ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s semi-official Anadolu news agency reported that the People’s Protection Units (YPG) were backed by Russian aircraft Saturday in an advance into the Azaz region of Syria near the Turkish border. Russian warplanes have reportedly facilitated the advance of YPG fighters by carrying out three airstrikes against the road linking the district with the Bab al Salameh border checkpoint.
Anadolu also reported that last week Russian aircraft bombed opposition forces in eastern Syria’s Deir Cemal and Meryemeyn in an effort to open corridors for the YPG and Syrian Democratic Forces.
Turkey’s National Security Council in October denounced a new self-proclaimed Kurdish enclave in Syria – Tal Abyad, or Gire Spi – and called on the international community to condemn the YPG as terrorists. Turkey has called the region of Tal Abyad “a campaign to change the demographic make-up of northern Syria.”
Turkey’s council assembled after representatives of ethnic communities in the now Kurdish-controlled city of Tal Abyad met Wednesday to declare the region autonomous. Control of the region is significant for the YPG because it links together many predominantly Kurdish villages in northern Syrian.
Turkey has warned the United States and Russia it will not tolerate any Kurdish region to be held by the PKK, which is deemed a terrorist group by NATO.
“This is clear cut for us and there is no joking about it,” a Turkish official told Reuters in October.
Turkey fears advances by Kurdish forces on the Syrian side of its 900 km (560-mile) border will fuel separatist ambitions among Kurds in its own southeastern territories. But Washington has supported YPG fighters as an effective force in combating Islamic State, Reuters added.
The rules may now have changed. The YPG has still not pushed west of the Euphrates, but along with its allies, and with the help of Russian strikes, the SDF are threatening Turkey-backed opposition groups in another key border crossing, Kilis, west of Jarablous. Can Turkey and Russia resolve their dispute?
Losing control of the northern countryside of Aleppo would be a setback for the opposition. Turkey, too, would lose influence.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be eyeing an even bigger victory. He called on the Assad government and the political wing of the YPG to unite. This has still not happened - at least not officially.
But Syrian Kurdish officials have said they are ready to work with anyone fighting ISIL, and anyone who works for a united, secular and democratic Syria.
Such an alliance would change the battlefield and the balance of power on the ground.
What did Turkey expect? Russia can just freeze Turkey's interests out in Syria.
The Turkmens will get pushed towards the margins. Kurds will get a stronger hand. Turkish influence will be minimal. All for the international publicity stunt.
On December 08 2015 04:12 Sent. wrote: How come Russians are supporting Kurds and Assad simultaneously? Aren't they enemies?
Assad is fully dependent upon Russia for survival and Russia is really pissed off at Turkey. Turkey hates Kurds, Russia has the clout to increase the power of the Kurds at Turkey's expense and make Assad swallow it.
On December 08 2015 04:12 Sent. wrote: How come Russians are supporting Kurds and Assad simultaneously? Aren't they enemies?
Putin is supporting kurds because he is pissed at turkey. Russians are supporting Assad because if assad wins with russian support, Putin will have some major influence in the area.
Assad and Kurds aren't active enemies currently, as ISIS is lodged in between them, so they can't really fight each other, and they both really dislike ISIS. An alliance between Assad and Kurds isn't completely outside of the possible either, with an agreement on some sort of semi-autonomous kurdish state inside of syria, which might be fine for both of them.
On December 08 2015 04:12 Sent. wrote: How come Russians are supporting Kurds and Assad simultaneously? Aren't they enemies?
Assad is fully dependent upon Russia for survival and Russia is really pissed off at Turkey. Turkey hates Kurds, Russia has the clout to increase the power of the Kurds at Turkey's expense and make Assad swallow it.
I think you are way overestimating Russia's importance in supporting Assad. Iran together with Hezbollah have been way more important for his survival.
Kurdish gains have also been largely off the back of Western support, Russia only joined the action very recently.
