Mursitpinar, Turkey – Perched on a gentle slope just inside the Turkish frontier, Servet Koprubasi watched helplessly as Islamic State militants pushed into the Syrian town of Kobane only a kilometre away. To his right, a row of Turkish tanks - their guns trained on Syria - sat idly by. “The world has conspired against us Kurds. Nobody is helping us. The Kurds are alone,” the 41-year-old labourer lamented. “Whatever peace process there was with Turkey is now over,” he said. It is a sentiment shared by many of the hundreds of Kurdish men and a handful of women who have flocked to this dusty vantage point in recent weeks to watch the battle for Kobane unfold. And the fate of this predominantly Kurdish town now looks set to have lasting repercussions inside Turkey. For the past three weeks, the ISIS jihadists have laid siege to Kobane in an attempt to consolidate their grip along a vast stretch of the Turkish border, and on Monday night they pushed through Kurdish frontlines, raising fears the town could soon fall. The United States and other allies have stepped up air strikes against the militants in and around the town but so far they appear to have done little to repel the heavily-armed jihadists fighting an increasingly outgunned Kurdish militia. Anger and frustration at Ankara's inaction to counter the militant advance has also spread further among Turkey's Kurds, who make up around a fifth of the country's 77 million people. Violent street protests erupted across the country late on Tuesday and local media reported more than 10 people had been killed, with many more wounded. Curfews have been imposed in several districts. While Turkey has opened its doors to more than 180,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing the area in recent weeks – on top of the million refugees from other parts of Syria - and has responded in kind when a stray shell has landed on its soil, it has resisted intervening directly in its southern neighbour despite mounting pressure. Ankara says it will not get involved unless a safe haven, including a no-fly zone, is imposed in northern Syria and unless it gets assurances that Washington and its allies will go after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom it sees as the main instigator of Syria's turmoil. Turkey is also wary of helping Kurdish groups across its border because of their close links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting the Turkish state for more autonomy for the past 30 years and with which it has entered into tentative peace talks. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has done more than any other previous Turkish leader to further Kurds' rights and direct talks with the PKK only a few years ago would have been unthinkable, however, for some Kurds the reforms do not go far enough. The mounting unrest over Kobane has also laid bare a deep mistrust by many Turkish Kurds of their government after decades of oppression by the state, and the peace process could now be hanging in the balance. “They're killing the Kurds, what more do you want me to say? Turkey hates all of us. It will not step in and help, why would it? They've been fighting us for thirty years,” said another man, who declined to give his name, pointing towards the border as gunfire rang out. “There’s no such thing as a peace process, not after this.” Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK, has also warned that if Kobane was allowed to fall, the peace process would collapse, words that appear to have resounded among some. “The peace process is finished like Mr. Ocalan said. I feel the same, we all feel the same. A year ago I was hopeful, there was a chance, but not now,” said another man crouching in the shade of his car. “This was a trick process,” he said. However, Ferit, a middle-aged man sat on the ground rolling a cigarette, took a more pragmatic view. “At the end of the day there is some hope left. This is like a movie and a movie carries on. We only recently discovered our history. Only in the last 30 years have we discovered our history. The Kurds have a history,” he said.
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