Turkish forces have started bombing and attacking Kurdish people in Syria

Homelander

What is the role of the SAA in all this? I know they're not in a position to get into an actual war with Turkey but they're hardly happy with this and I can't imagine Russia is at all either.

Cheerful Spring2

The Turkish proxy FSA has been using ISIS fighters for years now to fight the Kurds. Turkey will use this blood thirty jihadists so their own army will suffer fewer casualties on the battlefield. Russia, Syria and Turkey will probably sign an agreement in coming weeks and Syria will regain control of the land lost to ISIS and then the Kurds. Trump basically handed over the part of Syria that would never be returned unless something like this happened. There no doubt this is a win for Putin and Assad. They didn't even have to remove the Kurds they got invited in to stop the Turks FSA from advancing.

Spencerfreeman

AMKC wrote: »

What is your opinion of this?

Me I am off the opinion that the Kurdish people just want to be able to have a state of there own so they can live as they want. They are no threat to Turkey and never were but a few years ago Turkey seemed to decide they were an enemy and started attacking them. It was only because of America and the UN wanted the Kurds as allies to fight ISIS that they stopped and now with all the American troops gone they seem to think they can force them out of there homes. I do not like Turkey and I do not like Erdogan either he is a dictator.

They've been at it since their land was stolen 100+ years ago.

Odhinn

Spencerfreeman wrote: »

They've been at it since their land was stolen 100+ years ago.

Ultimately the ones to blame for the mess are the Brits and the French, who carved up the middle east according to their own devices, regardless of the ethnic, cultural, religous groups who lived there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement

Odhinn

Speaking at a televised event in the central Turkish province of Kayseri on Saturday, President Erdogan said that if Kurdish fighters did not withdraw by Tuesday evening - as agreed in the ceasefire - "we will start where we left off and continue to crush the terrorists' heads".
The Turkish leader is due to hold talks next week with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. On Saturday he said that if those talks did not produce a solution, Turkey would "implement its own plans".

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=111547469

An ignorant thug of the lowest order. "buffer zone" my arse, it's a land grab.

jmreire

Odhinn wrote: »

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=111547469

An ignorant thug of the lowest order. "buffer zone" my arse, it's a land grab.

As things stand, it suit's Assad. But as he has already stated, he wants ALL of Syria returned to Regime Control, and has warned all foreign military's to get out, or face the consequences. So at some point in time, he will want to restore Syria to it's original boundary's,,,,,which will bring him into conflict with Erdogan and the Turkish Military. What will happen when when the time comes to push Turkey out if Syria....and come it will. At the moment, Assad and Putin are occupied with taking control of Idlib,,,but once that's done, they will be free to concentrate their attention on the "Turkish Buffer Zone".

Say my name

Just as an aside to the developments in Syria.
Turkey is also ramping up threats on Greek islands and on Cyprus.
The blood seems to be gone to Erdogan's head.

Jimmy Garlic

Gatling wrote: »

A fair amount of land that was given to Arabs historically was Kurdish .

Chemical weapons and a foreign military happy to bomb schools and hospitals two depots on one side and an unpredictable despot labelling all Kurds as terrorists happy to use chemical weapons and bomb civilians .

It's like being caught between Hitler and Stalin

Most of the Kurdish homeland lies within Turkey. Turkey will resort to anything including genocide to prevent the establishment of a Kurdish state that may sometime in the future make (legitimate) territorial claims. Afaik the Kurds history in the region goes way back, a lot longer than the Turks anyway who are relatively recent arrivals from central Asia. It's a sad situation and I sincerely hope that the Kurds are not the victims of yet another Turkish genocide campaign.

Jimmy Garlic

jmreire wrote: »

As things stand, it suit's Assad. But as he has already stated, he wants ALL of Syria returned to Regime Control, and has warned all foreign military's to get out, or face the consequences. So at some point in time, he will want to restore Syria to it's original boundary's,,,,,which will bring him into conflict with Erdogan and the Turkish Military. What will happen when when the time comes to push Turkey out if Syria....and come it will. At the moment, Assad and Putin are occupied with taking control of Idlib,,,but once that's done, they will be free to concentrate their attention on the "Turkish Buffer Zone".

Assad is no fool. He will do what he can to get the Kurds on side. The Kurds know that they can at least bargain and negotiate with Arabs and Persians, but not with Turks.

Cody montana

JUST IN: Trump Defense chief says US troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq.

