Inside Story

Has Turkey bitten off more than it can chew?

Turkey is now embroiled in two very different battles at the same time.

Turkey is now fighting two very different battles at the same time.

Turkish fighter jets have been hitting PKK positions in Iraq for days.

The Kurdish PKK has been fighting for greater autonomy within Turkey for 30 years, and more than 40,000 Turkish and Kurdish soldiers and civilians have died during the struggle.

Between 30 and 40 million Kurds live in adjoining regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Turkey is now also bombing ISIL bases in Syria.

The conflicts become complicated when you take into account the group at the forefront of the international fight against ISIL is another Kurdish group, the YPG.

Presenter: Sami Zeidan

Guests:

In Ankara: Bilal Sambur, a Kurdish Political Analyst and Head of the SESA Institute of Social, Economic, and Political Research in Ankara.

In London: Galip Dalay, the Research Director of Al Sharq Forum, a think-tank based in Istanbul

In Washington DC: Richard Weitz,a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who also directs the institute’s Center for Political-Military Analysis