Turkey's Phony War on ISIS

[hipeter924]

So after toppling Qaddafi so Al Qaeda and ISIS could take over large parts of Libya, and aiding 'rebels' in their attempts to topple Assad - which in turn created ISIS, we are now supporting Turkey's attempts to wipe out the Kurds - which will only aid ISIS in taking more of Iraq and Syria.

But the worst part is that they aren't even doing a thing to stop ISIS, and are only targeting Kurds, Kurdish civilians, and the PKK.

They are just doing a few token attacks against ISIS as political cover, as their real plan is to crush the Kurds: Turkey Attacks Kurds under Anti-ISIS Cover - Armenian Weekly

On Wed., July 22, U.S. President Barrack Obama and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan got on the phone and struck a deal to carry out airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Since then, the Western press has been full of adulation for Turkey, claiming that it has finallyovercome its reluctance to act against the Islamic State, realized that ISIS has to be dealt with, and has joined forces with the U.S. in the fight against extremism.

There is only one problem with this story: The main target of Turkey’s offensive has not been ISIS but, rather, the sole force in the region that has proven effective in combating ISIS—the Kurds.

Since the start of Turkish air strikes this past weekend, only three ISIS targets have been hit (reportedly damaging some vehicles). Meanwhile, 75 warplanes have hit 48 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq, and Syrian Kurds have reported similar attacks on their unitsacross the border.

“Instead of targeting ISIS terrorists’ occupied positions, Turkish forces attack our defenders’ positions,” read a statement by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria on Monday. “We urge Turkish leadership to halt this aggression and to follow international guidelines. We are telling the Turkish Army to stop shooting at our fighters and their positions.”

The end of the article makes a good point, why are we aiding Turkey in wiping out it's 'Kurdish problem'?

Much like the “Armenian Question” 100 years before it, Turkey is seeking to solve today’s “Kurdish Question” through violence and criminality. Sadly, the role being played by Western powers is not much different than it was a century ago. Every time the West turns a blind eye to these unjustified attacks of Turkey against the Kurds, and falsely characterizes the latter as “separatists,” they are helping pave the way for further Turkish aggression.

 

[Supreme Allied Condista]

TAKE RAQQA BATTLEPLAN

TAKE RAQQA BATTLEPLAN by Supreme Allied Condista on US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

This is my political and military plan to put the squeeze on the so-called "Islamic State" / ISIS / ISIL / Daesh operational capital at Raqqa, Syria.

1) The Turkish army invades Syria with an armoured column west and south of the Euphrates and attacks Raqqa from the south, also blocking the east and west routes to Raqqa.

2) The Euphrates Volcano - a joint operations room for the Royava Kurds YPG / YPJ and the Free Syrian Army - cut off Raqqa to the north, bottling ISIS fighters up in Raqqa or in other bolt holes to the east and north of the Euphrates.

Euphrates Volcano - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

3) The Turks and / or the Euphrates Volcano YPG / YPJ / FSA take Raqqa, clearing it street to street, mopping up ISIS forces.

I appreciate that the Turks have not yet committed to invading Syria with their army and neither have the Euphrates Volcano, YPG / FSA asked for such Turkish intervention.

So I think it is really going to take NATO to suggest such a collaboration, because neither side would wish to admit needing the other to defeat ISIS, I expect.

Diplomacy is not my strong suit but if these forces can be persuaded diplomatically to work together then liberating Raqqa from ISIS should be straight-forward enough, militarily speaking.

Now a word or two about the politics.

A solution for SYRIA too

We should support the rights of Sunni-majority areas to establish a Sunni-majority state, partitioned from Iraq and / or Syria but modelled not after Saudi Arabia's oppressive religious police Sunni state but rather as a secular, democratic state (approximated imperfectly by Turkey with its majority Sunni population), which could be part of a stable solution, acceptable to world powers.

However, to get there, we must first defeat ISIS and al-Qaeda and put irresistible pressure on Arab states to support a peace solution for Iraq and Syria, perhaps with Arab state regular armies invading Syria and Iraq to enforce a peace settlement along partition lines agreed at the United Nations with NATO acting as a military police force, directing Arab armies here and there.

Such a peace would be workable and stable, rather than as now with the Arab states' proxy terrorists failing to enforce a non-agreed imposed terrorist state.

NATO

The NATO military alliance met recently at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, to consider a plea from Turkey for support.

TURKS

Well if I was leading NATO, Turkey would be getting some very forceful advice behind the scenes to quit treating the PKK the same as ISIS and encouragement to seek a cease-fire with the PKK and I'd be making that distinction clear publicly as I have already done.

Since NATO statements are only agreed unanimously then it is not surprising that Turkey would not agree to the following quoted statement for publication as "the view of NATO" but there is nothing to stop the NATO Secretary General making this statement in a personal leadership capacity, except for the fact that the Secretary General is not me, but someone else.

"Turkey has been quite wrong to try to paint ISIS and the PKK with the same brush, equally as "terrorists", when the PKK have legitimate concerns about protecting Kurds from ISIS, although the PKK's attack on Turkish police officers which broke the cease-fire was ill-advised and it is unsurprising that Turkey would label such attacks as "terrorists" and a unilateral ending of the cease-fire by the PKK. Ending the cease-fire was a bad move by the PKK because cease-fires are much easier to end than they are to resume.

So Turkey had a cease-fire with the PKK and rightly so but Turkey should never have had a cease-fire with ISIS, if indeed that's what it had, it was quite wrong to have such a cease fire with ISIS.

Also, Turkey should be open minded about resuming a cease-fire with the PKK. Admittedly it takes two sides to make a cease-fire stick but at least a cease-fire should be possible with the PKK in the way it should not be possible with ISIS.

Otherwise, the suspicion will be that the Turkish state is being manipulated by those fascists who are not sincere about fighting ISIS but instead are using ISIS attacks as a pretext, conflating ISIS with anyone Kurdish or Turkish leftist, as a smokescreen for a far wider and undemocratic crackdown."​

KURDS

We are not doing the Kurds any favours by turning a blind eye to the PKK blunder providing Erdogan and the Turkish secret security fascists with the pretext for a crackdown they were likely trying to provoke - the July 22 killing by the PKK of 2 Turkish police officers.

Whatever the Kurds' or PKK's suspicions or personal convictions about Erdogan etc secretly sponsoring ISIS, it is not astute for the PKK to lash out at Turkish officers indiscriminately, because the case "Erdogan-backs-ISIS" has not been proven to NATO, to the US and allies or to the people of Turkey.

Least of all is that case made when Turkey provides the US with the use of airbases with which to attack ISIS.

Erdogan has played much too clever a game and has outwitted the PKK. They have fallen into his trap.

In future, Kurds should impress on the PKK the international political need to act with more political wisdom as prosecutors, proving their case of nefarious machinations of the secret security state of Turkey and its sponsorship of ISIS, while treating with respect those Turks, Americans, Europeans and others whom Erdogan's secret plots have deceived.


Supreme Allied Condista by Supreme Allied Condista on US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum