. Along with that, much like Stalingrad, at one point ISIS controlled a majority of the city and and just like Stalingrad much of the city now lays in ruin.
The article above is by a fairly reputable news organization called “USA Today”, who generally presents good articles that generally do not have a large amount of bias for any one side. Along with that the majority of their article are from the Associated Press and are mostly just copy and pastes of their interviews and articles. In the article itself it details the recent victory of Kurdish forces in pushing ISIS out of the city of Kobani (the main city not the surrounding towns and villages). The article itself presents the the information both logically with a quick rundown of the events and a short synopsis of what happened. It also targets the reader ethically as it details how the city lay in complete ruin with no electricity, water, or sewage systems still in working order and along with that hardly a building has been left untouched from the fighting. Many of the civilians who fled to Turkey to avoid the fighting have also not been allowed to return home because of the Turkish military.
The author makes the assumption that you are definitely not a supporter of ISIS based on how the article mostly interviews Kurdish commanders view of the battle and even quotes a spokesman for the Kurdish KDP party asking for the world’s help in Kobani playing on the ethical and assuming you support the Kurdish fight against ISIS. The article also claims that Turkey stopped Kurdish civilians from crossing the border back to Kobani after the civilians originally fled the fighting. It does not cite why they were prevented from crossing but it does state they fire tear gas to make them disperse. This piece itself is quoted from a private news agency “Dogan News” who itself I could find little information on. This lead me to believe that something may have been left out as to why the Turkish security forces fired tear gas on them and that perhaps its being left out because the news agency itself is not in support of the conservative Turkish Government lead by the highly controversial Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and are of course trying to paint him in a bad for refusing to let the Kurds go home. What is also interesting is that after interviewing a Kurdish commander they reveal that the Kurds plan to liberate the three hundred villages around Kobani. The interesting part is the author actually puts quotation marks around “liberate”. This means that while the article has a clear Kurdish bias to it he is not in belief that the Kurds are doing all this fighting to help people, but are instead doing it to expand the borders of a future state of Kurdistan. While this is not stated the message is still clear, and the article makes a bold yet unnoticed statement regarding the Kurd’s “liberation” of ISIS occupied lands.
Finally we get to the point that the article is oversimplifying the conflict. Especially with the small but easy bit on how the Turks did not let the Kurds return home. Clearly the author does not wish to paint Turkey in a good light. Especially with the numerous swirling allegations that Turkey has been helping ISIS with weapons, supplies, and letting ISIS openly recruit from within Turkey. But this leaves out that the Turks and Kurds have been long time enemies and have been in open conflict since the late 70’s. It also fails to mention that ISIS has not actually done any “terrorist activities” in Turkey but the Kurds have. It also fails to note the PKK is widely involved with the YPG who were the ones defending Kobani. The PKK is the primary organization behind the ongoing insurgency in Turkey and is listed by numerous countries including the United States as a terrorist group. So things are not a simple as “the evil Turks will not let the Kurds go home”. No the conflict itself is much more complex than that with each faction having its own agenda. Just some appear to be doing the right thing.
