Tag: Turkey

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Chaos Continues With Turkey Threatening to Invade Syrian Kurdistan

Turkey’s President Erdogan responded to the announcement of the US intention to train a 30,000 strong Syrian Democratic Forces to man the Syrian borders with Turkey and Iraq with increased threats of destroying the Kurdish dominated SDF.

“A country we call an ally is insisting on forming a terror army on our borders,” Erdogan said of the United States in a speech in Ankara. “What can that terror army target but Turkey?”

“Our mission is to strangle it before it’s even born.”

Turkey views the YPG unit which make up the majority of the SDF as an extension of the PKK which Turkey and most countries have labeled a terrorist organization.  However, the US views the SDF as essential to destroying ISIS and stablizing Syria.

Erdogan has utilized the Kurds equal terrorist card numerous times to justify attacking them in Syria and elsewhere.  Yet, the truth is the opposite. It was Erdogan and his family who helped to create and protect ISIS through financial assistance, safe passageways, and emergency medical treatment.

Turkey views the rise of an autonomous Kurdish region in Northern Syria similar to the one in Iraq as an existantial threat.  After all Turkey has occupied the heavily Kurdish areas of South and Southeastern Turkey for centuries.  There are 20 million Kurds in Turkey.

All of this has driven Erdogan to prove that he is indeed serious. Reports from Nusaybinden, Turkey, which borders Afrin have claimed armored vehicles and soldiers now entering the Kurdish controlled area.  Afrin is an isolated enclave and lies to the West of the main SDF areas.  Yet, this first push if successful could very well lead Turkey to try for the main center of the SDF further to the East.

Turkish tanks rolling through Nusaybinden on the way to enter Syria. (nusaybinden.com)

 

With the SDF becoming a main pillar of Washington’s proxy coalition against Iranian expansion in the region, it is hard to see the Trump administration continuing to turn a blind eye to Erdogan’s behavior.

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PACKERS CORNER: “Palestinians aren’t willing to play ball with the Trump Administration”

People are still getting over the 8 day jelly doughnut malaise that is Hanukah here in Israel, but despite this, there were some developments this week.

And here they are:

-The Syrian Government continues to consolidate their control over more areas of their former country – specifically in the area of the northern Golan Heights. They are doing this with the significant involvement of Hezbollah forces – which ain’t great for Israel. It remains to be seen if Hezbollah will attempt to maintain forces in close proximity to the Israeli border and, if they do, what will be Israel’s response.

-The fallout of President Trump’s Jerusalem declaration continues to be unimpressive. THANK G-D!

– A few more arabs have been killed in violent protests over the past week, but nothing serious.

-Meanwhile, despite the fact that the arab street has not rallied to the cause, Abu Mazen, the long-term dictator of the Palestinian Authority (PA), has been talking alot of smack against President Trump and the US. Well, things with this President are slightly different than with those in the past. Therefore, it is being reported in numerous outlets that the US is cutting off all ties with the leadership of the pa, as well as encouraging others to do the same. It would seem that if the Palestinians aren’t willing to play ball with the Trump Administration, then they will be made irrelevant and ignored. Negotiations will instead be carried out with Saudi Arabia and other arab countries as to how to best solve/manage the conflict. If significant funding is removed, it is hard to see how the PA could continue to function much longer.

-Finally, the proverbial veil has been lifted and its now public info that Turkey is attempting to return to control Jerusalem. (In fairness, over the past 500 years, the Turks controlled Jerusalem for about 400 of them. Jews are in distant second place at 50 years). They are spending alot of money and sending groups of Turkish tourists – dressed especially religious and with propaganda supporting the palestinian cause against Israel. They have zero chance of success, but Erdogan ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Israel’s current position is undeniably wonderful – economically, militarily and politically, but Prof. Mordechai Kedar puts it better in arabic.

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Turkey Wants Jerusalem…Again

While the Palestinians seem to relish at being useful tools for the Islamic world’s obssession with Israel, the rage the President of Turkey has expressed “on behalf of the Palestinians” seems a bit self absorbed.  Was it not the Ottomon Turks who ruled Jerusalem for centuries before they lost to the British in World War One? What happened to their Palestnian brethren during that time, because as they say the Palestinians were in the Land of Israel for millenia.

The truth is and Turkey’s leaders know it to be true, is that the Ottoman Turks ran Jerusalem into the ground.  More than that, the majority population in Jerusalem at the time of Turkish rule was in fact Jewish.

Turkey cares as much as any other Islamic nation for the so called Palestinians, which is not much. What Erdogan wants is to dial the clock back to the days before the British ruled the Land of Israel and thus named the province Palestine, which was Western name for a province called something else completely different by the Ottoman Turks.

