Turkey’s key enemies are the Kurds, Viktor Nadein-Rayevsky, turkologist and a senior fellow of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of World Economy and International Relations, told Armenian News – NEWS.am.

Referring to the opinion that Turkey has declared a war to the ISIL terrorists and joined the International Coalition against the Islamic State, looking for a pretext to strike the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the turkologist said: “Many people immediately suspected the Turks of this. But the situation is much more difficult here. Turkey is a state which most frequently approaches any issue of international relations from the point of view of its own benefit,” he said.   

PKK, according to Nadein-Rayevsky, had to make concessions; talks were conducted. “The Turkish authorities did not make concessions, while those latter referred to provision of normal, human rights. This is a matter to which the Turks are not ready. It’s clear that having collected the votes of the Kurds in his support, Erdogan decided to stop,” he said.

In Nadein-Ranevsky’s words, Erdogan’s key enemies were the Kurds, namely the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which tried to unite all the opposition.

“But it were exactly the Kurds who voted for Erdogan and allowed his party to gain the majority. And currently the HDP has actually taken away these votes. This is what causes Turkey to act that way,” he said.