Turkey confirms attacks on PKK militant camps in Iraq: statement

Reuters ^ | 7-25-2015 | Reuters

[tcrlaf]

Turkish fighter jets launched attacks on camps of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq overnight

SNIP----

Turkey simultaneously launched ground attacks against the PKK and Islamic State in northern Syria

[tcrlaf]

Broke in the last hour or so. Turke I launching a Grund incursion into Syria.

Turkey is going after BOTH the PKK, which has been fighting ISIS, and ISIS???

[Paladin2]

Trump needs to come out for the Kurds and against the Sunni/Shiite B0z0s.

[4rcane]

Turk not going after IS, just the Kurds. Going after ISIS is just smokescreen for the Western audience

[DoughtyOne]

That would have to be my preliminary thought too.

Then again, is this reporting accurate?

Wasn’t Turkey pro ISIS at one point?

[nuconvert]

“The Iraq strikes were the first time Turkey had attacked the Kurdistan Workers’ Party since a 2013 truce.”

“But it seems Turkey insisted that strikes against IS go hand-in-hand with those against the PKK. That complicates matters: the coalition is working with Kurdish forces against IS and a fragile ceasefire with the PKK may now end, raising fears of renewed Kurdish violence in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has one eye on possible new elections in the autumn, hoping to court nationalist voters. A hard line against the PKK would help that.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33663005

[1010RD]

Spot on.

[bert]

this is part and parcel of sorting it all out.

the message is that if the PKK moves to the former Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan, departing Turkey, it will all work out.

The kurds of turkey can find salvation across the border in the new, the de facto Kurdistan, that includes no territory in Turkey

[CPT Clay]

Kick them out of NATO

[Lorianne]

That might well be true.
They have a longstanding feud with the Kurds.

However, this is just more factional warfare.
There are hundreds if not thousands of ‘tribes’ in the region that were NEVER formal countries until the place was sliced up after WWI (the Ottomans held domain before that). Many of the tribes fighting against the Ottoman-German alliance were doing so to gain independence from the caliphate. They never wanted to be subsumed into ‘States’ set up by the British-France (primarily) alliance.

So either way, not our fight(s).

These many small tribes have never settled their differences and have only rarely allied themselves to fight of bigger opponents. They are really too small for each to have independence, but that is their problem.

All of it NONE OF OUR BUSINESS.

[Uncle Miltie]

Turkey supports ISIS.

[sagar]

Turkey IS ISIS!

ISIS is supported by Israel, the West, and the Arabs. Each support for their own national interests.

Israel benefits from ISIS incursion against the secular dictator. Plus, it makes the region more Islamist, which is good PR for Israel. Up until a certain point, Israel benefits from ISIS.

The West loves conflict in that region for a number of reasons, mostly economical and geopolitical. It feeds the military industrial complex from which we all benefit.

Finally, Arabs support their more Islamist brothers... they fear and support at the same time.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[the message is that if the PKK moves to the former Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan, departing Turkey, it will all work out.]

That was the gist of the 2013 ceasefire agreement between the PKK and the Turks—move from Turkey to the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.

[Brad from Tennessee]

PKK KILLS 2 TURKISH POLICEMEN IN RETALIATION FOR SYRIAN BLAST [July 22] Two Turkish police officers were shot dead on Wednesday by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist organization in the Syrian border town of Ceylanpınar, security sources have said, two days after a suicide bombing in the region killed 32 people. The two officers were found dead with bullet wounds to the head in the house they shared, the security sources said on the condition of anonymity. Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Ziya Çalışkan, who represents Şanlıurfa, said the incident did not appear to be "terror-related," citing local sources. However, the outlawed PKK later claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the killing of the two officers, saying it was in retaliation for Monday's suicide bombing that killed 32 people in Suruç, which has been blamed on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The PKK said in a written statement on one of its websites that the police officers were killed at around 6 a.m. on Wednesday in retaliation for the Turkish police's "collaboration with the Daesh [the Arabic term for ISIL] gang." http://www.todayszaman.com/national_pkk-kills-2-turkish-police-officers-in-retaliation-for-suruc-blast_394244.html

[Fitzy_888]

Turkey’s Erdogan says will ‘never allow’ Kurdish state: media

ISTANBUL | Sat Jun 27, 2015

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted on Saturday as saying Turkey would never allow the formation of a Kurdish state embracing its south-east and parts of northern Syria, comments likely to anger Kurds as a peace process with Ankara stalls.

Turkey has looked askance as Syrian Kurds have made military advances against Islamic State militants in neighboring Syria, fearing that could lead to the creation of an autonomous Kurdish state there and further embolden Turkey’s own 14 million-strong Kurdish minority.

“We will never allow the establishment of a state in Syria’s north and our south. We will continue our fight in this regard no matter what it costs,” local media quoted Erdogan as saying during a dinner late on Friday.

(...)

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3316413/posts?page=6#6

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3316413/posts?page=7#7

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3316413/posts?page=13#13

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3316413/posts?page=14#14

[AdmSmith]

Turk not going after IS, just the Kurds. Going after ISIS is just smokescreen for the Western audience

Yes:

In the wake of the raid that killed Abu Sayyaf, suspicions of an undeclared alliance have hardened. One senior western official familiar with the intelligence gathered at the slain leader’s compound said that direct dealings between Turkish officials and ranking Isis members was now “undeniable”.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/26/isis-syria-turkey-us?CMP=share_btn_tw

[AdmSmith]

you may read this:

Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri, Saddam Hussein’s long-time deputy, was reported dead (again) on April 17. An audio message on May 15 disproved this. Douri was the implementer of the Saddam regime’s Islamization program in its later years and a key architect of the insurgency after the regime was overthrown, which helped pave the way for the Islamic State (ISIS). ISIS has now turned on Douri and his associates, but ISIS could not have risen to its current stature without Douri’s help.

http://www.baghdadinvest.com/izzat-ad-douri-isis/