After months of railing against the gains by the Kurdish YPG in northern Syria, Turkish army forces began shelling YPG targets in earnest this weekend, and pretty quickly escalated their involvement to begin attacking the Syrian military in northern Aleppo Province as well.
Turkish officials insist they had set rules of engagement to defend the rebel-held border town of Azaz, and also demanded that the Kurds cede the Menagh Air Base back to the Levantine Front, an Islamist faction that took it from last week.
Turkey has long used the Azaz crossing to funnel aid to rebel factions, and has expressed concern as both the Syrian military and the Kurds have made gains in the area, saying they would not allow the Kurds in particular to hold the area.
Turkish officials are talking up the possibility of escalating their involvement to include ground troops, and the Syrian government says it believes the first Turkish troops may already have arrived, as around 100 gunmen crossed the border at Azaz, and they believe some are Turkish military forces.
The sudden Turkish attacks come just days ahead of the start of a ceasefire in Syria, and the US and some European nations are urging Turkey to knock it off, though PM Ahmet Davutoglu insists Turkish strikes will continue as a “necessary response” to the Kurdish gains.
The Kurdish YPG isn’t perfect either. The YPG commits ethnic cleansing against Sunni Arabs. The YPG displaced Sunni Arabs and burned down entire villages. The YPG has threatened to order coalition airstrikes against Arab houses if the Arabs don’t leave. Over 10,000 Arabs have fled their homes in response of YPG advance.
Erdogan was right that the U.S. should not fund and arm the Kurds. If the U.S. keeps supporting the Kurds then Kurdistan will become an apartheid state like Israel. Israel commits discrimination against Arabs and Kurdistan too may commit discrimination against Arabs.
Here is a neocon, if ever there was one.
Not smart enough to be a Neocon. More likely just a Turkish stooge. Very dim.
i don’t see where he is wrong, there have been reports of kurds leveling arab towns they have captured and displacing arabs in mixed areas.
the whole Illuminati vs the good guys does not work when there are dozens of competing parties all with very high stake self interest in mind.
when isis has moved to north africa, and when the kurds posses a large unified homogeneous area and (with many well armed well trained soldiers with battle experience) decided to declare independence and take part of turkey what then?
im not in favor of any of the intervention, but things are far to complicated to simply say isis is the devil and all who oppose it are saints,
I like to remind you sir–that America destroyed Iraq because Saddam’s Sunni regime was minority . To USA, that was no Democracy but dictatorship. Now America wants them back in control.
Now get this, America is funding the Syrian/Iraq minorities and worse trying it’s best to destroy Assad’s democratically elected government.
How forgetful–from AIPAC thugs–We need to destroy 7 middle East countries 1996 memo to Bill Clinton.
The Kurds are the best and perhaps only chance to defeat ISIS. The Turks’ treachery has become apparent by their recently exposed financial, military and political support of that pack of murderous subhumans. 40 million Kurds have a right to a homeland including northern Iraq and Southeast Syria. That land never belonged to the Turks – it was originally the ancient homeland of the Hurrians, the ancestors of the Kurds. The US should immediately being the process of kicking Turkey out of NATO, recognizing free and independent Kurdistan and providing whatever aid the Kurds need to complete the destruction of ISIS.
Without Turkish and Saudi help, ISIS would disappear in a month. This is conventional warfare and the rebels in this war are getting major supplies from somewhere. All indications are it’s those two, maybe Jordan as well plus some other Sunni sympathizers in the area. The US is providing aid to all of them so we are, and have always been, the reason the Syrian government is under attack.
Thank you. All the rest is bullshjt.
Wonder why Assad sit and watch his country being invaded by
Turkey and not declare war.
If you are traveling with a lot of heavy baggage would you accept more or forget it for the time being?
Have you ever researched how powerful Turkey’s military is and if USA would love war to happen?
Russia ain’t stupid to allow Assad to attack turkey.
While Putin is a very conservative and cautious guy, I expect he has a plan of action ready in the event of a Turkish cross-border “adventure”. He absolutely doesn’t want a war with Turkey, he wants good relations with Turkey. Erdogan is the problem, not Turkey, and Erdogan is rapidly destroying himself politically. So Putin wants to be patient and careful.
Whatever Putin’s response to Erdogan’s militant ambition, it must be “quiet” enough, covert enough, that it doesn’t scream “Russia makes war on Turkey!!!!” For example, a night time visit by a unit of fully-equipped Speznaz to the Turkish encampment inside Syria.
Or perhaps some of the most capable of Russian strike aircraft “loaned” to the Syrian Air Force for a night, and equipped with a buttload of cluster bombs.
More subtle even than that, a little “fly-over” by a Russian jet equipped with some of that electronic countermeasures gear that turned the USS Donald Cook into a floating doorstop in the Black Sea. Turkey’s modern army has all manner of electronic gear essential to their ability to fight. Fry their electronic assets and, without a shot fired or so much as a paper-cut, the Turks will be sitting there like a bunch of retards guarding a military junk yard. That’s the kind of masterfully unsubtle subtlety — pure humiliation for Erdogan, without a single Turkish casualty — that I expect of Putin.
We shall see.
I can’t help thinking that Turkey’s membership in NATO is going to come back to bite the US on the a$$ in the long run. Erdogan is proving that he’s willing to instigate enough of a violent reaction from the Syrians – or the Iraqis – to force the US to stand behind the NATO agreement to support each member nation if they are attacked. Little niceties like “who started it” will not be in the way for the Turks.
Have you seen how turkish military treats kurdish areas? “Civilians” are a concept they don’t understand.