Posted on 07/21/2012 10:36:19 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
After the Syrian uprising began in spring 2011, Ankara took a firm stand against the Bashar al-Assad regime’s crackdown. Turkey adopted some tough rhetoric toward Assad and began offering refuge to members of the Syrian National Council (SNC) opposition group. Turkey also provided safe haven to Syrian refugees fleeing persecution, as well as hosting some members of the armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army.
Simultaneously, reports surfaced that Assad was re-allowing the PKK, which Damascus sheltered in the 1980s and the 1990s, to operate inside Syria. In March of this year, for example, the PKK was accused of moving as many as 2,000 of its members to Syria from the Qandil enclave along the Iraq-Iran border, where the group has maintained its headquarters and camps over the past decade.
So, the more Turkey has increased its opposition to the al-Assad regime, the more the al-Assad regime seems to have allowed the PKK/PYD to establish a base in its territory to gain a card to play against Ankara. This makes a unilateral Turkish foray into Syria extremely risky for Ankara: Turkey would surely face a Kurdish insurgency if it were to enter Syrian territory to prevent the PYD from taking control of the Syrian cities.
But Ankara may not have to suffer the worst. Until recently, the PYD refused to join the Syrian uprising or the broader Kurdish opposition, organized under the Kurdistan National Council (KNC). But now, the KNC and PYD have reportedly reached a deal to unify their efforts. At the reported request of the powerful Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, a friend of Ankara, the PYD is said to have agreed to stop fighting Turkey, focusing its efforts instead in the struggle to unseat the al-Assad regime.
(Excerpt) Read more at globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com ...
Ahhh, It must be the half hour again. Another Syria story. NATO, Shrillery, Humma Weiner, and Obama really want to invade.
My suggested war slogan “To make the world safe for democracy!”
And we can call a NATO attack on Damascus in support of the muslim brotherhood and al qeida sympathizers a “NATO self defense operation”!
The disunity of the Kurdish militias means that there will never be any one policy - even in Iraq, in optimum conditions - they have two separate zones.
So I suppose that the Turks can never negotiate securely with any one of them. Another might pop up shortly afterwards.
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