The lies is astounding.

mad muffin

Cody montana wrote: »

JUST IN: Trump Defense chief says US troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq.

The lies is astounding.

What lies?

Gatling

Cody montana wrote: »

JUST IN: Trump Defense chief says US troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq.

The lies is astounding.

Said they were going to launch counter terror operations from Iraq in to syria ,

But not so long ago thanks to Iranian influence in Iraq American operations were curtailed due to claims a hizbolla base was hit with a grenade

Hande hoche!

Cody montana wrote: »

JUST IN: Trump Defense chief says US troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq.

The lies is astounding.

Sure better than them being sent to Iran.

jmreire

So Trump, on the advice of his Military Adviser's ( maybe) will move them over the Iraqi border.......and back again, if he changes his mind?? However you look at it...not quite the same as "bringing the Troop's home". I hope that he is a better chess player than Vladimir...

mad muffin

I was looking up stuff about the latest on Syria. And came across this very interesting article.

Obama’s Former Mid-East Ambassador: “We’re in a Goddam Freefall Here”


https://www.independentsentinel.com/obamas-former-mid-east-ambassador-were-in-a-goddam-freefall-here/

It’s very interesting. Was I stunned? No I’m aware of all that is in it.

Was I stunned by the way the Democrats have reacted to the current situation? No, not really.

I think Trump is doing everything he can with what he has to work with. He doesn’t want to start another war over this. Which brings me to another thing people are commenting on.

Trump said he is going. To try and stop endless wars. He’s bringing the troops home. Now everyone is piling on to the fact that he’s brining troops out of Syria but not home. Well he isn’t transferring them to a war zone. He isn’t moving them to start a war. But everyone is baying at the moon that he isn’t doing what he said he’ll do.

I’m sure that he has been having discussions on how to proceed in the best possible way, given the situation. If that means taking the troops out of harms way but having them situated to help and protect then why cry that he’s either he abandons the Kurds or he’s now not bringing troops home?

There have been several things happen.

The Turks will get their buffer zone. Don’t forget to the Turks they are fighting terrorists.

There is now news that the oil fields have been secured, and there is hope they will be used to help the Kurds.

US military troops are situated in a way that they can counter any ISIS threat.

There is also the situation that the Democrats and the MSM are just using the situation as another political tool against Trump.

mad muffin

Just listening to a show and Sharyl Attkisson was saying something very interesting, when asked about the situation in Syria.

“This is an important point, I unlike almost every reporter, journalist, and analyst I’ve heard over the past couple of weeks, am not a geo political expert, with a complex knowledge to comment on what’s right between Syria and the Kurds.

But I have found a very dearth of variety of opinions about the topic, and I recently spoke to a former Obama ambassador to the Mid East region who told me things… that just, I haven’t heard anybody say on television.

Such as… he was shocked anybody was surprised. He say… (this is an Obama guy by the way) that President Trump has consistently spoken since 2016, of his desire to do this. That the message on the ground was supposed to be, that we are going to do this. And this diplomat heard, Trumps own people, administration people were delivering the opposite message on the ground. Telling people we were going to stay there.

There are some serious problems with that, that are bigger than what we are looking at when you hear 99.9 percent of analysts in one direction.”

Which goes to show why perhaps it looked like they were caught out. Also goes in some way to explain why Trump fired Mattis. Since Mattis was determined not to exit Syria.

Igotadose

Uhh. Sharyl Attkisson is probably not an impartial source. She comments on all sorts of things she has no knowledge about, like vaccines.
Be that as it may, people are giving out about on the one hand, abandoning the Kurds, the same day while sending "mercenaries" to Saudi Arabia. So, considering that the mercenaries aren't going to be there, supposedly, to participate in the war, why are they there?

And Trump's made a mess of it in the endless Afghanistan war. The Pentagon's said they don't know how many troops are there, but the number's only going up.

So, in summary, Attkisson's making things up, and Trump's just listening to his handlers when it comes to Syria.

Limpy

Remember when Obama was lining up to lob missiles at Syria (until Ed Miliband/UK didn't support him).

His words were this wont be a mission creep. People are war weary (No boots on the ground) ect.
Yet the US (Establishment) still managed to do the opposite .

James Brown

McConnell couldn't give a toss about the Kurds. It's about keeping a hand in the region. Trump doesn't see the big picture or money in it unless he's told. Having said that I'm not ruling out Trump pulling them out being a part of some financial long game between him a Putin. McConnell upset troops being used for foreign profit instead of his.

