Thread by @Charles_Lister

Using an #America-centric lens to criticize #Turkey for making national security judgements based on a #Turkey-centric lens is analytically dubious.

Whether we like it or not, #Turkey has fought a 40-year #PKK insurgency & sees the #PKK as its No.1 national security threat.

https://twitter.com/ForeignPolicy/status/1185356141565530113

#pt: And FWIW, using Aldar Khalil as the sole source to claim that the #PYD-#PKK relationship is solely defined by "intellectual lineage" & 'sympathy with one another's political goals' is analytically disingenuous.

Perhaps instead read the #PYD itself:

https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/1006226766833291264

#pt: If the #PYD's very own website (deleted - but archived - after teaming up with the U.S. military in 2014) wasn't enough, take the public assessments of U.S. government's dedicated National CounterTerrorism Center (part of the Intelligence Community):

https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/701451967692845056

Beyond the NCTC, the Director for National Intelligence (DNI) & the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) identify the #PYD as the #PKK's affiliate in #Syria:

cia.gov/library/public…

https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/963753604959080448

#pt: Just last month, the U.S. Congress-mandated #Syria Study Group - responsible for identifying new avenues for U.S. policy in #Syria - identified the #PYD as:

- "The Syrian branch of the PKK, founded in 2003."

https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/1176585102299738112

#pt: Noted #Kurd experts @vvanwilgenburg (thenational.ae/world/syrian-k…) & @AlizaMarcus (nytimes.com/2018/09/26/opi…) have both acknowledged the issue.

"#PYD is the Syrian branch of the #PKK in #Syria.. their ideology is completely the same & almost all #YPG fighters have #PKK background"

@vvanwilgenburg @AlizaMarcus #pts: All of the above explains why #Turkey has done what it's done - I don't personally think it's right, or strategically logical, but I'm not #Turkish.

What's *equally* illogical is for people in #America to dismiss #Turkey's assessments by insisting they should embrace ours.