Erdogan completely believes and lives for the goal of returning Turkey to the zenith of the Ottoman Empire, including Jerusalem.  The problem is, everyone else see through it except for Erdogan, who is never content just being President of Turkey. Erdogan wants to be seen as a sort of neo-Sultan of the reformed Ottoman Empire recast as a modern day Islamic hero reconquering Israel from the “filthy Zionists.”

“Because it [Jerusalem] is under occupation we can’t just go there and open an embassy,” Erdogan was reported to have said today. “But, (God willing) those days are near and… we will officially open our embassy there,” he said, without giving any precise timetable.

Of course the chances of any of this actually happening is close to none, but Erdogan’s rant has a whole other purpose.  In the currently forming between Turkey, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Iran, it is Turkey that plays the part of the outsider who has at the last moment decided to switch teams.  For this Erdogan must curry favor with the Arab street and position himself as the leader of the Islamic world.




Although the Turkish embassy will not move to “East Jerusalem” anytime soon, Erdogan’s rant can have far reaching consequences in the region.  It certainly gives the Shiites a cause to rally around pushes those Sunni allies of the US into a tight spot. The more this back and forth drags on Erdogan can find himself igniting the flames of another intifada.

With enemies surrounding Israel and Turkey, Jordan, and others promoting a violent insurrection from within, the need to push back against the growing Shiite-Russo axis becomes all the more necessary.

Turkey’s role in the growing Shiite-Russo axis is not clear, but what is obvious is that Erdogan believes he is its rightful leader.

 

 

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President of Turkey: “Israel is a state of occupation”

In an unhinged reaction to President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday described Israel as a “state of occupation” which used “terror” against the Palestinians.

“Israel is a state of occupation,” Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul. “And now they are making use of terror and are bombing young people and children,” he continued. 

Erdogan was referring to Israel’s response to the firing of rockets into civilian areas from the Gaza strip.  He conveniently left out the fact that one of the rockets destroyed a kindegarden in the Israeli city of Sderot.

Interestingly enough, while Erdogan labels Israel an “occupier” it is Turkey that far outweighs most countries in the world in that category.

Turkey currently occupies half of Cyprus, Northern Kurdistan with its 20 million Kurds, and West Armenia. Turkey was also responsible for the Armenian Genocide that saw more than 1.5 million Armenians killed at the hands of the Turks from 1915 to 1917.

Under Erdogan’s watch, Turkey has grown into an Islamic centric country that eschews minority rights and champions Jihadism.  It was afterall Erdogan’s Turkey that was a key backer of ISIS in its early days by allowing thousands of foreign fighter to traverse the border between Turkey and Syria.  Erdogan’s children were behind medical supplies specifically destined for ISIS. It was Turkey’s backing that lent a hand to Obama’s decision to help prop up ISIS in its early days.




By allowing Turkey to take the mantle of leadership of the Muslim world and thus the “Palestinian Cause” proves the very point that Israel supporters have been careful to make over the past decades and that is the existance of a “Palestinian Nation” is nothing but a hypocritical trojan horse designed to destroy the Jewish State from the inside.

It would be best for the Arab and Islamic world to clean up their act before chastising the only country that may be able to save them from their moral and ethical morass and yes the coming crisis with Iran.

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Battle Over Kirkuk Begins, Turkey Supports Baghdad Against Kurdistan

The battle over Kirkuk has officially begun as Iranian and Iraqi forces enter the city of Kirkuk with US weapons gifted to Iraq for use only on ISIS. The Kurdish Peshmerga under threat from A1-Abrams Tanks now in the hands of the Hashd Al-Shaabi (an Iranian backed militia in Iraq) fell back to the city’s center.

Kurdish casuties have already been reported by Kurdistan 24 and Rudaw.

Peshmerga reinforcements have been sent from Erbil to push out the Iran-Iraq army now occupying Kirkuk and the oil rich region around it.

In a breaking development Turkey has publicly backed Baghdad over the Kirkuk crisis in a carefully worded statement:

“We are closely following the steps the Iraqi government is taking to establish its constitutional sovereignty over Kirkuk, the homeland of our Turkmen kin throughout history. Turkey will side with the Iraqi government in taking steps to ensure lasting peace and stability in the country,” the statement read.

Turkey has reportedly built up their defenses against the Syrian Kurds in preparation of their own assault against the Kurdish region in Syria.

Will US Back the Kurds?

Given that Baghdad, after years of US support has openly handed over A1-Abrams to America’s number one enemy, Iran, as well as after years of training with the US has now openly switched allegience to Tehran, US policy must change.  In order to hold Iran back the Kurds must be seen as the frontlines in stopping Persian expansion.

Given the fast pace of events in and around Kirkuk, the US military leadership has been reported to be meeting with Kurdish leadership in Erbil.  This meeting is a foreshadowing of preperations for a push back against the onlsaught by the merged Iran-Iraq army.