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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Turkey Warns against Syrian Kurd Autonomy
2013-11-16
[An Nahar] Turkey on Friday warned that it would not accept this week's declaration of provisional self-rule by Kurds in neighboring war-torn Syria.

"Turkey cannot permit a fait accompli, there is no question of accepting such a thing in Syria," Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in televised comments in eastern Turkey.

"We cannot allow Syria, which is faced with major chaos, to disintegrate," Gul said.

For three decades, Turkey has been embroiled in a deadly Kurdish insurgency on its soil.

It shares a border with Syria and fears a de facto Kurdish state there -- similar to one already established in neighboring Iraq -- could provide a rear base of operations for Turkish Kurd guerrillas.

On Monday, Kurdish militia dominated by a party close to Turkey's main Kurdish grouping declared provisional self-rule in Syrian areas under their control.

The move raised alarm in Ankara, whose campaign against the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has left more than 40,000 people dead. It is currently involved in the latest attempt to strike a peace deal with the outlawed group.

The Syrian Kurdish militia, dominated by a PKK sister party, the Democratic Union Party, hold large chunks of northwestern Syria near the Turkish border.

The Syrian Kurd declaration was blasted by the main Syrian opposition alliance, which dubbed the Kurdish groups "hostile" forces.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition is dominated by Sunni Arabs. It has been at pains to keep the Kurds on its side in the two-and-a-half-year uprising against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...

Its main faction, the Syrian National Council, even named secular Kurdish dissident Abdulbaset Sayda as its leader last year.

But mounting violence between the Kurds and al-Qaeda loyalists -- who form a major battlefield force in the rebellion -- has sparked a deepening rift between the Kurds and the mainstream opposition.
Posted by:Fred

#11  Thank you for the excellent information, OS.
Posted by: Barbara   2013-11-16 20:52  

#10  Glenmore, I was beating this drum back before OIF started, in the codeword/compartmentalized world I was living in at the time. For whatever reason, there was top-down resistance to even hearing this message.

I've experienced resistance to intel due to "thats not how I think" (but is is how THEY think!), "thats not what I want to hear" (but its what the facts are), "That doesnt fit my plan" (so change the plan to fit reality), and "Your jsut an analyst" (I do this job because Im damned good at it - better than you are - so why are you ignoring my work product that you ordered me to produce) .

But resistance of this sort "Sorry, we don't even want you to give the brief, go away and do not mention this again" stinks of politics, payoffs and other stupidities that cause wars and cost military (and civilian) lives.
Posted by: OldSpook   2013-11-16 18:44  

#9  Без проблем
Posted by: OldSpook   2013-11-16 18:35  

#8   If we had a any sense, the intelligence services and diplomatic folks would have been laying the groundwork for this for a decade.

A big 'if' at anytime, and an impossible one now.
Posted by: Glenmore   2013-11-16 18:32  

#7  Excellent Briefing OldSpook, reminds me of my Morning Briefing days back in the company.

Dobra, Dobra, Ochin Harasho !


Posted by: Phusoger Prince of the Lichtensteiners7911   2013-11-16 18:13  

#6  And there you have it: Why Turks dont want the Kurds to have independance, and why the repress them: The Turks are taking the gas and oil, keeping the money, and repressing the Kurds to do so.
Posted by: OldSpook   2013-11-16 18:04  

#5  Oil and gas wells in Turkey

Posted by: OldSpook   2013-11-16 18:03  

#4  
Posted by: OldSpook   2013-11-16 17:59  

#3  Note: this is not an endorsement of the Peshmerga and other communist style guerillas. But one should note well that the Kurds despise Al Qaeda nearly as much as we do. and have a serious axe to grind with Baathists (Syria, formerly Iraq as well), and Persians (Iran), and the Turks for the severe discrimination and active repression of Kurds inside their borders.

Kurdistan scares the crap out of the Turks, and for good reason -- a large portion of Turkey in the south and west is majority Kurd, and has been systematically repressed for decades. These folks have seen how liberty works with their cousins in Iraq, and if Kurdistan comes into existence in Syria, that means even more pressure in Turkey and Iran.
Posted by: OldSpook   2013-11-16 17:54  

#2  Pardon my rather bare language, but... Fuck the Turks. They have been repressing the Kurds for a long time. Kurds have been among the best friend US forces had in that region. They let the 173rd land unopposed when the Turks denied the 3rd ID access to their ports back when OIF started. Kurdistan would be a valuable ally if it were carved out of parts of Turjey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. And because of those neighbors they would naturally gravitate towards Jordan as an Arab ally, and definitely want the US as an ally - from the no-fly zone through OIF, the US has helped the kurds,and vice versa. If we had a any sense, the intelligence services and diplomatic folks would have been laying the groundwork for this for a decade. Bush and Obama have both missed a great opportunity at reshaping the central middle east.
Posted by: OldSpook   2013-11-16 17:49  

#1  Maybe Kurdistan is on the horizon?

But there will be a lot of blood spilled before that happens. Too bad Champ would never lift a finger to help the downtrodden Kurdish people achieve their right of self-determination.
Posted by: Bobby   2013-11-16 11:17  

00:00