On December 08 2015 04:12 Sent. wrote: How come Russians are supporting Kurds and Assad simultaneously? Aren't they enemies?
Assad is fully dependent upon Russia for survival and Russia is really pissed off at Turkey. Turkey hates Kurds, Russia has the clout to increase the power of the Kurds at Turkey's expense and make Assad swallow it.
I think you are way overestimating Russia's importance in supporting Assad. Iran together with Hezbollah have been way more important for his survival.
Kurdish gains have also been largely off the back of Western support, Russia only joined the action very recently.
Still, the recent Russian maneuvers are of course an obvious move to step on Turkey's toes. No way there would have been Russian support for the Kurds before the recent tensions.
On December 08 2015 04:12 Sent. wrote: How come Russians are supporting Kurds and Assad simultaneously? Aren't they enemies?
Assad is fully dependent upon Russia for survival and Russia is really pissed off at Turkey. Turkey hates Kurds, Russia has the clout to increase the power of the Kurds at Turkey's expense and make Assad swallow it.
I think you are way overestimating Russia's importance in supporting Assad. Iran together with Hezbollah have been way more important for his survival.
Kurdish gains have also been largely off the back of Western support, Russia only joined the action very recently.
Still, the recent Russian maneuvers are of course an obvious move to step on Turkey's toes. No way there would have been Russian support for the Kurds before the recent tensions.
I agree, that is most likely the case. What Turks would get really upset about is more weapons for Kurds though. I wonder if Russia is gonna do that.
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ordered the country’s air force to go on alert after the Ankara government ignored Baghdad’s recent warnings to withdraw Turkish troops from Northern Iraq.
Turkey sent approximately 130-150 soldiers to Northern Iraq on Friday. Turkey claims that its forces that are deployed near the city of Mosul are tasked with training Peshmerga, which has been involved in the fight against Daesh, also known as ISIL. Ankara has not received or even asked Baghdad’s permission for dispatching its troops to Northern Iraq. The Turkish troops crossed the border even without any coordination or knowledge of Iraq.
Al-Abadi’s order comes after the Iraqi National Security Council in a statement on Sunday warned that if Turkey does not call for withdrawal of its troops from Nineveh province in Northern Iraq, Baghdad reserves the right for using any option against Ankara.
Earlier today, Al-Abadi said Baghdad may use all the available options, including an address to the UN Security Council, if Turkey fails to withdraw its troops from northern Iraq within 48 hours.
“Iraq has the right to use all available options, including resorting to the UN Security Council in the absence of the withdrawal of these forces within 48 hours,” Abadi said in a statement following the National Security Council meeting.
According to the prime minister, the deployment of hundreds of Turkish servicemen on the Iraqi territory without the consent and knowledge of the Iraqi authorities is a violation of sovereignty and a breach of the principles of good neighborliness.
Earlier on Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkish troops were deployed in Iraq on the country’s Defense Ministry invitation.
Earlier today, Head of Iraq’s Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri said his forces are fully prepared to launch strikes at the US military bases and Turkish troops in Iraq.
“We will target all the military bases of the US in Iraq,” the Arabic-language al-Mosle news website quoted al-Ameri as saying in reaction to the US interferences in Iraq.
He, meantime, pointed to Turkey’s interferences in Iraq, and said, “The Turkish government should know that we will destroy all its tanks if it does not withdraw from the city of Mosul.”
Updated: Baghdad government debating calling for Russian Aerospace Forces intervention to block construction of this facility if United Nations Security Council fails to act quickly. US Special Forces presence on new base reported.
TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkey is building an airbase in Northern Iraq without the knowledge of the central government in Baghdad, images show. Turkey will be bringing in newly supplied NATO air defense systems to defend against counter-attacks launched by the Baghdad government. The base will not only supply air cover for ISIS operations against the Syrian and Iraqi government but provide logistics support for ISIS fighters as well.