Gatling

Putin and erdokan taking carving up Kurdish lands

Turkey and Russia have agreed what they called a "historic" deal over military action against Kurds in northern Syria after a marathon diplomatic meeting.

Turkey has been launching an offensive against Syria's minority Kurdish group near the border.

Russia, a military ally of Syria's president, had deployed troops to the region in response.

The deal says that Russia has agreed to allow Turkey's operation, removing the risk of conflict between the two sides.

It came just ahead of the expiry of a ceasefire between Kurdish fighters and Turkish forces, and it is not yet clear whether the Kurdish militias will agree to the terms laid down by Russia and Turkey.

Turkey considers the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia to be a terrorist organisation.

But the new deal agreed by Turkey with Russia has given Kurdish fighters extra time to withdraw.

From noon on Wednesday, the Kurdish fighters would have another 150 hours to leave the border region, withdrawing to a depth of 32km (20 miles) from the border - a so-called "safe zone"


The statement from Russia and Turkey says that Kurdish forces "will be removed" from the towns of Manbij and Tal Rifat - both of which lie outside the operation area.

It also says Russia and Turkey will conduct joint patrols outside the operation area.

Why is Russia involved?
President Erdogan and President Putin's private meeting lasted more than six hours.

Russia has been a key military force in Syria's civil war, allied to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Mr Assad's forces entered the border region in response to Turkey's offensive against the Kurds.

The Russian deployment had created the potential for clashes between Russia and Turkey - something Mr Erdogan and Mr Putin want to avoid.

"Russia wants to discuss the situation in the north-east of Syria, better understand what is going on," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov before the Sochi meeting. "We want to acquire information about Turkey's plans and see how it compares with the general plan of the political settlement."

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian military helicopters landed at the Tabqa airbase after US troops left, Russian defence ministry-controlled Zvezda TV reported.



A US-led multinational coalition relied on the YPG to battle Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria over the past four years, but the Turkish government views it as a terrorist organisation with links to a Kurdish rebel group fighting in Turkey.

It agreed to pause the assault last week at the request of the United States


On Thursday, US Vice-President Mike Pence persuaded Mr Erdogan to agree to pause the Turkish offensive for 120 hours to allow the US to "facilitate the withdrawal of YPG forces from the Turkish-controlled safe zone" . He also agreed to a permanent ceasefire upon completion of the YPG withdrawal.

Since then the ceasefire has largely held, despite what US officials have described as "some minor skirmishes".



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50138121

jmreire

Gatling wrote: »

Putin and erdokan taking carving up Kurdish lands

Turkey and Russia have agreed what they called a "historic" deal over military action against Kurds in northern Syria after a marathon diplomatic meeting.

Turkey has been launching an offensive against Syria's minority Kurdish group near the border.

Russia, a military ally of Syria's president, had deployed troops to the region in response.

The deal says that Russia has agreed to allow Turkey's operation, removing the risk of conflict between the two sides.

It came just ahead of the expiry of a ceasefire between Kurdish fighters and Turkish forces, and it is not yet clear whether the Kurdish militias will agree to the terms laid down by Russia and Turkey.

Turkey considers the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia to be a terrorist organisation.

But the new deal agreed by Turkey with Russia has given Kurdish fighters extra time to withdraw.

From noon on Wednesday, the Kurdish fighters would have another 150 hours to leave the border region, withdrawing to a depth of 32km (20 miles) from the border - a so-called "safe zone"


The statement from Russia and Turkey says that Kurdish forces "will be removed" from the towns of Manbij and Tal Rifat - both of which lie outside the operation area.

It also says Russia and Turkey will conduct joint patrols outside the operation area.

Why is Russia involved?
President Erdogan and President Putin's private meeting lasted more than six hours.

Russia has been a key military force in Syria's civil war, allied to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Mr Assad's forces entered the border region in response to Turkey's offensive against the Kurds.

The Russian deployment had created the potential for clashes between Russia and Turkey - something Mr Erdogan and Mr Putin want to avoid.

"Russia wants to discuss the situation in the north-east of Syria, better understand what is going on," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov before the Sochi meeting. "We want to acquire information about Turkey's plans and see how it compares with the general plan of the political settlement."

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian military helicopters landed at the Tabqa airbase after US troops left, Russian defence ministry-controlled Zvezda TV reported.



A US-led multinational coalition relied on the YPG to battle Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria over the past four years, but the Turkish government views it as a terrorist organisation with links to a Kurdish rebel group fighting in Turkey.

