Plenty of news has circulated about Turkey and the Kurds this week, so we won't bog you down with unnecessary updates. But one thing should be clear — the tensions that were boiling under the surface between Ankara and the PKK (and the YPG and the peshmerga, for that matter) have shot into the public realm.
If you follow the Syrian conflict, by now you know the nitty-gritty about the Kurds' battle against Daesh (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq, their coordination with US coalition airstrikes and the wide net of Western foreigners flocking to join their ranks.
It's been a little over a week since a video emerged of US military veteran Jordan Matson, who is currently fighting alongside Kurdish forces against Daesh in Syria and Iraq. In this clip (though it is cut up) Matson claims he's been shot at by Turkish forces and questions the overall goal of Ankara in their fight against Daesh.
The 28-year-old American army veteran joined the ranks of Syrian Kurdish militia People's Protection Units (YPG) last September after trading in a food packaging job in Wisconsin for the fight against Daesh. He, along with dozens of other Western recruits to the Kurds, has made frequent headlines since then.
Now, as Kurdish militant group Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkish forces go head-to-head against one another after just over two years of peace, Matson's words seem especially prescient.
