Turkey and the Kurds Hold the Key to Defeating the Islamic State

[T.Lex]

Thanks, printcraft. I knew I could count on you. Wanna hang out some time? We could do puzzles. Or role playing games. Or go to a Ren fair or something.

 

[T.Lex]

Heya printcraft, maybe this will get some attention for the thread.

Istanbul suicide bomber 'registered as a refugee a week before attack' - Telegraph

The suicide bomber who killed 10 people in Istanbul registered as a refugee in Turkey just one week before the attack after entering the country from Syria, according to Turkish media.

The bomber, identified as Nabil Fadli, a 28-year-old Saudi-born Syrian national, gave his fingerprints at an immigration centre in Istanbul on January 5 and was allowed to move freely in the days before the bombing.

 

[pudly]

I guess Turkey doesn't have the same awesome screening process that the US is using to screen Muslim refugees. Oh...

 

[T.Lex]

This gets curioser and curioser.

Syria conflict: 'US expanding air strip' in Kurdish north - BBC News

Satellite images appearing to show the US expanding a formerly disused air strip in Kurdish-controlled northern Syria have been seen by the BBC.
The image, from the security analysts Stratfor, shows a runway near the town of Rmeilan being extended from 700m (half a mile) to 1.3km.
That would be long enough to land a Hercules aircraft.

 

[T.Lex]

PKK not going away.
PKK defiant over long war with Turkey - BBC News

He said the PKK would not stop fighting until it had achieved its objectives, a separate state with its own parliament in a Turkish federation.

They need a political wing, like Sinn Fein.

 

[printcraft]

Thanks, printcraft. I knew I could count on you. Wanna hang out some time? We could do puzzles. Or role playing games. Or go to a Ren fair or something.

https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...cuddle-but-im-low-gas-ingo-meet-n-cuddle.html

 

[T.Lex]

Well. This does not bode well.

Turkey's Erdogan denounces US support for Syrian Kurds - BBC News

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at the US over its support for Syria's main Kurdish group.
The failure to recognise the Democratic Union Party (PYD) as a terrorist group was creating a "sea of blood", he said.
Turkey says the PYD, on which the US relies to battle so-called Islamic State in Syria, is an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

 

[T.Lex]

Blast hits Ankara military building - BBC News
Attack in Ankara.

A large explosion at a military dormitory in the Turkish capital Ankara has left several people injured, reports say.
A Turkish police official quoted by the Reuters news agency said a vehicle exploded.

 

[AtTheMurph]

Well. This does not bode well.

Turkey's Erdogan denounces US support for Syrian Kurds - BBC News

Of course Erdogan denounces the US support for the Kurds. He's fighting a civil war with these guys. That's one of the reasons Turkey is helping ISIS. They have the same enemy.

 

[T.Lex]

Of course Erdogan denounces the US support for the Kurds. He's fighting a civil war with these guys. That's one of the reasons Turkey is helping ISIS. They have the same enemy.

It is more complicated than that. Turkey wants to help the Iraqi Kurds fight Daesh. Turkey doesn't want to help Turkish or Syrian Kurds fight Daesh. But, it likes when they do, because it makes them less likely to fight Turkey.

Well, that used to be the calculus.

Regardless, it is getting ugly between Turkey and us.
Turkey says US arms used by Syria Kurds, blamed for Ankara blast - BBC News

Continued American support for Syrian Kurds, reiterated by a state department spokesman this week, is threatening to cause a rift between the two Nato allies.
Mr Erdogan told reporters there was "no doubt about the fact that those who carried out this attack are the YPG and the PYD".
He planned to tell Mr Obama later on Friday over the phone to consider "how and where those weapons you provided were fired".

This is a helpful graphic.

 

[SEIndSAM]

It is more complicated than that. Turkey wants to help the Iraqi Kurds fight Daesh. Turkey doesn't want to help Turkish or Syrian Kurds fight Daesh. But, it likes when they do, because it makes them less likely to fight Turkey.

Well, that used to be the calculus.

Regardless, it is getting ugly between Turkey and us.
Turkey says US arms used by Syria Kurds, blamed for Ankara blast - BBC News



This is a helpful graphic.

Thank you TLex......I was trying to explain this to the Mrs yesterday and that chart illustrates it perfectly.

 

[T.Lex]

Thank the BBC.

