After two years of relative quietness the situation in Syria is again escalating.
This follows a terror attack in Istanbul two weeks ago allegedly committed by a woman who had traveled there from the Kurdish controlled city of Kobani in northeast Syria. Turkey accused the U.S., which is occupying northeast Syria, of complicity in the attack.
A week after the Istanbul incident Turkey started to bomb Kurdish positions in east Syria. It has now threatened to (again) invade it.
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I have not written about the conflict for quite a while and there are many new readers. So here is a list of names and abbreviations relevant to the story:
- PKK – Kurdistan Workers Party – fighting, often with terrorist methods, for a larger Kurdistan country to be formed from Kurdish areas in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey
- YPG – People's Defense Units – Kurdish-Syrian part of the PKK, currently silently allied with the U.S. occupation force in eastern Syria
- YPJ – Female units of the YPG
- SDF – Syrian Democratic Forces – 'former' YPG currently openly allied with the U.S. occupation force in eastern Syria
- Mazlum – 'former' YPG head, current SDF head in Syria collaborating with the U.S.
- Rojava – self-administrating area in northeast Syria under SDF / U.S. control
- Barzani – head of government in the Kurdish ruled province in north Iraq – hostile to PKK/YPG, friend with U.S.
- SAA – Syrian Arab Army – Syria's regular military
- HTS – Hayat Tahir al-Sham – Al-Qaeda derivative, Turkish proxy which rules parts of northwest Syria
Stealing from the Turkish commentator Agitpapa here is, slightly edited, the latest news from the area.
agitpapa @agitpapa – 9:09 UTC · 26 Nov 2022
It's the PKK's anniversary tomorrow and there are rumors that Turkey wants to kick off its land war against the Kurds in Rojava on that date.
Three days of Turkish airstrikes allegedly greenlit by Russia and the US – although the Turks claim they were all from inside Turkish airspace – have devastated the civilian and military infrastructure of Rojava. Power generation was knocked out, leaving 65K villages in the dark. Oil wells, the LNG bottling plant, and grain silos were destroyed and top SDF bases in Hasaka were bombed, including Mazlum's HQ.
The US only registered a weak protest against its main occupation base being bombed by a NATO member. Airstrikes also hit SAA and Russian positions in Tal Tamer, killing SAA soldiers. SDF sources claim the Russians evacuated shortly before the airstrike.
The Turks bombed over 40 targets in both US- and Russian-controlled areas, in N Syria as well as Jazeera, tracing a wide map of the many-sided blackmail and treachery that seems to be culminating now with the total cleansing of the Kurdish population:
The Ukraine blackmail of the Turks vs Russia, extracting Russian acquiescence in exchange for their economic/political support for Russia against the West, the treachery of the SDF, allying itself with the imperialist global hegemon against the Syrian people and Russia, and the treachery of the US, stabbing its colonial Kurdish army in the back yet again.
The pro-PKK former SDF spox Mustafa Bali made it very clear how he sees the betrayal of his people. He's from the PKK and knows that NATO has never meant anything but death for his people.
Source – bigger
Yes, the Yanks briefly helped the Kurds defeat ISIS, which they themselves created, but it turned out that it was only to turn the YPG/YPJ into their colonial army.
For Syrian Kurds, the great enemy is still Assad and his ally Russia but the PKK knows better.
As the PKK resists the Turkish invasion in the Iraqi Zap river area, Barzani stabs it in the back while NATO and the EU heap praises on Barzani and try to pressure the SDF into submitting to him. Even Mazlum couldn't betray the PKK that much but still remains in the service of the Yanks.
Today the Russians gave the YPG one last chance:
Balanche @FabriceBalanche – 10:43 UTC · 26 Nov 2022
At the meeting held in Qamishli, Russia asked the YPG to withdraw all its military presence from the Turkish border to the M4 road (and leave the entire region to the government). Otherwise, Russia warned the #YPG that Turkey's military operation was inevitable. The YPG has rejected it.
If the Westerners don't stop Turkey, it's the end of the Kurdish autonomy in northeastern Syria. But can Europe and the United States oppose to Turkey in the context of the Ukrainian crisis?
In my view the 'westerner's' still need the wannabe Sultan Erdogan and can not a risk a further drift of Turkey towards Russia. If Erdogan wants to invade northeast Syria he can now do so. The Kurdish leaders, in their never ending obstinacy, will again sacrifice their people.