At a time when Turkey is warning the US to end its support for Syrian Kurds, the US and its coalition partners appear to be heading in the opposite direction. The US is reportedly building a new military base in the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani, right on the Turkish border.
The US has been backing the Kurdish SDF for years, to the chagrin of Turkey and its allies in the self-proclaimed Syrian National Army (SNA). In recent weeks, intense fighting has erupted between the SDF and Turkey and their partners in SNA.
So far, the fighting has centered around the city of Manbij, which is further west than Kobani but also along the Syria-Turkey border. Turkish military officials are quoted as saying they believe they are close to achieving victory in Manbij.
Not that the fighting in and around Manbij is actually slowing down. The SDF has launched artillery strikes against the outskirts of Manbij, and the SNA is conducting heavy attacks against SDF positions near Tishreen Dam, even further west.
Even if the fighting in and around Manbij is settled, that won’t be the end of the SNA or Turkey’s offensive into Kurdish territory. Kobani is clearly at the top of their list of targets after Manbij, and villages near Kobani were reported shelled by Turkey. The SDF also reported shooting down a Turkish drone near Kobani.
Turkish officials say their goal is to wipe out the YPG, a Kurdish faction which is the largest constituent of the SDF. Turkey backed the recent regime change in Syria, and their new Islamist leadership in Damascus is talking about how the Kurds can’t be allowed to retain the autonomy they carved out during the Syrian Civil War.
Where the US fits in all of this fighting over northern and northeastern Syria remains to be seen, but that the US is setting up another base smack in the middle of this suggests it’s going to be insinuating itself into the situation one way or another.
The Pentagon, however, continues to insist the “ceasefire” between Turkey and the SDF is holding, despite Turkey insisting the ceasefire never existed in the first place, and both sides are in open warfare against one another. For now, at least, this has prevented anyone from asking the Pentagon tough questions about what its intentions in the region are.
Support for the Kurds suggests splitting Syria and luring in Turkey.
One can only dream….but the most powerful is also the most cowardice.
The coward is the paymaster watching the slaughter from the sideline making profits.
Golden rule of Colonialists. Divide and rule.
Israel, Turkey, HTS in what used to be Syria. What could go wrong?
Plenty…!
Russia hasn't gone away either you know. They consider themselves a player in Syria as well. Assad or no Assad.
Don't forget the good old USA .
Send in a few more "good soldiers" so they can come back and practice their killing talent.
You'd never know the Kamala- Biden regime were just resoundingly defeated in the election. They're behaving like they won.
They are only dumping manure on the front door to make sure the Trump people are stuck with the clean-up and held responsible for the consequences.
Unfortunately for everyone they’ve been doing that for four years already.
They’re acting like every out-going regime — trying to get as much as they can of what they want, on their way out the door.
If your political agenda is repudiated by the Voters you should have the decency to accept the verdict of the People.
I suppose that might be the case if there was a landslide/blowout of some kind. This election was statistically a margin of error thing that could have gone either way if it had rained in some places and not rained in others.
Trump won EVERY swing state.
Trump won the popular vote by over 2.3 million votes.
Trump won 312 electoral votes to Kamala's 226.
This was not a squeaker. This was too big to rig. This was a clear mandate for Trump.
And yet when Biden beat Trump 306-232, popular vote by 8 million votes, it was RIGGED RIGGED RIGGED.
Your argument that Trump victory was some kind of “landslide” or “mandate” consists entirely of you liking Trump and not liking his opponent.
Can you admit that the 2020 Covid election was not a “normal” US election? We normally don’t send out ballots to everyone across the country whether they requested them or not like was done in 2020.
Yes, the 2020 election was not “normal.” And if Trump hadn’t actively discouraged his base from voting by mail — something Republicans rightly touted as even more secure than physical election-day voting prior to his tantrum — he might well have won it. That was something I had to account for in my correct prediction, well in advance, of the results in 48 states.
Was there fraud? Yes, there’s always fraud. Notably, the North Carolina 9th House district Republican ballot harvesting fraud that required a congressional election to be re-run — and may have knocked down the state for Trump, who ended up winning it by 1.4%.
Good luck with that.
Uncle Sam cannot resist sticking his member into everything that even remotely resembles a hole.
Uncle Sam has become impotent…! What happened…?!