It agreed to pause the assault last week at the request of the United States


On Thursday, US Vice-President Mike Pence persuaded Mr Erdogan to agree to pause the Turkish offensive for 120 hours to allow the US to "facilitate the withdrawal of YPG forces from the Turkish-controlled safe zone" . He also agreed to a permanent ceasefire upon completion of the YPG withdrawal.

Since then the ceasefire has largely held, despite what US officials have described as "some minor skirmishes".



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50138121

Yes, but the question is, does Mr Assad agree to all of this?? When you consider that subject under discussion is the Country of Syria.....in it's entirety, which Mr. Assad had vowed to return 100% to Syrian control, and also bearing in mind, that Iran's involvement with Assad is not mentioned either.

riffmongous

Disaster for the Kurds now.

The article above is a bit confusing, it says Russia deployed troops? Weren't they Syrian Army? Ok you might say as good as Russian, but still big difference on the ground

MOH

youknowitstrue wrote: »

Its absolutely astounding that some peoples blind hate for Trump will not allow them to state that Trump pulling the USA out of a war is a good thing.
Only a mad man would wish for war , yet here we have posters wanting Trump to steam on into Syria will the full force of the US military.
Imagine in the near future that a united Ireland is achieved, the USA has sent Troops into Ireland to keep the peace, eventually the Loyalist terrorists go on the war path, The USA says Fxxk it, not worth one US death, you Irish sort it out yourselves, and the US troops go home.
The Irish Army goes to crush the Loyalist forces, well that Turkey now crushing the PKK/Kurds.

Wow! You're like some kind of .. I dunno ...genius!!! Do you have a blog with more similarly insightful comments?! If not, please, please, please start one and post it here so we may all partake of your incredibly inspired analysis!

Gatling

riffmongous wrote: »

Disaster for the Kurds now.

The article above is a bit confusing, it says Russia deployed troops? Weren't they Syrian Army? Ok you might say as good as Russian, but still big difference on the ground

Apparently as the Americans pulled out of their bases in Syria russian forces operating as the Wagner group flew in and siezed the bases for there own operations,
Wagner group is the Russian equivalent of Erik princes infamous Blackwater private military contractors

riffmongous

Gatling wrote: »

Apparently as the Americans pulled out of their bases in Syria russian forces operating as the Wagner group flew in and siezed the bases for there own operations,
Wagner group is the Russian equivalent of Erik princes infamous Blackwater private military contractors

Ah I didn't read that.

Aren't Wagner even much less thinly veiled than Blackwater though? I always thought they were nothing more than contracted soldiers told or asked to de-enlist from the military and signed up to Wagner instead to offer deniability, and a chance to make cash on the side.
Or was that also the case for Blackwater and I never realised. I always thought they were genuinely retired soldiers, purely in it for the money but with close links to the US intitutions for contracts.. rather than just doing it unofficially like I thought with Wagner

James Brown

The U.S. classy as usual. To be fair to Trump par for the course with them.

Trump said some troops would remain in Syria's oil fields despite a broader American withdrawal from the country.

"We have secured the oil and, therefore, a small number of US troops will remain in the area where they have the oil," he said

Outlaw Pete

https://twitter.com/mustefabali/status/1187033601906565120
https://twitter.com/mustefabali/status/1187033970850123779
https://twitter.com/mustefabali/status/1187034146650148866

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1187044861725286400

James Brown

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

https://twitter.com/mustefabali/status/1187033601906565120
https://twitter.com/mustefabali/status/1187033970850123779
https://twitter.com/mustefabali/status/1187034146650148866

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1187044861725286400

FYI, if you can't be arsed posting a comment I don't see why I should visit rando Tweet links.

Overheal

Random account of alleged Person blowing smoke up Trumps butt. What’s the takeaway there?

riclad

The kurds are under attack by turkey,
100,s of isis prisoners have ,
escaped , this leaves a space where isis can regroup and grow stronger .
It seems american troops are going to iraq and other countrys rather than going back to america .
A few weeks ago drones attacked saudia arabia refinerys,
drones are cheap to make and can be used by any rebel group.
Saudia arabia spends billions on weapons and missile defense ,
it seems no one has the tech at present to defend against
a dozen drones flying at low levels maybe a 100 ft over ground level .It,s moore,s law tech gets cheaper and easier to use every year ,
anyone can buy a drone with a camera on it on the internet.