The change in brand for the People's Protection Units (YPG) is ridiculous. Changing the name of an entity does not change its nature. A rose smells as sweet by any other name, said Shakespeare. The American public has a different way of expressing the same sentiment: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.
The American general suggested the name change in order to try to circumvent Turkish opposition to American support for the YPG. Turkey, a NATO ally, is well aware that the YPG is an extension of the PKK, an internationally recognized terrorist organization. Neither the YPG nor the PKK try to hide this relationship. It is only the Americans who try to obfuscate the matter, attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of the world.
President Erdoğan responded to this ridiculous acknowledgement that there was an attempt to soft sell the YPG as the harbinger of freedom and democracy in the Middle East. "The YPG is a terrorist organization. ... Whatever they do, they cannot hide the obvious. This is clear from top to bottom." That is, despite the American army admiring their makeup job, the lipstick on the pig is still obvious to all.
General Thomas, the man who came up with the bright idea to change the YPG's name, was particularly enamored of the word "democratic" being inserted. He is quoted as saying: "I thought it was a stroke of brilliance to put democracy in there somewhere ... it gave them a little bit of credibility."
Yes, putting democracy in a name is a stroke of genius. And it always gives credibility. It has been brilliantly done before by a few geniuses. Just look at the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Or the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Then there is that oldie, but goody, former East Germany - the German Democratic Republic. East Germany was not renowned for its democratic practices any more than North Korea is today.
It is thought that more than half of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) consists of YPG militants. The SDF even has its own webpage where you can read about them. We are told that:
"The Syrian Democratic Forces ... usually shortened as SDF or QSD, are an alliance of Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen, Assyrian and Armenian militias mainly fighting against [Daesh], Al-Nusra Front and other Jihadist groups in the Syrian Civil War."
Under this preamble, the names of the groups that make up the SDF are listed. Those named first are those that have a greater share in the SDF. It is hardly surprising that the first two are the YPG and the Women's Protection Units (YPJ).
Turkey in no way is opposed to groups that are fighting Daesh or other terrorist groups in the region. Turkey is committed to defeating Daesh and eliminating their presence in the region. However, Turkey does have a major Turkish concern - the large amount of weapons that are being sent to the YPG forces. These will, naturally, find their way into PKK hands. While the Americans are helping the YPG to fight Daesh, they are also helping them to attack their NATO ally, Turkey, taking the lives of innocent men and women living in the region. Turkey is mainly concerned that the YPG is directly and openly linked with the PKK and that transfers of weapons occur between the YPG and the PKK. This is something that Turkish officials are aware has already happened. There have been several reports in the Turkish media about Turkish security forces capturing AT-4 anti-tank missiles and other weapons from PKK militants in the southeast of Turkey. The serial numbers of the weapons are scratched off or covered in an attempt to make it difficult or impossible to track their origins.
It is this that worries the Turkish government, this trade, this camaraderie, this feeding of weapons of destruction, of terrorist tactics - this is what the Turkish state, the Turkish people and the Turkish army are truly disturbed by.
The blurred lines between the YPG and PKK, the closeness of their association was attested to by another American general in an inadvertent slip. Col. John Dorrian was speaking about Turkey's attitude toward the Kurdish groups that make up the SDF, and he said: "But with regard to the PKK, they are a part of the Syrian Democratic forces."
This faux pas occurred last May, and the colonel quickly corrected his slip when alerted to it. He corrected himself, saying he meant the YPG, not the PKK. But such a mistake is only natural. The two groups are actually very similar and work closely together.
Clear evidence of this can be seen in the renaming of an air base in Syria. Menagh Air Base was captured in February of last year and according to The Times was renamed "Serok Apo" (Leader Apo, i.e., Abdullah Öcalan). It was the YPG who renamed the air base after the former leader of the PKK, who is now in prison in Turkey
That the YPG is an orderly, reliable force is a nothing but a fiction. Over the past years there have been frequent accusations that the YPG forces have been carrying out ethnic cleaning of Arab villages in the region. Even though the YPG has denied such allegations, they openly admitted that they have been using a scorched earth policy and have destroyed people's homes in such villages. That is, according to the YPG, they have not actively sought to eliminate all people who are not of Kurdish ethnicity, but they have made sure such non-Kurds have nowhere to live and nothing to eat.
But this is all detail; it makes little difference. A terrorist group is a terrorist group is a terrorist group. Call it what you will, dress it up however you like, you cannot change the nature of such an entity. In fact, according to Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu: "The U.S. government, the individual soldiers and U.S. institutions all agree that there is little difference between the YPG and the PKK."
Even if America considers the YPG to be a reliable partner in the region, it is abundantly clear that they are not. Their actions, their declarations, their close relationship with the PKK has made it clear that they are in reality little more than an offshoot of the PKK, one that maintains close links and offers support and help whenever able to.
Call the YPG what you will: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck. No amount of lipstick will make this pig fly, not in the eyes of Ankara and not in the eyes of the rest of the rational world.