The US is reportedly building a new military base in the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani, right on the Turkish border.
Doubling down on Operation Tripwire.
Maelstrom!
US knows if it attacks Turkey no NATO countries would come to help Turkey…!
An open question. Recall the failed US of I coup in 2016. We still don't have the lowdown, but most of NATO stood to the side, it seems.
Stating the obvious you are. In fact there was a request to expel Turkey from NATO not long ago (it did not fructify: Turkey is too valuable for the Empire).
The USA will NOT attack Turkey anyhow, that would be self-destructive for the Empire. What the Biden Administration is doing is setting a framework for the defense of Rojava that Trump will have to either abide by or to pull out from oil rich NE Syria.
US can afford losing NE Syria because… No more Assad… No more militia to fight… Syria is now semi stable… let's move troops back to the good old Iraq to focus more on Iran…!
I guess you’re right. But the peoples of NE Syria can’t afford it and they have proclaimed that they “won’t surrender” (recently watched at an YPJ video).
In any case, this is what the terminal Biden Administration is doing and everything can (and will probably) change once Trump takes over.
US would be around the block in Iraq if Kurds urgently need them…!
I doubt Trump can do anything other than helping Israel…! Deep State controlled him last time and they intend to do the same this time around…!
The USA failed the Kurds in Afrin big deal and that happened under Trump 1.0.
For some odd reason the Kurds who just want to live in peace with their neighbors (the majority) never seem to get any funding from the US.
It’s called Selective Support…!
I believe US funds Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan in addition to selling them the stolen Syrian oil…!
Yep, so we’re funding terrorists to attack our supposed “ally”. Does that make sense to anyone?
NE Syria is where the petroleum deposits and the best farmland is, allowing the Kurds to buy more US weapons. Until the Kurds get tired of attacking all of their neighbors and stop buying weapons the US involvement in the area will continue. Just like Israel.
You’re right but if Trump follows up and acts on his campaign promises like the last time we may see a different outcome…!
“if Trump follows up and acts on his campaign promises like the last time”
Then we’ll see almost nothing of what he promised, and mostly a continuation from the previous administration’s policies. He showed you who he was the last time he was in office, why don’t you believe him?
Ever absent from such news is "Far Right Nationalist" party in Turkey spearheading the move to free PKK terrorist head from prison, as we speak, possibly along w/all the thousands of imprisoned PKK terrorists, and not a single party or political figure uttering a word in objection to the plan. Is there a paradox here, Western parrots' chorus, or is there not?
Maybe they get ready for the next bloody civil war in Syria. All the vultures want a piece of Syrian meat.
Western audiences have null idea about politics in Turkey. How can they have any idea when they read exactly zero authors, books, or journalists from Turkey, except for the monopolist Kurds in all the UK- & US-established mid east sites? Turkey, object of arch-orientalism, is one of those countries about which you can talk from the top of yoyr head and pontificate left and right based on zero information about the place and the people. A simple Q: in what sequence was the 1st kurd prime minister of Turkey? Twentieth? Fiftieth? Fifth? Second? Do you know the answer? Have you ever wondered? And why have you never wondered? Do you think tbe Turks know the answer? How many kurds in current gov of Turkey? Do you think race has any markers in Turkish society or politics? Just ponder a little, parrots' chorus…
Kurds make up 20% of the population of Turkey and live throughout the entire country. The only areas where they face anti-Kurd racism is in the areas where their separatist terrorists operate.
The PKK wants to carve a never-before-existing 'Kurdistan' out of parts of four countries, ejecting all non-Kurds in what would be the largest ethnic cleansing since the Indian Wars of North America. OF COURSE the US supports them.
