Turkey will 'never allow' Kurdish state in Syria: Erdogan

[Jefferson23]

June 27, 2015

Kurdish YPG militia is accused of 'changing the demographic structure' of Syrian areas as 12,000 Turkmen evacuate village following clashes with IS

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey will never allow the establishment of a Kurdish state in Syria, accusing Kurdish fighters of ethnically cleansing non-Kurdish communities from land they have taken after pushing back Islamic State (IS) militants.

"I say to the international community that whatever price must be paid, we will never allow the establishment of a new state on our southern frontier in the north of Syria," Erdogan was quoted by Turkish media as telling guests at a dinner to break the Ramadan fast.

He accused Kurdish forces of "changing the demographic structure" of several areas close to the Turkish border, which have Arab and Turkmen populations.

Turkey has fought a 31-year insurgency in the south east of the country by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara claims is closely linked to the main Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia.

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-will-never-allow-kurdish-state-syria-erdogan-682463351#sthash.n48dXHjt.dpuf

[HassleCat]

1. They know what would happen

The Kurds would establish a de-facto Kurdistan, most of which would be in Turkey. Eventually, Kurdistan would be independent, and completely split off from Turkey. It's probably going to happen anyway, but Turkey will do almost anything to stop it.

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2. US official: Kurdish gains to cut off ISIL supplies, personnel coming from Turkey

A senior US official has claimed that recent Kurdish gains in the area of the Turkish-Syrian border will help cut off supplies and personnel coming from Turkey to Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

US Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said at the Center for a New American Security on Friday that Syrian Kurdish forces in recent weeks have shown "dramatic gains" in Syria, supported by US-led air strikes. The US Army said on Saturday that it conducted four air strikes near Kobani, a town on the border with Turkey, and hit ISIL targets. On Friday, US-led air strikes near Kobani hit eight units of ISIL fighters as well as several vehicles, fighting positions and staging areas used by the militant group.

Blinken said there is now a long stretch of the border between Syria and Turkey that is actually controlled by Kurdish forces which are allied with other Syrians. On Saturday, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Kobani said they drove out ISIL militants from the town who had made an incursion on Thursday with suicide bombers and killed at least 200 civilians in ensuing clashes. The attack on Kobani followed a week after Kurds secured the town of Tel-Abyad, also on the Turkish border. The town's capture effectively restricted ISIL's ability to smuggle arms and fighters through Turkey to Raqqa.

Blinken said the capture of border areas by Kurds is "critical," because "if you can get that piece all across the border, you cut off the supply lines between Daesh and supplies and personnel coming in primarily from Turkey and going to Raqqa, their capital." Daesh is the Arabic acronym of ISIL.

http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_us-official-kurdish-gains-to-cut-off-isil-supplies-personnel-coming-from-turkey_392144.html

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3. Turkey’s desperate Syria policy

Omitting the humane strategy toward refugees, Turkish foreign policy on Syria is bankrupt.

First of all, Turkey has failed to realize any of its major goals in Syria. Second, many Turkish strategies have backfired. In the beginning, the Syrian crisis was about the security and territorial integrity of Syria. Today, it is about Turkish national security and even Turkish territorial integrity in equal measure.

In the past -- or, in the beloved terminology of Islamists, in the “old Turkey” -- Kemalists used to invite the army into domestic politics to help them. Today, Islamist actors are repeating this in foreign policy. If the end point of the Islamists' Syria policy is to involve the Turkish army, then where are all those brilliant Islamist intellectuals and advisers who were the champions of involvement in Syria?

There is an irony here. It should be called “Turkey's Syria irony.” All major risks in Syria threaten Turkey as much as they threaten the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Take the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIL or ISIS). It poses as much risk for Damascus as for Ankara. In an ironic situation, Ankara seems to think that the Syrian Kurds are more dangerous than ISIS. Last week, a very pro-government newspaper's headline declared, “The [Syrian pro-Kurdish Democratic Union Party] PYD is more dangerous than ISIS.” This simple headline deserves to be archived as historic evidence. No other evidence could be more telling of the desperation of the Turkish Islamist government concerning Syria?

http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/gokhan-bacik/turkeys-desperate-syria-policy_392167.html

[Jefferson23]

5. +1

The short sightedness and stupidity is plentiful...these men should resign and go home.

**Ankara seems to think that the Syrian Kurds are more dangerous than ISIS.

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4. Turkish President, MHP leader in row over support to Uighur Turks

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli have clashed over which of them has actually displayed solidarity with the Muslim Uighur minority in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.

Messages that Bahçeli posted on his Twitter account late on June 27 fueled the row, as he suggested that nobody was even talking about the plight of Uighur Turks, while everybody has been obsessed with the developments in the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobane on the Turkish border with Syria, which has been the scene of deadly clashes between Kurdish forces and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters.

“From Nişantaşı to Yüksekova, everybody is concerned about the fight between two terrorist groups in Kobane. Nobody is speaking about China’s brutality in East Turkestan, not even mentioning it,” Bahçeli said.

Violent attacks and unrest have been on the rise in recent years both across China and in Xinjiang. Beijing has blamed what it describes as “terrorist” incidents on violent separatists from the vast, resource-rich region, where information is often difficult to verify inde-pendently. Rights groups accuse China’s government of cultural and religious repression that they say fuels unrest in Xinjiang.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-president-mhp-leader-in-row-over-support-to-uighur-turks.aspx?pageID=238&nID=84652&NewsCatID=338

[KoKo]

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