Images taken by field sources in Iraq display construction of an illegal airbase named ‘Bamerne’ by the Turkish army in Northern Iraq.
ps: overall, i don't know what to make of that site; it looks alarmist but i can't say that they're lying. they seem somewhat pro-russian and anti IS(obv).
Edit: is that airbase in range of the russian S400?, 'cause they would be able to blow any airplane out of the sky.
Turkey says it will not withdraw hundreds of soldiers who arrived last week at a base in northern Iraq despite being ordered by Baghdad to pull them out within 48 hours.
The sudden arrival of such a large and heavily armed Turkish contingent in a camp near the frontline in northern Iraq has added yet another controversial deployment to a war against Islamic State (IS) fighters that has drawn in most of the world's major powers.
Ankara said the troops were there as part of an international mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight against IS.
The Iraqi government said it never invited such a force, and would take its case to the United Nations if they were not pulled out.
Washington, which is leading an international coalition against Islamic State that includes Turkey, Arab states and European powers like Britain and France, has told Ankara and Baghdad to resolve the standoff, and says it does not support deployments in Iraq without Baghdad's consent.
The Turkish troops' presence is an embarrassment for Iraqi prime minister Haidar Abadi, under strong pressure from powerful Iran-backed Shiite political groups to kick them out.
Shiite parties linked to militia groups armed and funded by Iran have also complained about US plans to station special forces in Iraq to conduct raids and guide bombs against Islamic State.
Political pressure on Mr Abadi could make those plans more difficult to carry out.
if this starts a conflict and Turkey is seen as the aggressor(doh), would that mean an instant kick for Turkey from NATO?.
Turkey says it will not withdraw hundreds of soldiers who arrived last week at a base in northern Iraq despite being ordered by Baghdad to pull them out within 48 hours.
The sudden arrival of such a large and heavily armed Turkish contingent in a camp near the frontline in northern Iraq has added yet another controversial deployment to a war against Islamic State (IS) fighters that has drawn in most of the world's major powers.
Ankara said the troops were there as part of an international mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight against IS.
The Iraqi government said it never invited such a force, and would take its case to the United Nations if they were not pulled out.
Washington, which is leading an international coalition against Islamic State that includes Turkey, Arab states and European powers like Britain and France, has told Ankara and Baghdad to resolve the standoff, and says it does not support deployments in Iraq without Baghdad's consent.
The Turkish troops' presence is an embarrassment for Iraqi prime minister Haidar Abadi, under strong pressure from powerful Iran-backed Shiite political groups to kick them out.
Shiite parties linked to militia groups armed and funded by Iran have also complained about US plans to station special forces in Iraq to conduct raids and guide bombs against Islamic State.
Political pressure on Mr Abadi could make those plans more difficult to carry out.
if this starts a conflict and Turkey is seen as the aggressor(doh), would that mean an instant kick for Turkey from NATO?.
It is highly unlikely that Turkey isn't backed up in their actions by a western force and that it is playing solely on their own behalf.
“Looking at the detailed Russian timeline of what happened,” says defense analyst Pierre Sprey, “I’d say the evidence looks pretty strong that the Turks were setting up an ambush. They certainly weren’t doing anything that would point to a routine air patrol along the border. Their actions in no way represented a routine, all day long type of patrol.”
But if the Russians were in Turkish airspace, as the Turks claim, wouldn’t it be reasonable for the Turks to intercept them? There’s a little detail that’s very telling. This border-violating incursion was on the first run to the target at around 10:15. On the second run to the target the Russian planes were clearly further to the south. [..] The seventeen-second crossing of the border alleged by the Turks happened at about 10:15, but the Turks waited. They didn’t come in and attack the airplane that had crossed the border at that point. They simply sat and waited until the plane flew a long re-attack pattern and came back on a second run seven or eight minutes later, and that’s when they attacked and shot him down.
