Ankara raised the prospect last weekend of a military operation to create a buffer zone along its Syrian frontier. While Turkey is officially part of a 60-nation coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), this military initiative would instead be focused on a different threat: the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (PYD) in Syria.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, the PYD has seized many predominantly Kurdish cities in northern Syria along the Turkish border. The emergence of ISIS and the resulting military support from the international anti-ISIS coalition, however, opened the door for the PYD to expand beyond predominantly Kurdish territories. After capturing the key border town of Tal Abyad from ISIS on June 16, the PYD is now poised to attack the jihadists in nearby Jarabulus. By seizing the town, the PYD would be closer to connecting the several cantons it currently controls along the border, thereby increasing the prospects of an independent Kurdistan emerging within Syria.