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The Grand Turk
Erdogan vows to expand military operation from Afrin to Manbij
2018-01-25
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
confirmed that his country will continue to abort what he called "the conspiracies on its border with Syria" starting with the area of Manbij.

Erdogan pointed out that the organization of the Kurdish units and protection units are two sides of the same coin, and that external parties control them, and exploit them as needed.

Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson proposed the establishment of a security zone inside Syria at a depth of 30 kilometers.
Really? When was that? Turkey has been demanding such a thing for years.
This comes as the Ottoman Turkish military operations continue in Afrin, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the return of the Ottoman Turkish aerial bombardment north of Aleppo province.

The attacks targeted areas in the town of Jendiris and Rajo district, and other places in the countryside of Afrin.

Fighting continues between Kurdish factions and Ottoman Turkish forces supported by the Free Army factions on the north-west axis of Afrin and the mountain of Mount Semaan in the south.
An Nahar adds:
Russia, which has its own forces in Syria alongside Assad's remaining loyalists and Iranian-led Shiite militia, has lured The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
into a Moscow-led effort to end Syria's civil war, now entering its eighth year.

This is running in parallel to -- and arguably fatally undermining ‐ U.S.-backed United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
peace talks in Geneva aimed at agreeing on a political transition that could see Assad fall.

But Turkey and Erdogan have a role in the Russian effort, and are resentful of U.S. ties to the Kurds, and Erdogan appears to have entered into a deal with Putin to take Afrin.

Kurdish leaders told AFP that Moscow had offered to protect them from Turkey if they returned their area to the control of the Assad regime and when they refused, Russian forces withdrew air cover.

"Turkey has essentially the whole Geneva process working with the U.S. and even the Western bloc on Syria," analyst Merve Tahiroglu of the Foundation of Defense of Democracies told AFP.

Despite working with Russia's "Astana process" to retain influence in Syria, Turkey has clashed with Russia over the role of the Kurds -- which Moscow hoped to win over to Assad's fold.

Turkey's price, therefore, for supporting the process was dropping the Kurds, Tahiroglu believes, and Russia gave the green light for the Afrin operation after striking a deal.

This deal will likely involve some kind of a de-escalation agreement between the Syrian regime and Ottoman Turkish-backed rebels in the Idlib area, which in turn will free up Arab fighters to battle the Kurds.
Posted by:Fred

#3  As I just commented on another post, if Afrin and Manbij fall, Kobane is surrounded.
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056   2018-01-25 11:49  

#2  "Trying?"
Posted by: Skidmark   2018-01-25 05:37  

#1  Is he trying to piss us off?
Posted by: Raj   2018-01-25 00:25  

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