Posted on 01/17/2018 9:59:35 AM PST by Texas Fossil
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's dominant Kurdish party on Wednesday called on the U.N. Security Council to act quickly to ensure the safety of Kurdish-controlled territories in the country's north, including an enclave that Turkey has threatened to attack.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will launch a military offensive in the coming days against territories controlled by the dominant Syrian Kurdish militia in northwestern and eastern Syria, and in particular the enclave of Afrin, where an estimated 1 million people live.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
We have seen how receptive they have been in the past. Lets hope this is avoidable.
Pray for peace in Syria.
The Kurds would probably be better off asking POTUS for help instead of the UN.
Russia & the US should jointly do some serious Turkish ass-kicking if they invade/attack our Kurdish allies. Who the hell invited the Islamist Erdogan Turks into Syria anyhow?
“Russia & the US should jointly do some serious Turkish ass-kicking if they invade/attack our Kurdish allies.”
The threat of that is what stopped the Turks the last time, when they were moving on Manbij. I doubt that the Turks have given up on their objective to push the Kurds back over to the East Bank of the Euphrates - the goal of their original Operation Euphrates Shield.
Recent Turkish statements (through press outlets they control), seem to indicate that they have negotiated the tacit permission of the Russians this time. Maybe that is just in English, for American consumption - I don’t know.
“Russia & the US should jointly do some serious Turkish ass-kicking if they invade/attack our Kurdish allies. Who the hell invited the Islamist Erdogan Turks into Syria anyhow?”
I totally agree. If Turkey and Stumpy Erdogan are stupid enough to invade Syria then America annihilation of Turkish troops in Syria will not be a violation of NATO.
Turkey and the Kurds during the early days of WWI were both guilty if heinous war crimes against civilian populations i.e. the slaughter of Armenians by Turks and Kurds in Asia Minor in 1915. Among the atrocities - Thousands of Christian girls were crucified.
Of course, one must also be mindful that the Austro-Hungarian empire forces responded to Archduke Ferdinand’ assassination with the brutality customary to that regime, in their much despised Balkan territories. Strangulation by wire on tippy-toes of civilian populations in various cities was a favorite past time in proving their point that they were in fact, in charge after Ferdinand was Assassinated.
If one has never seriously studied the early days of World War I, I would highly recommend it as it shows a brutality somewhat obscured and relatively unknown in the histories that mark that Period.
No, I think that is correct.
Nobody did. Just like in Iraq.
I think that has already happened.
If the rumors that I’ve recently read are true, he has certainly helped them by new weapons supplied to them.
Afrin Canton is only about ten miles across, and now Turkey has been able to move artillery and armor up to its border on the Southwest, through Idlib Province in Syria. So all of Afrin is under Turkish artillery range, and the Turks could attack from three sides.
There is no land line of communication to resupply Afrin (except through Syrian controlled territory). The only resupply that the West could provide would be by air, or through Kurdish smugglers.
If the Kurds lose, they (and their families) will have to deal with the depredations of the jihadi mercenary militias that Turkey is using (former ISIS and similar types) in that area.
The Syrians/Russians/Iranians might be willing to trade off Afrin to the Turks, in exchange for Idlib, or just to reduce Kurdish or American influence. Also, Turkey might just be using the threat of invasion, as leverage to get the Americans to pull back on their train and equip policy for the SDF (the establishment of a permanent Border Force).
I don’t believe the US will abandon the Kurds.
I don’t believe anyone considers Erdogan an ally. Not even Iran.
I’ve already seen 2 Turkish tanks in flames for attempting incursion into Afrin (Efrin). Saw video of TOW used to kill it.
With what has reported to have been given to them, aircraft are exposed too. There were 2 helicopters shot down in Turkey by the PKK.
I remember how great Turkey did in Al Bab (sarcasm). It was said they lost 50 tanks trying to take the town before they made a deal with the Jihadi’s.
We wait.
Maybe they are bluffing, or maybe they are really just going to send their jihadis in, without the regular Army to inflict costs.
From their statements though, it sounds like they are justifying sending the regular Army in. Facing a bunch of anti-tank and anti-air missiles, will be different than Turkey’s many other incursions in the past - it could be a fiasco, hard to stomach at home, or by the military.
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