‘Ankara opened Pandora’s box in Syria’

Turkey’s involvement in the Syrian crisis will backfire by putting Ankara at the risk of a new series of violent confrontations with its minority Kurdish population, a political analysts tells Press TV.

Since Ankara opened the lid to the conflict in Syria, the crisis has been “dragging [Turkey] in, in a very direct way,” William Jones from the Executive Intelligence Review weekly newsmagazine told Press TV in an interview.

He described the prospect of new clashes with Kurds as “a definite threat to Turkey,” which Ankara can only contain through “the use of police and military force.”

Jones warned that to the extent Turkey is engaging in military activities along the border with Syria, “Kurds would get a certain part of reaction and whole economic development in Turkey which has been pretty extraordinary during the last few years is being threatened.”

On Friday, the Syrian government sent a letter to the UN, blasting Turkey’s “destructive” role in the conflict that has ravaged the country for the past 23 months.

In the letter, the Syrian Foreign Ministry accused Ankara of publicly supporting and financing terrorists fighting against the Syrian government and allowing its soil to be used for training and housing anti-Damascus terrorist groups.

In October 2012, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) voiced solidarity with Syrian Kurds, vowing violent reprisal if Turkish military forces target the Kurdish community in the Arab country.

In mid-January, clashes broke out between Syrian Kurds and the foreign-backed militants near the Turkey-Syria border. The militants have launched similar attacks on the border areas, targeting Syria’s Kurdish population.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. Clashes between Turkish forces and PKK members have claimed around 45,000 lives since starting in 1984.