Between the fuel-guzzling low altitude of the holding pattern of the F-16s, which miraculously coincided with the flight times of the Russian airplanes, and the fact that they didn’t even chase the airplane immediately upon its alleged border incursion, all that smells very much like a pretty pre-planned operation. The Turks allowed the Russian plane to hit a target and make a long seven or eight minute re-attack pass and then came in from their hidden low altitude position. They came up a little higher to gain a good firing altitude, came whistling south, hit the Su-24, dove under the radar coverage at the same time that they entered Syrian airspace and headed north out of radar coverage to head back to Diyarbakir.
Such an ambush wouldn’t have been hard to pull off, because the Russians, in their detailed account of this, state very clearly that they had coordinated with NATO, with the Americans, announcing this attack well in advance, and had followed the protocol of listening on the NATO-agreed frequency for any warnings or alerts from NATO or from the Turks. [..] All the prerequisites for a setup were there.
The Turks made a big deal about the ten warnings they said they issued to the Russian planes. The Russians in their briefing, in their detailed briefing, are very clear and very adamant that the F-16s themselves, the attacking F-16s never transmitted any warning. Nor are the Turks or the Americans claiming that the F-16s warned the Russian fighters. But of course the international protocols for defending against incursions of your airspace require the attacking fighters themselves to inform the target—visually or by radio—whether it’s an airliner or a fighter or whatever, that they are now violating airspace and need to turn away.
The Turks do say they transmitted their warnings from a ground-control station. They also claim they transmitted those radio calls on both the civilian international emergency “guard” UHF-band frequency and on the military VHF-band frequency previously agreed to by NATO and the Russians. The Americans were quick to confirm that their monitoring equipment picked up the Turkish ground-station radio warning calls, but they’ve been careful not to say what frequency they heard. Now it so happens that Su-24s have no radios onboard for receiving UHF-frequency signals, a fact which is well known to American, NATO, and Turkish intelligence. [..] The ground-control station in Turkey probably did issue warnings, but they may have been warnings that were intended not to be received.
Turkey says it will not withdraw hundreds of soldiers who arrived last week at a base in northern Iraq despite being ordered by Baghdad to pull them out within 48 hours.
The sudden arrival of such a large and heavily armed Turkish contingent in a camp near the frontline in northern Iraq has added yet another controversial deployment to a war against Islamic State (IS) fighters that has drawn in most of the world's major powers.
Ankara said the troops were there as part of an international mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight against IS.
The Iraqi government said it never invited such a force, and would take its case to the United Nations if they were not pulled out.
Washington, which is leading an international coalition against Islamic State that includes Turkey, Arab states and European powers like Britain and France, has told Ankara and Baghdad to resolve the standoff, and says it does not support deployments in Iraq without Baghdad's consent.
The Turkish troops' presence is an embarrassment for Iraqi prime minister Haidar Abadi, under strong pressure from powerful Iran-backed Shiite political groups to kick them out.
Shiite parties linked to militia groups armed and funded by Iran have also complained about US plans to station special forces in Iraq to conduct raids and guide bombs against Islamic State.
Political pressure on Mr Abadi could make those plans more difficult to carry out.
if this starts a conflict and Turkey is seen as the aggressor(doh), would that mean an instant kick for Turkey from NATO?.
It is highly unlikely that Turkey isn't backed up in their actions by a western force and that it is playing solely on their own behalf.
that could still be a trap since they can not justify their presence on Iraqi soil. being backed by whomever doesn't really matter here; it's still an offensive move and NATO is a collective defense alliance.
Russia would be the perfect ally for the kurds. Especially if they're useing Grozny as an intermediary. Chechens would make good friends with kurds and would mesh very well in their tribal mountain culture. Why assert international independence when russia can guarantee your good treatment by local governments? Someone who will acept payment in oil for high end military equipment and more ak-47's then you can imagine.
bro how can you believe any nato country to build up an isis base inside iraqi soil lol, did russian propaganda blind you that much? please dont read such bs. turkish claim is iraqi government knew their coming, iraqis confirm but say why the hell you deploy that many troops there. both sides are right on their perspectives. central iraq is protesting turkey even though they knew turks were invited by them because they are simply iran-russian proxy and that invite was long ago before this conflict starts.
