Courcy’s Intelligence Brief
Risk pointers
*** Towards a Kurdish state. Selahattin Demirtas, the leader of Turkey’s main Kurdish political party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), said on 27 October at a rally in support of Kurdish hunger strikers: “A Kurdish state is being constructed in the Middle East.” This, of course, is Ankara’s great fear and the reason it has been working assiduously to get close to the leader of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Masoud Barzani.
The latest danger for Ankara has been the increase in Kurdish activities in Syria. According to Turkish sources, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been allowed to move some 800 guerrillas into border posts controlled by the Syrian military.
The PKK is said to be collaborating in northern Syria not just with the Kurdish PYD (Democratic Union Party) but also with the leftist Turkish terrorist group no known as Acilciler – the ‘Urgent Ones’.
*** Russians losing interest in protest movement. An opinion poll carried out by the Levada Centre in October and published on 27 October reports that 75% of Russians do not intend to take part in mass rallies and that 53% are opposed to the mass rallies held since last December.
A month ago, the respective figures were 70% and 46%. Those saying they support mass protests has dropped from 39% in September to 30% in October.
*** Saudi King expresses his fears. Speaking on 26 October at a dinner to mark the feast of Eid al-Adha, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz warned the commanders and officers of the security forces protecting this year’s Muslim hajj of imminent dangers to the nation.
He said: “No doubt you are aware of the state through which our region is passing currently. The Ummah’s enemies are waiting in ambush for your nation. They have no other goal but to disrupt our nation’s safety and unity, which were achieved with the struggles of King Abdul Aziz and your forefathers...”
He added: “We are surrounded by seditions which can only be deterred by depending on Allah the Almighty and standing in the face of whoever contemplates tampering with the security, unity, and sovereignty of our country...”