Kurds Warn Turkey of ‘Big War’ With Russia If Troops Enter Syria

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: Bloomberg

Russia has promised to protect Kurdish fighters in Syria in case of a ground offensive by Turkey, a move that would lead to a “big war,” the Syrian group’s envoy to Moscow said in an interview on Wednesday.

“We take this threat very seriously because the ruling party in Turkey is a party of war,” Rodi Osman, head of the Syrian Kurds’ newly-opened representative office said in Kurdish via a Russian interpreter. “Russia will respond if there is an invasion. This isn’t only about the Kurds, they will defend the territorial sovereignty of Syria.”

Conflicting interests in Syria have created a dangerous new phase in the country’s five-year war, even as world powers struggle to implement a truce agreement. Turkey fears Kurdish gains along its border will morph into an autonomous state and inspire similar ambitions among its own Kurdish minority. But a ground intervention risks conflict with Russia, which backs the Kurds militarily, and would anger the U.S., which sees the group as a major ally in the fight against Islamic State.

Turkey has been shelling Syrian Kurdish forces since the weekend, and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed them for a bombing in Ankara that killed 28 people on Wednesday.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-18/kurds-warn-turkey-of-big-war-with-russia-if-troops-enter-syria

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Eye witnesses say one civilian dead, 3 injured in Turkish shelling of #Efrin.
https://twitter.com/jenanmoussa/status/700434363398299648

[nyabingi]

1. OK Obama, it's time to step up

and have a serious sit-down with Erdogan and tell him to stand down (and the Saudis).

The Syrians and Russians are running ISIS and al-Nusra out of town, and I would think the US should be applauding that.

[Akicita]

2. So now our allies, the Kurds, have to go to the Russians for protection?

What the hell is going on?

[Xithras]

3. The Kurds reached a deal with Assad last year.

Last edited Thu Feb 18, 2016, 07:02 PM - Edit history (1)

The Kurds agreed not to fight with Assad's forces and to help defeat the rebel groups and the Islamic State. In return, Assad issued his proclamation that he'd step down five years after the fighting ends and allow democratic elections to take place. He also agreed that Kurdistan would become an autonomous region within Syria when the war ended, giving the Kurds independence in all but name.

The Kurds aren't playing the Russia vs. the West game. They are perfectly happy to ally with both sides against their enemies, which are the Sunni Islamist rebel groups and the Islamic State (both of which have made erasing the Kurdish cultural identity a priority).

[Akicita]

9. That makes sense to me. I would add the Turks as one of the Kurds enemies.

[bemildred]

5. US Told Russia Secret Locations of American Special Forces in Syria

The U.S. with the approval of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has told Russia in general terms the top secret locations of American Special Forces advisor teams operating in Syria to protect them from Russian airstrikes, the top U.S. air commander in the region said Thursday.

"There are some areas we have talked to them (the Russians) about" where Special Forces teams in northeastern Syria have been advising rebel groups backed by the U.S. in the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Brown, the air commander for U.S. Central Command.

"We have talked to them about that" to limit the risk that U.S. troops might be hit by Russian airstrikes, Brown said in a video briefing to the Pentagon from his headquarters in Qatar.

In follow-up questions to Brown's briefing, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said the talks were conducted apart from the memorandum of understanding with Moscow on the "deconfliction" of U.S. and Russian air campaigns over Syria. He would not say who conducted the talks for the U.S. but said Carter was aware of them and approved.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/02/18/us-told-russia-secret-locations-american-special-forces-in-syria.html

Near as I can tell, we plan to hold Putin's coat and stand aside if Erdogan goes into Syria.

[potone]

6. What is going on is that Erdogan can't stand Assad.

He sheltered PKK leaders in Syria for years, and Erdogan has viewed them as a greater threat than ISIL. But I think he has gotten himself into a mess: he can't control ISIL, who want to take over Istanbul and have encouraged the Turks to overthrow the government. This situation is very complicated and very dangerous, and Turkey is now suffering from repeated and severe terrorist attacks.

[bemildred]

7. U.S. Spurns Turkey's Demand to Cut Kurdish Ties After Bombing

The U.S. said it won’t break off ties to a Kurdish militia that’s fighting Islamic State in Syria, dismissing a demand by NATO member Turkey, which blames the group for a bombing in the capital Ankara this week.

Turkey says Wednesday’s attack on a military bus, killing 28 people, was carried out by the PKK and its Syrian affiliates. The U.S. agrees with Turkey that the PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish regions for three decades, is a terrorist group. But the status of the Kurdish fighters in Syria has been straining ties between the NATO allies, as their interests there diverge after more than five years of war.

The U.S. says defeating Islamic State, also known as Daesh, is the overwhelming priority. Turkey has signed up for that goal, but it’s also trying to prop up rebels in northwest Syria fighting against President Bashar al-Assad, whose Russian-backed army threatens to encircle them. The Syrian Kurds are in position to cut off vital supply lines to Aleppo, where the opposition groups are holed up, and their territorial gains may also set an example for Kurds seeking autonomy inside Turkey.

At a briefing in Washington on Thursday, State Department spokesman John Kirby expressed condolences for the loss of life in Turkey, and praised the country for its contribution to the fight against Islamic State in Syria. But he rejected the increasingly vocal calls from Turkish leaders for the U.S. to choose between its ally in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Syrian Kurds.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-18/u-s-spurns-turkey-s-demand-to-cut-kurdish-ties-after-bombing

[bemildred]

8. PYD/YPG militants declare war onTurkey

What Turkey has been trying hard to tell the U.S. and the West in general that there can be no "good terrorist" proved true once again with a video in which militants of the PKK's Syrian wing PYD show their real faces.

Defended and backed by the U.S. and Russia, the Democratic Union Party's (PYD) armed wing People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorists have openly declared war against Turkey.

In the video recorded in Syria's PYD-controlled Amude, the hometown of Saleh Najer who is the perpetrator of the second Ankara bombing that took place on Wednesday, a group of armed YPG militants are seen lined up in single files, apparently before a training session. The commander, speaking to the terrorists, is heard shouting slogans and uttering threats against Turkey in an attempt to provoke Kurdish people living in southeastern Turkey.

"As the people of Amude, from now on, we will defend the rights of our people, using every means available as Asayish, YPG, YPJ and HPJ," he says in the video.

http://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2016/02/18/pydypg-militants-declare-war-onturkey

[nyabingi]

10. I think our foreign policy

establishment (which at this point are the same group of people advising both Democrats and Republicans) is so obsessed with seeing this regime change thing out that they are even willing to risk what could turn into a nuclear war, especially if Turkey and Russia start attacking each other (Turkey has already fired the first shot).

Obama's reluctance is the only thing that has held things in check so far and the foreign policy establishment is furious about it.

[Oneironaut]

4. This dumbass sounds like Kim Jong Un

Did he get 15 hole in ones recently while pinning a rhinoceros?

[roamer65]

11. Question: If you are President of Turkey and get caught assisting Daesh smuggle oil...

...what do you do?


Answer: You start a large Middle Eastern war to cover up your actions.