Turkey’s Erdogan Says Kurds Are Behind Black Lives Matter Protests

Warns Trump of 'concern' about protests

Ongoing Black Lives Matter protests in the United States and elsewhere have spawned a lot of allegations of who is really behind them. Democrats have tried to pin it on Russia, Republicans have looked suspiciously at China. President Trump has tried to blame the whole matter on Antifa.

Now, it is Turkey’s turn, with President Erdogan calling Trump and telling him that he is “concerned” about Turkey’s belief that the whole Black Lives Matter thing is being orchestrated by the Kurds, and by Turkey’s banned PKK in particular.

Absent in all of this  is any evidence that the PKK actually is involved, or even any conceivable reason to think that the Kurdish separatist group would care about US policing powers.

Erdogan’s position is hardly shocking, however, as he has been trying to drive a wedge between the US and the Kurds for years, and pins something on the PKK every time there is any news remotely related to terror. President Trump’s presentation of the groups as domestic terrorism was really all the pretext Erdogan needed to make such an allegation.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.