The Turkish army has been fighting the guerrilla for 34 years. For 34 years, every day they “end the guerrilla” countless times. The Turkish army’s war is mostly a psychological war waged over the media, often exceeding the limits of psychological warfare, and this fact has been exposed once again in Serhat this time.

Every day the AKP’s ministers of war repeat the tired old lines, “We ended them, they are gone, they don’t have a place to hide”, and the guerrilla tear these claims down. The Kurdistan guerrillas’ performance in the Serhat State in particular shows once more how desperate the Turkish army is in this war despite their huge military equipment.

CAN’T FIGHT ON LAND

What really happened in Serhat? The operation launched on September 27 was met with active resistance by the guerrilla. Turkish forces were targeted from 9 positions and were surrounded. The siege continued into the evening hours. The Turkish army operations are completely dependent on aerial support and are tech-heavy. But with this operation, we saw that even though the Turkish army employs their technical prowess, they can’t fight on land. We saw in Serhat what happens when they want to advance on land. From Serhat to Botan and to the Zagros mountains, all the Turkish army operations claimed they achieved results, because they had aerial support. But it is clear that the guerrilla’s style in particularly the Serhat State has voided this.

TRIED MANY TIMES

Looking at the details of the actions in Serhat, it is understood that none of the operations throughout the year has produced results. As can be remembered, there have been many operations with thousands of soldiers, village guards and counter-guerrilla units. Roads were blocked. Secure areas were formed. All these weren’t enough and they started to build a wall. That didn’t cut it either. So they wanted to test themselves once more.

The outcome was this: According to the statement on HPG Press Center’s official website, 69 Turkish soldiers were killed, 44 were wounded, 2 Cobra type attack helicopters were damaged, 2 military vehicles were completely destroyed, 1 Dragunov-SVD was captured along with its equipment, 1 gun and large amounts of military equipment.

RAKED THROUGH ITS OWN SOLDIERS

Maybe the most significant part of the statement is that, maybe due to the morale caused by this defeat, the Turkish army did not refrain from raking through its own soldiers and casualties with Cobra type helicopters. This mindset has said they “wished it was their bodies that came back” regarding their own captured soldiers in the past. Raking through their own soldiers proves that they will do anything they can so the surviving soldiers are not captured. The reasoning is, soldiers in the operation forces are mostly expert soldiers on contract anyways. These expert soldiers don’t even make the news when they die, because there are clauses in their contracts to prevent just this.

ALLIANCE WITH IRAN

The Turkish army, defeated in the face of the Kurdistan guerrillas despite all their technological advantages, is looking to form an alliance with the Iranian army as a last resort. Meanwhile the special war media of the AKP keeps churning out stories for the Turkish society that the guerrilla “is ended, is unable to carry out actions” every day. They dress up the apparent failure as a success.

All eyes are on the special war minister who claimed he will end the guerrilla by November 20 and how he will speak in the face of this defeat. But this must not be forgotten: The Turkish army won’t refrain from turning against civilians where they are defeated. So, it is a possibility that the Turkish army take its revenge from Kurds by targeting civilians more in the coming period.