[Newsbot]

Title: As Kurds gain in Syria, Turkey ponders stronger military action
Category: Military
Posted By: N_Fiddledog
Date: 2015-06-29 18:24:34

[N_Fiddledog]

There it is then.

When it was ISIS on Turkey's border Erdogan didn't have a problem.

Now it's the Kurds and he's threatening to go to war.

[DanSC]

Guard your poutine everyone!

#puns

[N_Fiddledog]

Now there's one deserving of a groan.

Turkey kurds? Is there even such a thing?

[Freakinoldguy]

Erdogan is nutty as a fruit cake but it's that same loveable wackiness which makes him as dangerous as they come, especially for the Kurds.

0:

Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-Cooked-Turkey--34133.jpg

My guess is he'll move ISIS away from the Turkish Border only long enough to do the same to all the Kurds, permanently and then it'll be back to business as usual with the inbred goat humping animals from ISIS.

[N_Fiddledog]

OK, I'm going to hope this map displays here.

[N_Fiddledog]

A lot has happened in the last little while.

First of all checkout Kobane on the map above. It's in Northern Syria on the border of what was once Syria and Turkey.

Remember when the Kurds retook Kobane from ISIS with the help of allied air power?

Do you remember how there was a long wasteland between Kobane and Kurdish territory in Iraq? It was still under ISIS control. This meant the Kurds were having trouble resupplying their people on the other side of that ISIS wasteland along the Turkish border. Turkey wouldn't help them.

According to that map (Which I got here) the Kurds and their allies with the help of our air power seem to have been consolidating control of that Turkey/One-time Syria border.

In the last couple of weeks to today they made some serious and important advancements.

So look up at the Turkish border on that map again. See what they've done.

The big deal in this last offensive is they took over this border town called Tal Abyad.

That's significant, because...

$1:

Tel Abyad lies some 85 kilometers (50 miles) north of IS’s de facto capital Raqqa, and it serves as a primary conduit for incoming weapons and fighters, as well as for outgoing black market oil, so a major IS supply line to Raqqa has been cut off by Kurds in Syria’s northeast on Monday.

http://aranews.net/2015/06/kurds-libera ... rth-raqqa/



After that the Kurds moved south and took Ain Issa. Ain Assa is only about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Raqqa, the defacto capital of ISIS. This has ISIS freaked.

And when you see how the Kurds now control most of the border with Turkey you can see why Erdogan is getting antsy.

[Public_Domain]

[Freakinoldguy]

Public_Domain Public_Domain:

there's nuts in fruit cake?

Yes PD, there are nuts in a fruit cake, usually pecans.

[BartSimpson]

N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:

OK, I'm going to hope this map displays here.

I like how there's a big part of your map that no one gives two sh*ts about!

(I'm thinking of claiming it as the foundation of my new empire.)

[stratos]

The cynic in me sees it this way. Turkey and the other countries will allow the Kurds to beat and or weaken ISIS as much as they can. Once that is done they will join up a exterminate any Kurd state that comes about.

[BartSimpson]

stratos stratos:

The cynic in me sees it this way. Turkey and the other countries will allow the Kurds to beat and or weaken ISIS as much as they can. Once that is done they will join up a exterminate any Kurd state that comes about.

Turkey as a member of NATO is not going to cross into Iraq to mess with the Kurds. Syria is another matter, but Iraq is off limits to them and they know this from personal experience back during Gulf War One.

[N_Fiddledog]

In fact...

$1:

Turkey plans to send troops to Syria but to fight the Kurds - not Isis, according to reports by local press.

Several news outlets in Turkey have reported that the country’s president and prime minister have decided to send Turkish troops to Syria. According to the Daily Beast, both the pro-government media outlet Yeni Safak and the anti-government newspaper Sozcu report that up to 18,000 soldiers are to be deployed.

Reports suggest that the Turkish government aims to set up a ‘security zone’ or ‘buffer zone’ on the border. Turkey shares a 750 mile long border with Iraq and Syria.

On Friday, the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused Syrian Kurds of ethnic cleansing. He said: “I am saying this to the whole world: We will never allow the establishment of a state on our southern border in the north of Syria.

“We will continue our fight in that respect whatever the cost may be.”

READ MORE...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 52183.html

[N_Fiddledog]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:

OK, I'm going to hope this map displays here.

I like how there's a big part of your map that no one gives two sh*ts about!

(I'm thinking of claiming it as the foundation of my new empire.)

Yeah, that area falls into the category of "stuff I wish I knew more about".

And here's another one...

The Free Syrian Army often, or at least sometimes, allies itself with the Kurds in battle.

Are they or could they ally politically?

Because look again at that map.

Suppose they continue west along the border to completely shut down ISIS resupply.

OK, now look south. Isn't that FSA country? Can we imagine that joining to form a blue area jutting down to eventually hook up with the Syrian rebel troops controlling that side's Golan Heights?

Here's some wishful thinking. How unlikely is it to imagine - not necessarily a Kurdistan, but a Kurdish/FSA/Yazidi/Turkmen/Druze/Christian state along the Turkish border and south to connect with the Israeli border?

In this way we can see a broader, more West-friendly section of geography. Perhaps one could even see Jordan as an ally.

Kind of cool, I think. Israel, Jordan, Syristan, Kurdistan all united to form a pro-west bloc in the Middle East.

Now...and this one's just for you Bart. Imagine Ted Cruz inheriting that in 2016.

[BartSimpson]

I can imagine Ted Cruz kicking Turkey TFO of NATO.