Special to WorldTribune.com

Turkey’s military has intensified its attacks on Kurdish forces in both Syria and Iraq.

Ankara’s forces have recently attacked People’s Protection Units (YPG) positions in northern Syria and launched air strikes on Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq.

Experts say the recent landslide election victory has emboldened President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step up military operations against the Kurds.

In Syria, YPG forces say Turkey has attacked its positions near the town of Tel Abyad, which the Kurds, backed by U.S.-coalition air strikes, seized from Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

The YPG’s Media Center said on Nov. 2 that Turkey’s military targeted locations of the YPG in the western countryside of Tel Abyad just as YPG fighters were engaged in battle with ISIL jihadists in the town of Sirrin near Kobane.

“It seems that the Turkish state is trying to provoke our units to respond in a bid to justify its military intervention in our region,” a YPG official told ARA News in Tel Abyad.

“The Turkish authorities are highly concerned about our continuous progress against ISIL terrorists, and they are trying to stop us under the pretext that we are merely fighting for the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish state on their border.”

Last month, Erdogan said the YPG was attempting to gain control of northern Syria. “Ankara would not allow this to happen,” he said.

After the Turkish military launched new attacks on PKK targets on Nov. 2, a spokesman for the PKK said it was evident that Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had no intentions of resuming peace talks.

“This is war,” Zagros Hiwa, a PKK spokesman said. “On election night, Mr. Davutoglu said the strikes would continue, he said our struggle will continue with determination, and I think it was an indication of these strikes.”

Turkey’s leaders have said peace talks would resume if the PKK lays down its weapons, declares a cease-fire and leaves the country, demands the PKK has rejected.

Since June, more than 150 Turkish security officials and hundreds of PKK fighters have been killed in the renewed fighting.

  Ahmet Davutoglu, Iraq, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Victorious Erdogan regime in Turkey steps up attacks on Kurdish forces fighting ISIL, WorldTribune.com, YPG