Turkish military campaign aims to prevent Kurdish unity in Syria: HDP co-chair

The main aim of Turkey's recent military operations in northern Syria and Iraq is to prevent Kurdish territorial unity and not to combat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition HDP said on July 30. 

In an interview with Reuters, Selahattin Demirta? accused President Tayyip Erdo?an and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) of dragging Turkey into conflict in revenge for the AKP losing its majority in a June 7 general election. 

That election saw the HDP win enough votes to enter parliament as a party for the first time, ending more than a decade of single-party rule in the NATO member country. 

"The AK Party is dragging the country into a period of conflict, seeking revenge for the loss of its majority in the June election," Demirta? told Reuters in the capital Ankara. 

"HDP passing the threshold and the AK Party losing its parliamentary majority are being used as a pretext for war." 

Turkey launched near-simultaneous air strikes on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in northern Iraq and ISIL fighters in Syria last Friday, in what Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has called a "synchronised fight against terror". 

But its assaults on the PKK have so far been much heavier than its strikes against ISIL, fuelling Kurdish suspicions that its real agenda is keeping Kurdish political and territorial ambitions in check, something the government denies. 

"Turkey carried out a couple of air strikes against the Islamic State just for show, without causing serious damage to it, nor is Islamic State feeling serious pressure from Turkey," Demirta? said. 

"Turkey's operations do not aim at taking measures against Islamic State. The main...