The Turkish-backed self-proclaimed Syrian National Army (SNA) has been struggling in recent offensives against the US-backed Kurdish SDF. Reportedly, now, substantial reinforcements are being sent to the outskirts of Kobani.
But perhaps more significantly Turkey is threatening new “cross-border” operations against the SDF. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan insisted Tuesday that Turkey would do whatever is necessary against the Kurds, up to and including military operations.
Turkey has been building up its military presence on the Syrian border for weeks, while demanding the Kurds disarm and that the US stop backing the Kurds in general. Concurrently, Turkey has carried out artillery and drone strikes against Kurdish targets.
Turkey’s drone strikes seems to be focused on an attempt to prevent the SDF from sending reinforcements into the area, particularly around the Tishreen Dam. Drones have been attacking vehicles generally, including civilian ones, in this area.
Turkish artillery is also targeting the area around the Qere Qoqaz Bridge. This bridge crosses the Euphrates River and is upstream from the Tishreen Dam. It’s the bridge closest to the dam, and attacks are likely meant to prevent Kurdish reinforcements from crossing it west into the area around the Tishreen Dam and Manbij.
Turkey and the SNA’s military ambitions extend much further east than the Euphrates River, however, with aims to take Kobani and al-Taqba, and eventually to move eastward into the Raqqa Province itself.
The US has been reported over the past week to be setting up a military base in Kobani in support of the Kurds. Though the Pentagon denied any plans to establish such a base, images show a US military convoy heading to Kobani, and multiple concrete walls that have been installed around a key area within the city.
The US has tried to downplay the risk of military conflict in the area, despite reports that several hundred fighters have already been killed with escalation ongoing. The Pentagon has made references to a “ceasefire” between Turkey and the SDF, though Turkey insists such a deal never existed in the first place.
SNA is a genocidal fascist organization.
Beware of anyone who ever claims that Turkey is attempting to wipe out or genocide the Kurds, they're either lying or don't know what they're talking about. Kurds are one of the largest (if not the largest) minorities in the country, making up around 20% of the population.
In domestic news, on Oct. 21, 2024, government coalition partner "Far Right Nationalist" Party in Turkey, Devlet Bahceli, has proposed the release of PKK chieftain Ocalan (translates: Revenge-taker) from prison, and his invitation to lecture the MPs in the National Assembly, with a view to turning ex-PKK terrorists into civilian life, unconditionally. The proposal has met with full consent of all the political parties with representation in Turkey's National Assembly. The consent of the president and his party has been no less full or effective for being "tacit". The process has continued with PKK-extension party's MPs (is there any corollary in any of the Western nations, of an active armed terrorist org having MPs in National Assembly, whose salaries are paid by citizen taxes?) visiting the terrorist PKK chieftain in the prison, and returning with his DEMANDS from th National Assembly, such as release of 4,000+ PKK terrorists currently in prison.
The process has, expectably, shocked and baffled Turkish citizens, conservative and progressive, both, at finding they have NULL political representation in the only country they call their own.
That all this process does not make any news in the Western media, Mainstrem and Alternative both, should, perhaps, give you reason to think about, and read about, and then re-think about the politics, and economy, and society in Turkey on your own!
Such research may prove to have more in store for you than idle curiosity about a non-Christian country. Especially given that the Kurds' terrorist organization, the PKK acts as if it is holding Iraq, now Syria, as well as Turkey in the palm of its bloody hand, and with tacit support of Western citizens and loud support of Western politicians, Left and Right, and media, MS and Alt, I don't know what could stop them from rehearsing the same Land-Grab/State-Grab formula elsewhere in the world. Just lend an ear to what's going on in Japan these days…