PKK attack on Türkiye during earthquake crisis reveals its vileness

Türkiye is reeling from the twin earthquakes that hit its southern region on February 6, which have claimed 36,187 lives as of Feburary 16. Search-and-rescue teams are still relentlessly striving to find any sign of life as they pull off several miracle rescues as many as 200 hours after the disaster. 

Given the enormity of the unprecedented catastrophe, the emotions exprienced on the ground are also of unparalleled proportion. Feelings of despair, suffering and grief are intermingled with those of hope, resolve and solidarity. People who used to be at each other’s throats over political differences not too long ago are now delivering aid to quake-stricken people. 

But there are some forces that continue to work against the spirit of human solidarity. While the Turkish people were desperately looking for their kith and kin trapped under the rubble, the Turkish army was being attacked by the YPG terrorists in the border town of Kilis. 

An affiliate of the PKK, designated as a terrorist organisation by the US and EU, the YPG attacked Turkish forces with a multiple-launch rocket system from Tal Rifaat, a north-western Syrian town it currently occupies. Although no Turkish troops were killed, the incident is yet another marker of the sinister agenda that the YPG-PKK network pursues against the Turkish state. 

Of all the days, the terror group picked the worst possible day to attack Türkiye, a day when the whole country was reeling from what has been dubbed "the disaster of the century". It gives us a sneak peek into the psyche of the terror group – that it refuses to adhere to the universal values of humanity and instead exploits tragic events like this enormous natural disaster to achieve its wicked goals. 

The vile nature of this terror group came as no surprise to Turks or Syrians who have been at the receiving end of its activities. 

Natural disasters of massive scale have time and again invoked the latent empathy in many people. Türkiye's tragedy is so deep and overwhelming that it has brought together people from all over the world and united them in the path of helping the victims.

But for terror groups, no heart-wrenching human experience is enough to move them as they thrive on the deep-rooted practice of dehumanising their enemies. 

In the fall of 2022, the PKK bombed innocent and defenceless pedesterians at Istanbul’s famous Istiklal Avenue – the timing and the venue chosen for the terror attack once again proved that it has no regard for human life. 

Now, attacking a quake-stricken country at a time when it had mobilised all its resources to rescue as many lives as possible is a new low for the PKK ring leaders. Such vindictive mindset knows no bounds. The terror group even sabotaged Türkiye-bound humanitarian aid collected in the North Westphalian region of Germany by setting the delivery trucks on fire.  

Despite the glaring evidence of the PKK's brutal and sadistic nature, the terror group is still shown in a positive light by most Western media outlets.

Turning a blind eye to the YPG-PKK's attack on the Turkish army posts in Kilis at a time when the country's is mourning the loss of tens of thousands of lives claimed by the devastating earthquakes, a German media outlet portrayed the Turkish army as the aggressor against these terrorists, calling it “aggression against Kurds” in northern Syria. 

War and hostility are the inevitable and ugly realities of the world we live in but no sane person would wage war during a natural disaster of unparalleled magnitude. Yet for the YPG-PKK terrorists, exploiting humanitarian crises has been part of their terror playbook.

This behaviour has never changed and it will not change until their foreign protectors in the West recognise them as a threat to both moral and social fabric and start purging them from their societies.