Plus–many other things, which I can only state in the form of questions bc precisely of the nature of the circumstances I’m trying to point out. Circumstances which have set me looking for a place to emigrate to, unsuccessfully, all these years…So, here’s the plus: If there’s a terrorist org in a country that has the monopoly of drug-trafficking since time immemorial, and then if tourism is the primary GDP sector of its economy, who do you reckon will quickly overtake this sector with highest Rent revenue, ie tourism? Who do you reckon will monopolize that sector, in which your revenues are determined at the rate of 35,50 Turkish liras per dollar? Continue: If Construction and Real-Estate are equally the high-Rent and primary sectors of the economy, who do you think will monopolize Construction and Real-Estate–ordinary citizens, or those who control the Drug Trafficking end to end, top to bottom? Continue: If Tourism, Drug-Distribution, and Construction and Real-Estate are all the rage in the coastal regions of the country, where so-called Turks are so-called predominant, who do you think will rule the local government in those coastal regions and cities, decent citizens, or those who monopolize Drug-Trafficking, Tourism, Construction, Real-Estate? Continue: If all the prime Rent appropriation (Land-Grab) sectors are monopolized by those who monopolize gun-traffickin and ownership and the monopoly of violence, as per terrorism, who do you think will run the central government of that country, its political parties, from the Left to right, including the “Far Right Nationalist,” including from its inception, and all the minor pseudo-opposition in between? Lastly–in the scope of this conversation: If someone who has swallowed down the Camel with both its humps, makes a pledge for a tiny little slice from the back hump of the Camel, what is it that he really wants?.. By ignoring the way all this has been unfolding in Turkey since shortly after the foundation of the country, the Western audiences are turningna blind eye to a dangerous virus that is beeing bred at our expense, and by VAST US & EU support and funding, a virus whose operations just may not be limited to our own annihilation–which is already here.
My 2nd response–in agreement to what you’re suggesting: I can suggest a short-cut to those who are willing to comprehend the situation I’m describing in below comment. It is Benito Cereno, the underread novella by your own wonderful Herman Melville…
My reply to you from several days ago does not appear here, I realize. Under these circumstances, I cannot nor am I willing to continue to call on folks to wake up re. the mind control ops erected on the skewed image of Turkey with which they "inundate" the media. Just notice, perhaps, the full agreement between the mainstream and so-called alternative Western media–present company included–on the image they paint and the role they cast for Turkey. As if Turkey were locked Japan of pre-1845, they assume that Western audiences have no way of accessing information re what is going on in Turkey right now (see my original comment here). The simple road to that information is to turn to any newspaper site based in Turkey and machine-translate the page. And see for yourself! The consequences for you involve more than a corrected picture of Turkey and the Middle East. It may present you with a brand new insight as to what you regard to be Western alternative media.
Why do you call PKK "terrorists" when they are very gentle freedom fighters in fact?
Where do you get the notion that Apo Öcalan or any other political prisoners could be freed?
Re you 2nd q: I did not refer to my notions. I am saying that the news is missing from this article and all other debate on Turkey on W media.
Re your 1 st q. Anyone on this site will see for themselves how much sense it makes.
That's a very strong signal to Erdogan. So far US bases in the NSF/DAANES were all located in the East and south, not looking to Turkey at all. It's basically saying that Kobani, and thus all the federation at least east of the Euphrates, is off limits to Turkey.
Of course in few days there will be a new government in Washingtonia and everything may well change overnight. I doubt Trump and Rubio feel obligued by any agreement that the current administration made.
You believer.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/u-s-reportedly-setting-up-new-base-in-northern-syria
What do you mean? That’s exactly the same base as reported in this article. Remember that Trump has not yet taken office, when he does, all these pro-SDF efforts will probably be squandered in favor of Erdogan and his fascist mercenaries.
Rump has never felt any obligation to honor any agreement or contract that he's signed in his life (although he seems to think that everyone else should).
Does it matter who is in office in Washington? It looks like civil war is around the corner already, so many vultures and each wants to pick the bone.
Just saw this: the Pentagon denies building any military base in Kobani.
"When it comes to US forces in Kobane, there is no plan or intent right now to set up any base. I am not sure where those reports are coming from," Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during a press briefing on Friday.
>> https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/030120254
Facts versus propaganda.
https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4021412/deputy-pentagon-press-secretary-sabrina-singh-holds-press-briefing/
https://www.npr.org/2024/12/31/g-s1-39955/syria-opposition-fighters-hts-military-us
I quote from your link: “There is — no plans to build a US base in Kobani. So, I’m not sure where that’s coming from”.
That is propaganda noise the moment Sabrina opens her mouth.
It is not only Erdogan who targets the Kurds.. The new head-choppers temporarily in charge of Syrian are slaughtering Kurds and Alawites like chickens.. Lurid vids and photos on Theync site.