“We will target all the military bases of the US in Iraq,” the Arabic-language al-Mosle news website quoted al-Ameri as saying in reaction to the US interferences in Iraq.
He, meantime, pointed to Turkey’s interferences in Iraq, and said, “The Turkish government should know that we will destroy all its tanks if it does not withdraw from the city of Mosul.”
if that useless iran licker really said that he can try, i wana know where was he when isis destroyed all of his country.
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syrian kurds ally with russia they will lose west support and turkey be more hostile. there are some islamist chechens in syria under isis flag so i dont know how thats gonna work out. iraqi kurds will never ally russia because they already have ultra close ties with turkey, they recently defended turks on isis oil trucks issue. iraqi kurds are smart. they know that biggest oil consumer will be turkey and they dont care syrian kurds at all. they are my favorite in the region, no bullshit, strong army force that has no influence on their politic wing like pkk-pyd, strong economical leaps in short time, neutral position over pkk-turks problem, no maoist drama, they are focusing on growth and better relations even though central iraq bans all of their entity. not syrians but iraqi kurds well deserve a nation.
the isis base inside iraqi soil was the editors opinion on the issue; everyone could see that geez. the point still stands - if pro Iran+Russia iraqi officials tell Turkey to leave and they don't, shit doesn't look good.
that iran licker wasn't there when IS was destroying his country. large parts of the iraqi government were changed during the war. the pro US or US made government was changed with people+military personnel from the old Saddam regime(US backed sunnis changed with Saddam's shiites) 'cause the US backed gov. was about to lose the whole damn Iraq to ISIS(IS is sunni; 85-90% of the world's muslims are sunni according to wiki).
On December 08 2015 09:33 lastpuritan wrote: bro how can you believe any nato country to build up an isis base inside iraqi soil lol, did russian propaganda blind you that much? please dont read such bs. turkish claim is iraqi government knew their coming, iraqis confirm but say why the hell you deploy that many troops there. both sides are right on their perspectives. central iraq is protesting turkey even though they knew turks were invited by them because they are simply iran-russian proxy and that invite was long ago before this conflict starts.
“We will target all the military bases of the US in Iraq,” the Arabic-language al-Mosle news website quoted al-Ameri as saying in reaction to the US interferences in Iraq.
He, meantime, pointed to Turkey’s interferences in Iraq, and said, “The Turkish government should know that we will destroy all its tanks if it does not withdraw from the city of Mosul.”
if that useless iran licker really said that he can try, i wana know where was he when isis destroyed all of his country.
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syrian kurds ally with russia they will lose west support and turkey be more hostile. there are some islamist chechens in syria under isis flag so i dont know how thats gonna work out. iraqi kurds will never ally russia because they already have ultra close ties with turkey, they recently defended turks on isis oil trucks issue. iraqi kurds are smart. they know that biggest oil consumer will be turkey and they dont care syrian kurds at all. they are my favorite in the region, no bullshit, strong army force that has no influence on their politic wing like pkk-pyd, strong economical leaps in short time, neutral position over pkk-turks problem, no maoist drama, they are focusing on growth and better relations even though central iraq bans all of their entity. not syrians but iraqi kurds well deserve a nation.
Mosul governor demanded Turks to come there and train people.That training is provided to Mosul National Guards at the Bashiqa camp in coordination with the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government and the Iraqi authorities. Its not Turkish-Kurdish deal, it was US-TR-IRAQ-KURDS deal until iranlicker openly threatens both US and TR as if he could do shit. God damn some of these central iraqis are so useless that they kill every drop of my faith on them for future of Iraq.
WOW. WE FEAR A LOT. Is there any cars left on the table he havent played yet?
EPT
