Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intensified his denunciation of the Syrian Kurdish militia as “terrorists” responsible for this week’s Ankara bombing, and called on the U.S. to renounce support for the Kurds. The U.S. government refused these demands and said it would continue supporting Kurdish forces against the Islamic State in Syria.
Contents: Six Turkish soldiers killed in explosion a day after Ankara attack; New terrorist attacks cause further splits in US-Turkey relationship; Russia’s attacks on civilian hospitals in Aleppo follow the ‘Grozny model’
Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurds in northern Iraq overnight, as Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu claimed the terrorist who carried out Wednesday’s deadly bomb attack in Ankara was linked to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, a vital U.S. ally in the war against the Islamic State.
Contents: Car bomb attack on military in Ankara Turkey kills 28; Erdogan slams US, UN policy, renews demand by Syria ‘safe zone’
The volatile situation in Syria took a dangerous turn over the weekend, as Turkey began shelling Kurdish YPG militia forces in Syria, the same militia America has been relying upon as frontline ground forces against the Islamic State. Turkey is also a U.S. ally and a member of NATO.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan unleashed a furious rant against the United States on Wednesday, holding America responsible for the “sea of blood” spilled in Syria, and supporting other terrorist organizations while it focused too intently on defeating the Islamic State.
Turkey summoned the American ambassador a day after the U.S. Department of State indicated that Washington does not recognize the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) that controls large swathes of northern Syria as terrorists.
Ecuador is sending mixed messages to Turkey – summoning its ambassador in Quito in protest, while also formally apologizing – after Turkish security attacked female protesters and a socialist lawmaker attending a speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the South American capital.
A delegation from the international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), led by an Obama administration envoy, reportedly told Kurds in northern Syria that they have a “right” to an autonomous region during a recent visit to the country.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed Russia sent weapons to the Iraqi Kurds to fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
An AFP-Reuters report on Tuesday highlighted the difficulty of getting Syria’s many warring factions together for U.N.-brokered peace talks, as many of the parties involved consider the presence of other parties to be non-starters. Turkey, for example, has announced that it strongly opposes participation by Kurdish groups.
Hurriyet Daily News offers a remarkable tour of the urban battlefield between Turkey and the PKK, as Turkish tanks and infantry roll through the ruins of the southeastern city of Cizre, a majority-Kurdish city that has long been at the center of the conflict between Kurdish separatists and the Turkish government.
Vice President Joe Biden met with Turkish leaders in Istanbul over the weekend, asking for more Turkish help against the Islamic State and offering to assist with border security, while supporting Turkey’s campaign against the Kurdish separatists of the PKK. The Vice President’s remarks illustrated the delicate balance act between Turkey, Syria, Iraq, ISIS, and the Kurds.
“The Turkish government’s onslaught on Kurdish towns and neighborhoods, which includes round-the-clock curfews and cuts to services, is putting the lives of up to 200,000 people at risk and amounts to collective punishment,” Amnesty International said this week about the clash between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), particularly its militant youth wing, the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H).
In the long-delayed final act of a story from last summer, Turkey has released VICE News journalist Mohammed Ismael Rasool on bail.
Turkey’s Kurdish population is demanding self-rule days after continued violence has killed many Turkish soldiers and Kurdish militants.
Selahattin Demirtaş, the head of the pro-Kurdish opposition party in Turkey, will visit Moscow this week to speak to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and open a satellite office for his party. The meeting follows a tense several weeks in which Turkey and Russia have all but severed their diplomatic ties.
To the extent the fight abroad surfaced as a topic, however, a common refrain reared its head, leaving many questions unanswered: “we should arm the Kurds.”
The brother of Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), claims Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani turned down two opportunities to meet with the Kurdish guerrilla chief while visiting Ankara, Turkey to discuss the fight against the Islamic State.
