On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Egemen Bağış, the Turkish Ambassador-Designate to the Czech Republic and top adviser to President Erdogan on Turkey’s invasion of north-eastern Syria.
He discusses why Turkey views the PYD and YPG as the offspring of the PKK, how Turkey will build its own military-industrial complex as sanctions mount, whether Turkey has a problem with Kurds in general, what Erdogan did with Trump’s letter telling him ‘not to be a tough guy,’ and more!
Next, we speak to former co-leader of the Kurdish PYD Salih Muslim who talks about whether the agreement between Kurdish forces and Bashar Assad was inevitable, whether the PYD has ever received funding from the CIA and whether the PYD has any links with the PKK. He also labels President Erdogan as being ‘like Hitler’ and comments on his threats to release 3.6 million Syrian refugees into Europe.
Finally, we speak to Game of Thrones’ star Jerome Flynn, who plays Bronn in the hit series, regarding the Extinction Rebellion protests that have taken over London for nearly two weeks. He discusses the backlash against the disruption caused by the activists and why the disruption is the government’s fault, why this kind of protest is necessary to prevent climate disaster, the alarming warnings by the CCC on the British government’s inaction on climate change, the tube protest incident which saw Extinction Rebellion protesters beaten up, and more!