Turkey and the U.S.
Serdar Celik, “Turkey’s Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerilla Force,” Kurdistan Report No. 17, February/March 1994
Overview of the Turkish Special Warfare Department and operation of Guerrillas.
Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Michael Sontheimer, and Holger Stark, “How the NSA Helped Turkey Kill Kurdish Rebels,” Aug. 31, 2014, The Intercept
The U.S. aids Turkey by spying on the PKK and even giving them coordinates for bombing raids on its camps in Iraq. It also gives Turkey sophisticated spy technology even while using it to spy on Turkey itself.
Malcolm Harris, “ISIS' Toughest Enemy Should Be Taken Off America's Terrorist List,” June 18, 2015, New Republic
The contradiction in keeping the PKK on the U.S. terrorist list and allying with its sister organization in Syria should be resolved by taking the PKK off the list. It’s still there because of Turkish pressure.
Julian Pecquet, “Lobbying 2015: Turkey resents America’s love story with the Kurds,” Aug. 3, 2015, Al-Monitor
Turkey’s $3 million a year lobbying operation in Washington is devoted to gaining political support against the Kurds and led by former U.S. officials including Dick Gephardt and Porter Goss.
Tolga Tanış, “US finally approves crucial ‘smart bomb’ sale to Turkey,” Oct. 30, 2015, Daily Hurriyet
State Dept. approves deal to sell weapons to Turkey to fight the PKK, includes Mk84, BLU-109 and Mk82 bombs, 900 smart bomb kits, 100 laser kits, 200 warheads and 1,000 capsules, despite attempts by Senators Ben Cardin and Bob Corker and Congressman Elliot Engel to stop the deal.
Maksim Lebskiy, “NATO and Ultras: The Turkish Gladio,” June 10, 2016, Kurdish Question
Brief history of Gladio, the U.S. Cold War operation to make sure Turkey did not go communist, that has been responsible for countless coups and attacks on Kurds ever since.
David L. Phillips, “Draining the Swamp of Turkish Money and Influence,” Sept. 17, 2017, Huffington Post
Lists lobbyists and Washington thinktanks that get large donations from Turkey, including Brookings and, even more so, the Atlantic Council.
Aliza Marcus, “These Are Not Disposable Allies,” Sept. 26, 2018, New York Times
Argues that the U.S. should give the Syrian Kurds political as well as military support in order to get leverage to promote a more open society there and encourage economic development and bring stability to the region.
Jim Zanotti and Clayton Thomas, “Turkey: Background and U.S. Relations,” Aug. 31, 2018, Congressional Research Service
A background paper prepared for Congress, this hits the high spots in the decline of Washington-Ankara relations and discusses US aid with particular attention to the cooperative program developing the high tech F-35 plane, a program now at risk.
“The Kurds and Middle Eastern ‘State of Violence’: the 1980s and 2010s,” May 2014, Kurdish Studies
A comparison of the situation of the Kurds in the 1980s, when they were the subordinate players of violent Middle Eastern states, and the present, when they have achieved relative autonomy, albeit through horrible violence, in Iraq and Syria, and strengthened their position in Turkey. (This was written in 2014, before the crackdown in Turkey.)