A Middle East in Continual Flux
"According to this agreement, Turkey and Russia will not allow any separatist agenda on Syrian territory."
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
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| A Turkish army officer jumps from his tank moving to its new position on the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019. |
"The sanctions will be lifted unless something happens that we are unhappy with."
"[There has been a major breakthrough in a better future for Syria and for the Middle East.] It's been a long time."
"[The cease fire has held] well - beyond most expectations [although some patients were photographed showing horrendous injuries sustained during the period]."
"'A small number of US troops will stay in the area where they have the oil, and we will be protecting it.""We were supposed to be there for 30 days ... they stayed for almost 10 years. This was an outcome created by us, the United States, and nobody else, no other nation, very simple. And we're willing to take blame and we're also willing to take credit. This is something they've been trying not do for many many decades."U.S. President Donald J.Trump"The United States was the closest ally of the Kurds over the past few years. But in the end, the U.S. abandoned the Kurds, actually betraying them.""The U.S. opted to abandon the Kurds on the border, almost forcing them to fight against the Turks."
Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov
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| Medics wipe a man's face after he was injured in the blast in Ras al-Ain - which took place despite Turkey's claims that it has stopped its military offensive |
Where the United States moved out, Russia moved in, because as everyone knows, nature and the fortunes of conflict abhor a vacuum. Leaving Russia to negotiate between Turkey and Syria for a ceasefire of Turkish troops against the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, abandoned by the U.S. military on orders from the White House, leaving an estimated 300,000 Kurdish civilians to flee their towns and villages. The vile atrocities committed by the Shiite militias in league with Turkey fully equal those of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, now once again gathering steam.
The U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Turkish and Kurdish forces was preparing to expire, though it was a ceasefire in name only, shattered countless times by the proxy militias serving under the Turks. Talks between Vladimir Putin and Erdogan in Sochi, Russia concluded with an agreement where all Kurdish forces would retreat 29 kilometres from the Syrian border over the next six days. The towns and villages already taken by the Turks will remain in their hands, an outcome surely not welcomed by Syria's Bashar al-Assad.
Joint military patrols by Russian and Turkish troops are scheduled to be launched in the area to make certain of implementation of the agreement, though Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces stated no immediate response to the agreement. For the time being at the very least, Ankara has agreed its military offensive is at a standstill. Russian forces are prepared to guard areas where U.S. troops were patrolling a few weeks earlier.
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| Putin and Erdogan, Sochi, Oct. 22. SERGEI CHIRIKOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images |
Turkey is to maintain continued control in those areas it has taken possession of while it appears that Syrian regime forces are set to hold the remainder of the border. The Kurds are slated, according to the agreement, to withdraw from two towns in Western Syria, Kobani and Tel Rifaat. As usual, the world looks on as Kurdish life, culture, geography and heritage are once again being looted, their hard-fought territorial geography yanked out from under repeatedly, their human rights abrogated.
The announcement that up to 500 Islamic State terrorists had made good their escape from Kurdish-operated prison camps in northeast Syria hardly comes as a surprise, given the chaos resulting from the Turkish offensive, effectively calling away Kurdish fighters to the more urgent existential protection of their homeland, their towns, their people.
As for the withdrawn U.S. troops which Washington had intended to deploy to Iraq, its government has stated it had not agreed to extend permission to the retreating troops to remain in Iraq. The ultimate ignominy visited upon the American troops reluctant to abandon their Kurdish counterparts with whom they have shared the stresses and dangers of the battlefield, forging a bond that a casual decision by their president has summarily sundered.
Labels: Betrayal, Conflict, Kurds, Russia, Syria, Turkey, United States
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, October 24, 2019
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