Armenian News-NEWS.am presents the article “Iran’s role in the PKK’s recent terror attacks” published in Today’s Zaman newspaper.

“The Turkish press tends to analyze the Kurdish Workers Party’s (PKK) recent attack from a domestic political perspective,” the newspaper reads.

“Right before the attack I, too, wrote a piece and analyzed the domestic factors that may have played a role in the PKK’s decision to intensify the fight again. Most of the analyses concentrated on hard-liners within the ranks of the PKK, such as Mustafa Karasu, Cemil Bayık and Duran Kalkan, otherwise known as the “Ankaralılar Grubu.” The hard-liners in the PKK resist the idea of peace that Abdullah Ocalan is negotiating for,” the source says.

“It is a fact that the “Ankaralılar Grubu” originated from former leftist organizations, some of them having had close relations with the leftist Aydınlık network in 1970s. Moreover, the leader of the Aydınlık network, Doğu Perincek, visited the PKK’s camps in the 1990s and offered Ocalan roses. Back then, Ocalan supported the Ergenekon-linked PKK leaders maintaining relations with the “deep state” so that he could use them whenever he needed them,” the newspaper says.

“The Ergenekon investigation revealed that the Aydınlık political network has had close relations with the Ergenekon network. In fact, its leader and many other leading figures are suspected of having been a part of Ergenekon-related criminal networks. More importantly, the Aydınlık political network is the leading political network that advocates anti-American and anti-NATO sentiments and promotes establishing a Russian-Iranian-Turkish axis,” the source reports.

“It is no secret that the Ergenekon network does not want to see a democratic Turkey and tries to maintain the status quo. As a last resort it would not hesitate to use terrorism as a means to reach its aim. Thus, any analysis that puts Turkish domestic politics into consideration and refers to possible cooperation between the Ergenekon network and the PKK hard-liners is correct.”

“However, one dimension is missing in this analysis, which is the impact of the changing nature of international relations in the region. Since the political crisis erupted in Syria, Turkey’s friendly relations with both Syria and Iran have soured, as Syria turns more and more to Iran. Not surprisingly, the Aydınlık network supported Iran in taking a stand against Turkish foreign policy preferences,” the newspaper says.

“Here, one needs to note that Iranian intelligence services have extended their activities to reach out to various segments of Turkish society. Now, one wonders what has changed within the Aydınlık network, which considered Iran its enemy up until eight years ago but now supports Iran’s foreign policy in the region and promotes the idea of establishing a Turkish-Russian-Iranian axis as opposed to Turkey’s alliance with NATO,” the source reads.

“Where does the PKK stand among these complex, intertwining relations? Throughout the 1990s, Iran and Syria were two of the countries that supported the PKK in order to destabilize Turkey. Iran’s closest associate within the PKK network is Bayık, who is also the leading figure of the “Ankaralılar Group,” which, in turn, is linked to the Ergenekon network.

“Since the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran has abandoned its policy of support for the PKK. However, Bayık has always had connections with Iran.”

“It seems that as Turkey’s interests in Syria begin to conflict with those of Iran, which supports Bashar al-Assad’s regime there, Iran is returning to its old policy: supporting the PKK terrorist organization to destabilize Turkey in order to expand its conflict into Turkey so that Iran can maintain its influence in the region.”

“Thus, while Turkey is negotiating to bring the PKK militants down from the mountains, Iran is using its influence over people like Bayok to intensify terror campaigns on Turkish soil, which also helps the Ergenekon network support both Iran and the PKK’s hard-liners, perhaps because Iran may have had relations with them over the last few years,” the source reports.