Turkish invasion of Kurdish Afrin imminent?

[Bleipriester]

After a long time of preparations it seems the Turks will wait no longer to remove Kurdish control from northern Syria.

"BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:55 A.M.) – The Turkish Army entered the predominately Kurdish Afrin Canton in northwestern Aleppo on Saturday, the pro-YPG Hawar News Agency (ANHA) reported.

According to ANHA’s report, the Turkish Army entered the Afrin Canton town of Bailya to open a corridor for their troops to possibly invade this rural region in northern Syria.

The Turkish Army reportedly cleared several olive trees to create this corridor for their troops.

Since August, the Turkish Army has been building up their forces around the Afrin Canton, sending a large number of military personnel and armored vehicles to this region.

The Turkish regime views the YPG (military wing) and PYD (political wing) as offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) – the latter is an outlawed group in Turkey that fought a long and brutal war against the Turkish Army."

Turkish Army reportedly enters Kurdish enclave in northwest Aleppo

 

[ESay]

After a long time of preparations it seems the Turks will wait no longer to remove Kurdish control from northern Syria.

It is hardly possible. It is not the Turks who decide which territory the Kurds will control. Though it may well be that the Kurds-controlled territory will be squeezed only to the lands inhabited by the Kurds.
But then again, transferring these lands to Turks will not give much pleasure for the Assad regime.

 

[Bleipriester]

After a long time of preparations it seems the Turks will wait no longer to remove Kurdish control from northern Syria.

It is hardly possible. It is not the Turks who decide which territory the Kurds will control. Though it may well be that the Kurds-controlled territory will be squeezed only to the lands inhabited by the Kurds.
But then again, transferring these lands to Turks will not give much pleasure for the Assad regime.

They surely want to sponge it up but officially they are committed to Syria´s territorial unity. And they don´t want a Kurdish land at the border. This would only encourage Turkish Kurds to rebel.

Erdogan proclaims Mosul and Aleppo belong to Turkey

 

[Marion Morrison]

Erdogan, grr.

 

[ESay]

After a long time of preparations it seems the Turks will wait no longer to remove Kurdish control from northern Syria.

It is hardly possible. It is not the Turks who decide which territory the Kurds will control. Though it may well be that the Kurds-controlled territory will be squeezed only to the lands inhabited by the Kurds.
But then again, transferring these lands to Turks will not give much pleasure for the Assad regime.

They surely want to sponge it up but officially they are committed to Syria´s territorial unity. And they don´t want a Kurdish land at the border. This would only encourage Turkish Kurds to rebel.

Erdogan proclaims Mosul and Aleppo belong to Turkey

Creation of the Kurdish state is a matter of time I think. As well as dissolution of Syria and Iraq.

 

[Marion Morrison]

After a long time of preparations it seems the Turks will wait no longer to remove Kurdish control from northern Syria.

It is hardly possible. It is not the Turks who decide which territory the Kurds will control. Though it may well be that the Kurds-controlled territory will be squeezed only to the lands inhabited by the Kurds.
But then again, transferring these lands to Turks will not give much pleasure for the Assad regime.

They surely want to sponge it up but officially they are committed to Syria´s territorial unity. And they don´t want a Kurdish land at the border. This would only encourage Turkish Kurds to rebel.

Erdogan proclaims Mosul and Aleppo belong to Turkey

Because it was Erdogan there fighting the Daesh, right? Wait, no. That was Syria, Russia, Iran, and YPG.

That's bullshit.

 

[Bleipriester]

After a long time of preparations it seems the Turks will wait no longer to remove Kurdish control from northern Syria.

It is hardly possible. It is not the Turks who decide which territory the Kurds will control. Though it may well be that the Kurds-controlled territory will be squeezed only to the lands inhabited by the Kurds.
But then again, transferring these lands to Turks will not give much pleasure for the Assad regime.

They surely want to sponge it up but officially they are committed to Syria´s territorial unity. And they don´t want a Kurdish land at the border. This would only encourage Turkish Kurds to rebel.

Erdogan proclaims Mosul and Aleppo belong to Turkey

Because it was Erdogan there fighting the Daesh, right? Wait, no. That was Syria, Russia, Iran, and YPG.

That's bullshit.

had the Russians not intervened Erdogan would probably still being busy supporting ISIS.

