U.S. condemns Idlib assaults, stands by Turkey: Secretary of State Pompeo

Reuters ^ | 02/04/2020

[BenLurkin]

“The United States once again condemns the continued, unjustifiable, and ruthless assaults on the people of Idlib,” Pompeo said in a statement. “We stand by our NATO ally Turkey in the aftermath of the attack, which resulted in the death of multiple Turkish personnel serving at an observation post used for coordination and de-escalation, and fully support Turkey’s justified self-defense actions in response.”

[House Atreides]

I really wish Syria would stop its invasion and occupation of Turkish territory. /sarc

[mrsmith]

Tough position for us.
Turkey has it’s Al Queda terrorists in Idlib.

[Mount Athos]

maybe I shouldn’t talk since I’m not familiar with the background and details...

But isn’t this orwellian doublespeak? Turkey invades Syria, and we’re describing them as being the defenders against the Syrian government?

[imardmd1]

Other references say the attackers are Assad’s troops, not SDF/YPG

[NorseViking]

And the difference is? Turkey and Pompeo disappointed by the fact that the Turkish troops are killed in Syria by the Syrian military.
If we were living in a sane World first question would be what Turkish forces are doing in Syria?

[mrsmith]

“If we were living in a sane World first question would be what Turkish forces are doing in Syria?”

True.

[Zhang Fei]

If we were living in a sane World first question would be what Turkish forces are doing in Syria?

The same thing that Russian forces are doing in Ukraine.

[NorseViking]

Hardly relevant.

[granada]

“The same thing that Russian forces are doing in Ukraine.”

.....

The same thing that American forces did in Somalia.

[granada]

Pompeo the pompous ass decides to stand by Turkey (the country he used to describe as “totalitarian Islamist dictatorship.”)

[mrsmith]

Without the “Harvest Of The Steppes” the Ottoman Empire just doesn’t count.

[dangus]

Any Turks who died did so killing for Al Qaeda.

[imardmd1]

imardmd1: Other references say the attackers are Assad’s troops, not SDF/YPG

NorseViking: And the difference is?

According to what is available to read, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) whose main military effort is the People's Protection Unit, is mostly Kurds (with a large contingent of sympathetic Arabs).

The Kurds are hated both by the main body of other Turks, who have been trying to kill them off for a long time, and by Assad for stealing his land. In 2015 the SDF/YPG started a successful sweep from Kobani south to break off the entire eastern part of Syria from Assad. They had to fight to keep the Turkey/Syria border stable, but they have pretty much succeeded in keeping Turkey out of their part of Syria,

While doing that, they swept south, keeping the Euphrates Rive that divides Syria, as their western boundary.

Last fall they reached and dominated Syria's southern border with Iraq, and made it their boundary, This part of Kurd-held territory was then joined to their contiguous holdings in Iraq. Now they call the whole block "Kurdistan."

The problem is that around Idlib there was a strong separate pocket of Kurds trying to stay alive. They had the Turks on the north (who wanted to clip off this part of Syria no matter who lived in it; and Assad's Syrian Army cutting them off from the rest of Syria. The Kurds' 2015 decision to try to keep that pocket has not been fruitful.

Wiki says that finally: (click here):

"In early June 2018, the Brigade For The Liberation of Idlib and Afrin, and the Idlib Revolutionaries Brigade where established."

Then, when that was failing,

"On October 26, 2019 U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) conducted a raid into the rebel-held Idlib province of Syria on the border with Turkey . . . based on a CIA intelligence effort that located the leader of ISIS. This complex operations was conducted during the withdrawal of U.S. forces northeast Syria, adding to the complexity. . . .The Syrian Democratic Forces and the Iraqi military also support the operation. The U.S. stated they deconflicted with Turkey, but they did not support the operation."

During this time the Idlib pocket of Kurds was acting as buffer between the big warring factions, But for the US, partnering with Turkey on the one hand, but on the other hand fighting with the Kurds against both Erdogan and Assad was politically untenable. So both we and the SDF got out, That was reflected by the SDF leaders:in their 2018 statement :(click here)

"As the People’s Defense Units (YPG) and Women’s Defense Units (YPJ), we assure the public that our forces are continuing their hard struggle against the [Islamic State (IS)] terrorist organization and are determined to root it out from northeastern Syria," the YPG spokesperson said, referring to the recently launched operation to take the remaining IS-held pocket in the southeast of the country.

"We continue our legitimate and rightful struggle against the Turkish invasion army that declares its presence in Afrin as lawful, and against the ISIS terrorist organization. Likewise, we confirm that there is no presence of our forces in Idlib," he concluded.
Idlib, a strategic governorate that borders Turkey and hosts over two million people, is the last major territory still in the Syrian opposition’s hands.

(Note: my bolding added for emphasis.)

Thus since we, the US, are officially supporting the (oil-rich) Kurds&Arabs/SDF/YPG (of Kurdistan) , but no longer officially in the Idlib region with them, we can officially be friends of Turkey as an "ally" (?) with our hands in our pockets regarding the ravage of the some 700,000 Kurds in Idlib.

That's the difference of which I had spoken. As a reader, not as an expert in the affairs of the Levant.>? But for the US magnates, I think the issue is still in-the-ground oil (even though we've known for a while that we've got plenty of it here, only not liquid).

[NorseViking]

Syria steals their land? I didn’t see any Kurdistan on map.

[Reily]

Part of historic Kurdistan is in Syria, so the Syrians don’t have far to go to steal it!

[NorseViking]

Mexico held parts of US. Contrary to the Kurds Mexico has a vast experience at statehood.
What are you going to do about it?

[Reily]

What am I going to do?
Why? Do you expect me to do something?

I was just pointing out historic Kurdistan includes some of Syria.

[NorseViking]

Historical Mexico includes some of US. I think US owes Mexico some action if it tries to return it.
Why Syria is any different?

[imardmd1]

It will be, if the Kurds can keep it. Right now it exista as a political division with agreed-on boundaries, but its not a fixed thing while their domination is still expanding. The U. S. of A. was kind of like that. Maybe still is. We have dipped into the Pacific and the Caribbean for territories becoming states. Until last fall and the Turkish ISIL incursion of eastern Syria, the northern and southern Syria, with the western being the Euphrates River from Kobani down to Abu Kamal boundaries of Syria, that was temporarily the land taken by the SDF. But now Erdogasn and the ISIL has been biting pieces off, so it’s shrunk some.