Over the weekend, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanded that the US pledge “unconditional” military support for Turkey in the fight against the Kurdish YPG, a Syrian faction which has been the primary US ally in fighting ISIS.
“The only thing we expect from our US ally is to support Turkey with no ifs or buts,” Davutoglu insisted, reiterating the claim that the YPG was behind last week’s Ankara bombing, despite a Turkish faction, the TAK, claiming it.
Turkey has repeatedly demanded the US sever ties with the YPG, and the US has repeatedly rejected those demands. Turkish officials appear to be hoping that the Ankara bombings, and the dubious claims of YPG involvement, will force the US into shifting their policy.
With the US and Turkey both already condemning the Syrian military for its gains against ISIS however, the shift against the YPG would be tantamount to backing ISIS’ territorial claims in northern Syria, and leave the US with literally no allies in the region.
Severing ties with Ankara would be more productive.
Amen!
The Kurdish 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 advances.
http://news.antiwar.com/2015/06/01/reports-kurdish-troops-burn-arab-villages-in-northern-syria/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Protection_Units#War_crimes_allegat
So yes the YPG is displacing Arabs and is creating refugees.
Turkey has promised to the EU to take in more refugees and block more refugees from entering Europe. However, recently Turkey stated that they cannot afford to take in more refugees due to shortage of housing and has recently started to keep refugees in the Syrian border from entering Turkey.
Turkey is protecting the Sunni Arabs from becoming refugees.
Here’s a quote:
The Kurds commit ethnic cleansing, displaces Sunni Arabs and creates Arab refugees. Turkey promised to the EU to not let more refugees into Europe, and keep the refugees in Turkey despite its claim that Turkey does not have enough room for more refugees. The YPG’s forced displacement of Arabs might increase unnecessarily refugees.
And if Russia and Syria further “advances” into capturing more rebel-occupied cities, then even more refugees are inevitable. This is because those “liberated” cities are being destroyed by heavy bombardment. “Victory” and “liberation” only means that people will be inevitably displaced, creating more refugees that Turkey has to handle.
The U.S. should stop funding, arming and training the Kurds. Erdogan was right in saying 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; Kurdistan too may commit discrimination against Arabs.
Russia should not defend the Kurds. Russia should adopt a noninterventionist foreign policy when it comes to this Turkey-Kurdishtan conflict. Any intervention will risk WW3. (An indespensible complementary step is for the U.S. to stop funding, arming and training the Kurds.)
Russia should also not defend the Assad government. Assad is a brutal dictator. The Assad government detains allegedly those who oppose the regime or people are insufficiently loyal to it and some of them are tortured, raped and killed. Relatives of the dead detainees have identified them as everything from civilian activists, to journalists, to bloggers who criticize Assad. A 14-year old boy was imprisoned, tortured and killed because authorities found an anti-Assad song on his cell phone. A woman was tortured and beaten up because authorities caught her possessing a voice recorder. There are 50,000 detainees at any one time and thousands have been killed. The Assad army executed captured soldiers and civilians in the Bayda and Baniyas massacres.
Assad’s barrel bombs created casualties, 99% of the casualties are civilians and only 1% are combatants. That’s the civilian/combatant fatality ratio for barrel bombs. Of course the civilian/combatant fatality ratio different for other forms of combat. That’s why some statistics still show that most of the people killed are combatants instead of civilians.
Assad/Russia might be bombing the peaceful opposition, calling them “terrorists”, no wonder why barrel bombs are 99% civilians.
Because they don’t trust them not to be guerilla fighters for ISIS, Al Nusra etc or at least look the other way so they get the boot, Terrible but thats the grim meathook reality of this war
As usual, 3D Face Analysis correctly lays down critiques on PYD, Damascus, Baghdad, Daesh, Iran, KSA, Russia — basically every player except Turkey, which, as we all well know, is the humanitarian guarantor of stability and human rights in the region.
That Turkey has taken in so many refugees is, of course, not an act of political leverage vs EU leaders like Merkel (so that they, too, can come out in support of increased Turkish influence in Syria, i.e., the “safe zone”). It is also certainly not a calculated move by which the EU can be kept from critiquing Israeli tactics in Kurdish cities. No, Turkey is, like the Ottoman Empire was, the purveyor of peaceful coexistence between the peoples of the Middle East.
Compared to the noble politics of Ankara, the YPG/YPJ are indeed terrible people engaged in the most ruthless of ethnic cleansing.