Erdogan, the Very Picture of a NATO Ally
"The United States has admitted that it has created a terrorist force along our country's border. Our duty is to drown this army of terror before it is born."
"A country we call an ally is insisting on forming a terror army on our borders. What can that terror army target but Turkey?"
"This is what we have to say to all our allies: don't get in between us and terrorist organisations, or we will not be responsible for the unwanted consequences."
"Don't stand between us and these herd of murderers. Otherwise, we won't be responsible for the unwanted incidents that may arise."
"Tear off the insignia you have placed on the uniforms of the terrorists so that we don't have to bury them [U.S. soldiers] together with the terrorists."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ankara
"Turkey is a valued member of a 74-member Coalition and a NATO partner, sharing our mission to ensure the lasting defeat of [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] in Iraq and Syria."
"It would be inappropriate for us to comment on Mr. Erdogan's remarks."
"A strong border security force will prohibit (IS) freedom of movement and deny the transportation of illicit materials. This will enable the Syrian people to establish effective local, representative governance and reclaim their land."
U.S.-led coalition statement
That this Islamist menace to good government, justice and human rights is prepared to continue the fiction of fitting right in with all the other members of NATO, and that NATO itself, as a responsible body whose purpose is to further the interests of democracy and protection of the existential interests of those involved, prepared to intervene when it appears appropriate to stave off conflict and disunity seems prepared to continue to groan under the weight of Erdogan's spume and spite is mystifying.
American plans for a formation of 30,000 Kurdish-led border security forces in Syria has met with threats by the Turkish president that he is prepared to "drown this army of terror before it is born". Nothing can dissuade this man from his hatred of Syrian and Turkish Kurds. His implacable fury at their very existence with the underlying appetite among Kurds to finally and at last secure the support of powers they make common cause with, to aid them in acquiring nation status is volcanic.
American troops have been given warning that should they happen to intervene between a coming clash of Turkish troops and Kurdish forces they will bear the inevitable consequences. The Turkish Kurdish insurgency has effectively created in his unstable, megalomaniac mind severe mental instability, leading him to prepare the launch of a new military operation against the People's Defence Units of the Syrian Kurds, the YPG in Northern Syria's Afrin enclave.
That the YPG were largely instrumental in driving the Islamic State from most of northern and eastern Syria when the opposition Syrian militias, let alone the Syrian military itself was incapable of defending their own territory, leading the United States military to view the YPG as the only reliable force they could effectively pair with in their U.S.-led airstrikes; the former leading the assault on the ground, the latter from the air to enable victory over the Islamic State is of little interest to Erdogan.
According to the coalition the new force of an anticipated 30,000 represents a strategy in Syria meant as a preventive of any possible resurgence of the Islamic State presence in the divided country. Fighters from the existing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with whom the coalition allied themselves in the fight against Islamic State will form the core of the force. They will be deployed along the borders of the SDF-held areas of Iraq and Turkey. And this is the core that Turkey means to drown in a river of boiling rage.
The troops that Turkey advanced into Syria in 2016 were meant to prevent just this very same scenario of a contiguous entity along the Turkish border. Washington deliberately deployed U.S. troops in northeast Syria for the purpose of preventing Turkey-backed fighters clashing with the Kurdish forces. Currently, Turkey is preparing to launch its threatened operation in Afrin, sending reinforcements to the border.
And Erdogan is warning that military assault preparations for African "are complete", for an operation that could begin at any time. The comity that existed between the United States and its erstwhile ally Turkey has now completely evaporated in the blistering fog of Erdogan's demonic hatred of the Kurdish YPG militias, seeing them affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey, his detested nemesis.
"The Self Administration in Afrin has taken all measures."
"The citizens of the district are guarding its borders and are ready to sacrifice everything to protect Afrin. If Turkey attacks Afrin, then Afrin will be a powerful and unforgettable lesson for Turkey."
"[Afrin had] for years now been under a systematic siege posed by mercenary groups supported by the Turkish occupation."
"There isn't a clear statement by America about the situation in Afrin."
Egid Rashid, head, media office, Democratic Self Administration
Labels: Conflict, Islamic State, Kurds, Syria, Turkey, United States
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, January 17, 2018
<< Home