Abstract: The research object is the aggravation of Turkish-Kurdish relations during the snap parliamentary election in November 2015 and the Turkish military intervention in Syria in 2016 in the context of the establishment of the Kurdish autonomy in Syria. Taking into consideration the importance of this problem, the author analyzes the events, which acted as an indirect catalyst of the escalation of the interethnic conflict in the country and the activation of combatants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), supported by the legal pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party of Turkey, advocating for the autonomy of Kurdish regions of Turkey and the extension of rights and liberties of national minorities. The research is based on the analysis of the key events of the mentioned period on the base of the data, acquired from the Turkish, Russian and international mass media. The article reveals the patterns of domestic policy processes in Turkey and their manifestation in Turkey’s participation in the Syrian crisis. The author analyzes the present state of the Kurdish question, its intensification in the context of the Syrian crisis, Turkey’s interests in the region and the role of the Kurdish political elites in the country’s domestic politics.