 

[Bleipriester]

After a long time of preparations it seems the Turks will wait no longer to remove Kurdish control from northern Syria.

It is hardly possible. It is not the Turks who decide which territory the Kurds will control. Though it may well be that the Kurds-controlled territory will be squeezed only to the lands inhabited by the Kurds.
But then again, transferring these lands to Turks will not give much pleasure for the Assad regime.

They surely want to sponge it up but officially they are committed to Syria´s territorial unity. And they don´t want a Kurdish land at the border. This would only encourage Turkish Kurds to rebel.

Erdogan proclaims Mosul and Aleppo belong to Turkey

Creation of the Kurdish state is a matter of time I think. As well as dissolution of Syria and Iraq.

It´s the Americans and Israelis trying to install a puppet state there to weaken the region. They also planned AQ and IS caliphates.

 

[ESay]

After a long time of preparations it seems the Turks will wait no longer to remove Kurdish control from northern Syria.

It is hardly possible. It is not the Turks who decide which territory the Kurds will control. Though it may well be that the Kurds-controlled territory will be squeezed only to the lands inhabited by the Kurds.
But then again, transferring these lands to Turks will not give much pleasure for the Assad regime.

They surely want to sponge it up but officially they are committed to Syria´s territorial unity. And they don´t want a Kurdish land at the border. This would only encourage Turkish Kurds to rebel.

Erdogan proclaims Mosul and Aleppo belong to Turkey

Creation of the Kurdish state is a matter of time I think. As well as dissolution of Syria and Iraq.

It´s the Americans and Israelis trying to install a puppet state there to weaken the region. They also planned AQ and IS caliphates.

The main reason is that contemporary Syria and Iraq are artificially created states whose main religious and ethnic groups are antagonists in some cases.

 

[Bleipriester]

After a long time of preparations it seems the Turks will wait no longer to remove Kurdish control from northern Syria.

It is hardly possible. It is not the Turks who decide which territory the Kurds will control. Though it may well be that the Kurds-controlled territory will be squeezed only to the lands inhabited by the Kurds.
But then again, transferring these lands to Turks will not give much pleasure for the Assad regime.

They surely want to sponge it up but officially they are committed to Syria´s territorial unity. And they don´t want a Kurdish land at the border. This would only encourage Turkish Kurds to rebel.

Erdogan proclaims Mosul and Aleppo belong to Turkey

Creation of the Kurdish state is a matter of time I think. As well as dissolution of Syria and Iraq.

It´s the Americans and Israelis trying to install a puppet state there to weaken the region. They also planned AQ and IS caliphates.

The main reason is that contemporary Syria and Iraq are artificially created states whose main religious and ethnic groups are antagonists in some cases.

Yeah and there are tow trees growing missiles.

 

[waltky]

Turkish army confronts Kurds in Afrin...

Turkey pursues Kurds in Afrin’s streets
Mon, Mar 19, 2018 - THINKING AHEAD:Turkey denied allegations that it was responsible for an airstrike on a hospital that killed at least 10 and has said it would not return the enclave to al-Assad

Turkish-led forces early yesterday began a street-by-street fight to capture Afrin, the most important Kurdish-held town in northern Syria, CNN-Turk television said, a crucial juncture in Turkey’s two-month-old campaign to expel US-backed Kurdish fighters from the border area. Propelled by powerful allies, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has managed to reassert control over a large part of his country after seven years of war, but the direct intervention of Turkey, which backed anti-al-Assad groups through much of the conflict, suggests that the war is entering a dangerous new phase amid growing tensions among regional powerplayers including Russia, the US, Iran and Israel. The US military has said that Turkey’s offensive is slowing down the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group elsewhere in Syria as some senior leaders of Kurdish forces have turned their attention from that battle toward Afrin. Turkish authorities view the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which the US backs, as an extension of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, who have sought autonomy for decades. They want to push them from their border.

Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army fighters walk together after advancing north of Afrin, Syria​

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday vowed that the army would not leave Afrin “before the job is done” and has signaled that he could broaden the offensive into northeastern Syria, ultimately targeting PKK bases in Iraq to quash Kurdish aspirations for self-rule. Turkish commandos have been fighting PKK militants in northern Iraq since last week, state-run TRT television reported yesterday. Afrin is thought to have been heavily fortified with concrete tunnels and explosives, and while many civilians have fled, tens of thousands could be caught in a prolonged battle. “The capture of Afrin would inflict a serious blow on the Kurds’ statehood ambitions along Turkey’s borders in Syria,” said Ali Serdar Erdurmaz, an analyst at Hasan Kalyoncu University based in Gaziantep Province, bordering Syria.

A woman mourns in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on Saturday while standing next to a coffin during the funeral of Kurdish People’s Protection Units fighters, who were killed in Afrin in combat against the Turkish-led offensive.​

He said a Turkish victory in Afrin could prompt Erdogan to push the US to ensure that Kurdish fighters withdraw from the town of Manbij, to east of the Euphrates River. The Turkish army on Saturday denied allegations that it was behind an airstrike on a hospital in Afrin that killed at least 10 people, distributing drone footage that it said showed the hospital intact several hours after it was said to be attacked. Turkey has said it is taking care to avoid civilian casualties and that Turkish troops have left a safe corridor from Afrin to allow civilians to leave the town if they want to.

As the original battles in Syria’s civil war draw to an end, with government forces pummeling the few remaining rebel-held areas and IS on the retreat, new fronts, such as Afrin, have opened up as local, regional and global powers try to stake out positions for the post-war period. Armed groups loyal to al-Assad last month moved to join the Kurdish defense of Afrin, but stayed outside the town after Turkish forces fired artillery in a warning not to advance further, state-run Turkish media reported. If victorious, Turkey has said it would not transfer control of Afrin to the al-Assad government. The entire Afrin enclave, now largely under Turkish forces, should be run by its local population, Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told TRT television on Thursday.

Turkey pursues Kurds in Afrin’s streets - Taipei Times

See also:

Syrian Kurds Vow 'Constant Nightmare' for Turkish Forces in Afrin
March 18, 2018 - Syrian Kurds are threatening a new stepped-up guerilla war after Turkish forces and their Syrian allies took control of the northern Syrian town of Afrin, a Kurdish enclave. "Our forces all over Afrin will become a constant nightmare for them," top Syrian Kurd official Othman Sheikh Issa said. "These forces will strike the positions of the Turkish enemy and its mercenaries at every opportunity," he warned.

Turkey and their Syrian allies raised flags in central Afrin early Sunday, declaring they are in full control of the town after meeting no resistance from the People's Defense Units, the Kurdish militia. "Most of the terrorists have already fled with their tails between their legs, In the center of Afrin, symbols of trust and stability are waving instead of rags of terrorists," a gleeful Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday. Turkey regards the YPG as part of the Kurdistan Workers Party -- the guerilla group that has been fighting for a separate Kurdish state that would include part of Turkey.

Turkey has outlawed the PKK, considering it to be a group of terrorists. Erdogan vowed to stop the Kurds from setting up what he calls a "terror corridor" along the Turkish-Syrian border. He threatened to take the fight further east in Syria, where U.S. forces are aiding their Kurdish allies -- setting up the possibility of even more tension between the U.S. and Turkey. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the fight to drive Kurds out of Afrin sent more than 150,000 civilians fleeing from their homes in the past week. Turkish warplanes and shells struck the region despite what is supposed to be a 30-day cease-fire across Syria.

Thousands flee Eastern Ghouta

Elsewhere, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Syrian troops who have seized nearly all of the Damascus suburb of east Ghouta from the rebels. "The inhabitants of Damascus are more than grateful and they will maybe tell their children in the coming decades how you saved the capital," Assad said surrounded by tanks and soldiers. The Syrian assault on Ghouta is aimed at splitting up the rebel factions who control different parts of the suburb.

Syrian civilians, evacuated from rebel-held areas in the Eastern Ghouta, gather at a school in the regime-controlled Hosh Nasri, on the northeastern outskirts of the capital Damascus.​

But just like every battle in the seven-year long Syrian civil war, civilians are paying the highest price. The fight for east Ghouta has killed more than 1,400 residents in the past month and sent tens of thousands of others fleeing for their lives. Those who have stayed behind are facing severe food shortages and scant medical care.

Syrian Kurds Vow 'Constant Nightmare' for Turkish Forces in Afrin