Kurdish minority to seek regional autonomy in post-Assad Syria

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3. Ankara Alarmed by Syrian Kurds' Autonomy

NUSAYBIN, Turkey—For most foreign powers, events in Syria's Kurdish provinces are largely seen as a sideshow to the country's deadly civil conflict. Not so in Turkey.

Some Syrian Kurds have in recent weeks taken dramatic steps toward autonomous rule, fueling Ankara's existential fear: that its No. 1 enemy, the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, could boost its influence there and even use the region as a base to attack Turkey.

Turkish leaders also fear that if Syria's Kurds were to gain formal autonomy, as their ethnic kin in northern Iraq have, Turkey's own 12 million to 15 million Kurds would be emboldened to push harder for greater autonomy.

Ankara on Wednesday staged military exercises with 25 tanks in the Nusaybin district, along Turkey's southern border with Syria's Kurdish region, Turkish state media reported, reacting not only to the Kurdish developments but the potential for a spillover of violence and refugees from Syria's 18-month civil conflict. They were the first tank exercises along Turkey's frontier with Syria's Kurdish region for more than a decade, analysts said.

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