Turkey claimed it would not remove troops already in Iraq, but agreed not to send more as it continued to work with the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
A Russian soldier crossed Istanbul’s Bosporus aboard a warship, waving around a surface-to-air missile launcher, an action the Turkish government condemned and has branded “provocative.”
While nominally working against a common enemy—the Islamic State (ISIS)—the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a U.S.-designated terrorist group, has occupied a number of Christian Assyrian villages in Iraq. The Marxist group has also invaded a home owned by a commander of the anti-ISIS Christian militia Dwekh Nawsha.
Fighting has erupted between allegedly allied anti-Islamic State groups in Aleppo, Syria, killing over 20 people in the past two days.
Contents: Russia and Turkey move closer to the brink of war; Turkish analysis of downing of Russian warplane; Quote without comment
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended Turkey’s defense of its airspace Tuesday evening after Ankara fighter jets shot down a Russian SU-24 warplane earlier in the day, with the Turkish leader claiming that the military was unable to identify the jet that was violating the country’s sovereignty.
Before an international incident that involved Turkey shooting down a Russian fighter jet Tuesday morning, which purportedly violated Turkish airspace several times, Ankara’s forces were also engaged in attacks against Kurdish revolutionary forces in the southeast of the country.
A teenage girl has become the first British citizen sent to prison for attempting to join the fight against the Islamic State. The young Kurdish women was convicted on “terrorism” charges because she wanted to “protect” all ethnic groups and
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, has promised to evacuate the Sinjar area of northern Iraq once the Islamic State ceases to be a threat to the local Yazidi population. This statement follows days of reports that internal disputes between the PKK and other Kurdish groups have stalled a planned assault on ISIS.
Contents: Burundi follows the genocidal path of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe; Turkey’s PKK militants end ceasefire after Erdogan vows to ‘liquidate’ them; Turkey plans major winter operations against both ISIS and PKK
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) ended its ceasefire with Turkey on Thursday after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development (AKP) Party swept parliamentary elections.
Yazidi militias organized to fight the Islamic State in Sinjar, northern Iraq are protesting that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Marxist terrorist group operating out of Syria and Turkey, have prevented them from launching a mission to recapture Sinjar City after the terrorists stormed the region in 2014.
The Turkish government is looking to increase its military cooperation with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, particularly in the fight against ISIS.
Contents: Erdogan’s party in Turkey wins landslide victory; How Turkey changed in five months
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has responded to accusations that his party has not made enough of an effort to eradicate the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) from Turkey by asking of his detractors, “Look at me, look at my face. Do I have the face of someone who would support ISIL?”
The United States is currently unsure if Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) fighters, who have reportedly received nearly 50 tons of ammunition funded by American taxpayers, will participate in the U.S. operation to retake Raqqa, the de facto Syrian capital of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), according to the Pentagon.
A dispute has arisen in Syria over the disposition of a fifty-ton ammunition shipment from the United States, supposedly intended for Syrian Arab rebel groups. The munitions were instead taken by the Kurdish YPG militia, according to both Arab and Kurdish commanders, although the Pentagon officially insists the shipment reached its intended recipients.
Turkish state-run media outlet Anadolu Agency is reporting that police have evidence the original target of the bombing of a Kurdish peace rally in Ankara on October 10 was the headquarters of the Kurd-friendly People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
Turkey has arrested upwards of 1,000 more suspects linked to the Kurdish PKK than to the Islamic State (ISIS) or Al Qaeda since the July bombing of a meeting of Kurdish socialist youth in Suruç, despite declaring war on ISIS following that incident.
A Finnish journalist has been accused by pro-Turkish government media of being linked to the terrorist group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after asking Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whether or not he is a dictator, as some have claimed.
Turkey has grown increasingly vocal, and even belligerent, in criticizing the Kurds and U.S. military support for their cause in Syria and Iraq. The situation took a disturbing turn when Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu threatened to attack Kurdish fighters in Syria, if they are found to be passing American weapons back to Kurdish insurgents in Syria.
