Convoluted Contortions of Reality
"YPG forces ... have implemented a new sectarian and ethnic cleansing campaign against Sunni Arabs and Turkmen under the cover of coalition airstrikes which have contributed bombardment, terrorizing civilians and forcing them to flee their villages."
Syrian rebel groups statement
"On our border, in Tal Abyad, the West, which is conducting aerial bombings against Arabs and Turkmens, is unfortunately positioning terrorist members of the PYD [Kurdish Democratic Party] and PKK [Kurdish PKK] in their place."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
"Preserving people's dignity is among our priorities, and it is for that that we are offering our blood."
"Unjust accusations were meant to market for the ISIL group and cover up its crimes."
Redur Khalil, YPG spokesman
 |
| Members of the Druze community wave flags during a protest in the Druze village of Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights, June 15, 2015. Several hundred members of the Druze community on Monday called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to protect their Syrian kin following last week's killing of 20 Druze villagers by the Nusra Front, Syria's Al Qaeda branch, during fighting in the ongoing Syrian civil war. Photo Ammar Awad/Reuters |
The sole effective fighting force in Syria against the Islamic State is being accused by Turkey and by the Sunni Syrian rebel groups amassed against the tyranny of the Shiite Alawite government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, of conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign. Turkish President Erdogan has made no secret of his legendary hatred for the Kurds; not only for Turkish Kurds but for the organized Syrian Kurds whose effectiveness in agitating for a state of their own he fears will re-infect Turkish Kurds.
He preferred to have his military stand by while Kurds fought valiantly across the border from Turkey in Syria to prevent Islamic State jihadists from taking Kurdish Syrian towns and villages. Mr. Erdogan is well known to have encouraged the jihadists from within Turkey and providing passage for international jihadis to join Islamic State in Syria.
It does not sit too well with the Syrian rebel groups that it is the Kurds who have succeeded in pushing back Islamic State advances. Syrian Kurds have reached Tal Abyad to wrest it from ISIL, a strategic border town. The YPG succeeded in severing a key supply line to the Islamic State Syrian capital of Raqqa. Rather than ally themselves with the Kurds, the Syrian rebel groups are sourly resentful and prefer to make common cause in slandering them alongside the Turks.
The Kurds are making headway thanks to the aid given them by the U.S.-led coalition aircraft which have targeted the ISIL jihadis in Tal Abyad. The conflict, like any conflict, has created a stream of fearful Syrians who have fled the action in fear for their lives, to attempt to cross into Turkey, which has mislaid its humanitarian credentials feeling it has sacrificed more than sufficiently in absorbing up to now well over a million fleeing refugees from Syria.
The Kurdish successes cannot be denied. Since the turn of the year they managed to wrest back hundreds of mostly Kurdish and Christian towns and villages from the ISIL group. The United States considers them a reliable and trustworthy group to fight alongside as moderate, secular fighters whose revolutionary fervour is fuelled by their desire and drive for independence.
Like Turkey, furiously resisting independence for its own Kurds, the Syrian rebels accuse the People's Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Party of indulging in "ethnic cleansing" in preparation for splitting the country. A spokesman for the YPG refers to the claims as "bankrupt".
On the other hand, last Wednesday a massacre of 20 Druze villagers took place in northern Idlib Province in the village of Qalb Lawze, resulting from an altercation with a Nusra commander that escalated until the villagers were gunned down, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Jabhat al-Nusra, attempting to portray itself, though an affiliate of al-Qaeda as 'moderates', stated their regret; those involved in the massacre had failed to consult their commanders in "clear violation" of Nusra directives.
Al Nusra is among the Islamist groups siding with the rebel groups levelling accusations against the Kurdish militias.
Labels: Al-Qaeda, Conflict, Kurds, Syria
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, June 16, 2015
<< Home