Those Brits can really explain things, once you get passed the accent. And really, the only thing missing is that the US basically supports all 3 groups of Kurds as if they were a single group. That's probably a(nother) mistake on our part.

On a side note - Turkey better be careful: bad relations with Russia, bad relations with the EU, bad relations with us....

 

[T.Lex]

Girls with guns (and grenades).
Turkey police kill two 'women militants' amid Istanbul attack - BBC News

Check out the video. Couldn't tell what the time delay is, but it looks like she throws a grenade and it takes a LONG time to explode.

Two women who attacked police with gunfire and a grenade before hiding in a building in the Turkish city of Istanbul have been killed, the city's governor has said.
A statement on a website close to the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) said it carried out the attack.
...

Two policemen were hurt in the attack.

The women had earlier opened fire at a riot police station in Bayrampasa

Looks like they shot up one location, police were going after them, then the incident on the video happened.

 

[AtTheMurph]

It is more complicated than that. Turkey wants to help the Iraqi Kurds fight Daesh. Turkey doesn't want to help Turkish or Syrian Kurds fight Daesh. But, it likes when they do, because it makes them less likely to fight Turkey.

Well, that used to be the calculus.

Regardless, it is getting ugly between Turkey and us.
Turkey says US arms used by Syria Kurds, blamed for Ankara blast - BBC News



This is a helpful graphic.

Don't believe it. The Kurds, all the Kurds want their own country - Kurdistan - and that includes large sections of Eastern Turkey. You think Erogan is happy yo hep some of the people who want parts of his country and not others?

 

[T.Lex]

Don't believe it. The Kurds, all the Kurds want their own country - Kurdistan - and that includes large sections of Eastern Turkey. You think Erogan is happy yo hep some of the people who want parts of his country and not others?

My understanding is that the Kurds are not as homogeneous as depicted in MSM (to the extent they are described at all). And yes, I think Erdogan is more than willing to treat different Kurds differently based on his own needs.

In other news, there was another terrorist bomb attack over the weekend, with Turkey retaliating against PKK.
Ankara bombing: Turkey strikes against Kurdish rebel PKK - BBC News

Turkey has begun security operations against Kurdish rebels in the country's south-east and in Iraq.
The moves come as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed a crackdown on terror after Sunday's attack in Ankara that killed at least 36 people.
A suspected bomber, who also died in the blast, was a female member of the PKK, security sources said.

 

[T.Lex]

Daesh blamed for different terrorist attack:
Turkey blames Islamic State for Istanbul bombing - BBC News

The suicide bomber who killed four people in Istanbul's main shopping street belonged to so-called Islamic State (IS), the interior minister says.

In a way, I feel bad for Turkey. I mean, it is hard to fight an asymmetric war. It is hard to fight a two-front war. They basically have a two-front asymmetric war on their hands.

 

[T.Lex]

So, when conversations about constitutional conventions and things come up, it is important to recognize the downsides. Sure, it would be great to clarify the 2A, but there is a risk that other amendments would need to be defended.

Posting this here, because Turkey is in a position of having to defend secularism.

Turkey Islam: PM issues secular pledge on new constitution - BBC News

Turkey's PM Ahmet Davutoglu has said the country's new constitution will feature the principle of secularism.
He said Turkey's secular and democratic character was "not up for debate".
His comments came a day after a key member of the ruling AK party (AKP) called for secularism to be taken out of the constitution.
Parliamentary speaker Ismail Kahraman, who is overseeing the draft charter, said Turkey was a Muslim country and should have a religious constitution.

Not too farfetched to think that an American politician might suggest that America is a Christian country and should have a religious constitution.

 

[T.Lex]

[vaguely elitist reference here]

Istanbul bomb attack on police bus kills 11 - BBC News

A car bomb attack targeting a police bus has killed seven officers and four civilians in central Istanbul.

It was the fourth major attack in Turkey's largest city this year.

No group has claimed it, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed to the involvement of Kurdish militants.

 

[T.Lex]

WTHR reporting explosions at the Istanbul airport.

NOT the Constantinople airport. That was completely different.

BBC link:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36658187

Gunfire, too.

 

[mrjarrell]

US/coalition airstrikes in Syria killed dozens of innocent civilians while supposedly backing up one of their Syrian militias on the ground.

https://news.vice.com/article/civilians-reportedly-killed-us-led-coalition-airstrikes-manbij-syria