A convoy of twenty Turkish tanks entered northern Syria on Wednesday morning almost at the same time US vice president Joe Biden was entering the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, around 11 o’ clock in the morning.
Two symbolic “entrances” that mark the joint Turkey-US operation in Syria: Turkish tanks on the ground, US air fighters in the air.
The joint operation has the code name Euphrates Shield and aims to clear Daesh from northern Syria.
The Prime Minister’s office in Ankara said in a statement that
“The Turkish army on Wednesday launched a cross-border operation named “Euphrates Shield” along with the U.S.-led coalition in Syria’s northern border city of Jarablus to clear the area from the Daesh terror organization.”
According to daily Sabah,
“Turkish special forces entered Jarablus by land along with aerial support from Turkish F-16 jets, military sources said.
Turkish forces also used intense artillery fire as well as tanks in cross-border attacks against Daesh elements in Jarablus, officials said.
Later in the day, tanks crossed the border into Syria and resumed their operation inside Syrian territory.
According to military sources, some 70 targets were destroyed only by the artillery fire and tanks which were stationed on Turkish soil.”
This morning, local and international media spoke of ” a surprise move”.
Surprise? Certainly planned long ago, when Joe Biden visit was announced beginning of the month and President Erdogan had a warm handshake with Russian President Putin.
The Turkish troops launched a massive offensive against ISIS targets in Jarablus, near the western bank of the Euphrates River, some 3km away from the Turkish-Syrian border, the American Vice launched massive negotiations on whether to extradite the US-based Islamic preacher Fetullah Gulen to Turkey.
The whole regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames Gulen as the mastermind behind the coup attempt of July 15th.Erdogan put all enemies of Turkey in one bag and shake it again and again. In one breath Erdogan names the enemies of Turkey as “Gulen, Kurdish PKK, Daesh.”
Interiro Minister Efkan Ala said this morning that “operation Euphrates Shield to clear Jarabulus of Daesh is necessary for Turkey’s security.” He added that the operation “seeks to clearring the area of terrorists and boosting security, and to support the territorial integrity of Syria and would continue until the “terror threat at our border is eliminated.”
The USA is reluctant to extradite Gulen, consequently Ankara plays all the cards it has in its hands.
A kiss with Putin to the East, a kiss and a joint operation to the West. The Ottoman Empire diplomacy is alive and kicking.
Five hundred years ago, on 24 August 1516, the armies of Ottoman Sultan Selim A’, launched an offensive near the town of Dabiq, 44 km north of Aleppo, Syria. The battle was part of the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17) between the Ottoman Empire and the Arab Mamluk Sultanate, which ended in an Ottoman victory and conquest of much of the Middle East, bringing about the destruction of the Mamluk Sultanate. The Ottoman victory in the the Battle of Marj Dabiq gave Selim’s armies control of the entire region of Syria and opened the door to the invasion of Egypt.
Meanwhile it has been announced that the Foreign Ministers of USA and Russia will meet on August 26th in Geneva to talk about Syria and Ukraine.
Turkey does this not because of IS (rumor is that Erdogan’s family traded oil with IS) but because he wants to prevent that Kurdish provinces in Northern Syria get united after the Kurds defeat IS there. The Kurds he targets are not PKK but PYD which is actually an ally of the Americans against IS. By targeting PYD Erdogan sends a clear message to the US. Will the US throw PYD under the bus to save its relation with Turkey? Ottoman Empire diplomacy indeed alive and kicking. Sultan Erdogan plays it well. He holds the key to many international issues but he is creating many enemies now as well.
yet turkey’s geopolitical position will always have leaders pat Erdogan’s ears. BTW you’re right about the Kurds. wanted to add the Kurdish aspect of the operation but i got involved in other issues
Countries with a geopolitical position are either blessed or cursed. They are blessed when they are strong and united. They are weak when they can’t defend themselves from foreign meddling. For now Turkey is strong. The ‘coup’ gave Erdogan the chance to purge his society from his adversaries and to see who his friends are. I don’t put much credit to Turkey’s ‘new friendship’ with Russia. Turkey is mistrusted by everybody at this moment: The EU, US, Russia, Arab countries, Iran, Israel and China. When Turkey is weak, these countries will target Turkey. Turkey knows that and in order for it to be strong it must eliminate any internal threat to its cohesion. So that is why he targets the Kurds. With that he also does a favor to other countries that have Kurd minorities such as Syria, Iraq and Iran. The goal of the Kurds is a homeland and that means that all these countries would have to give up territory.
Just like Kurdish Clans support AKP only Erdogun’s bedfellow Barsani wants territory for his fascist Klan, all other want radical-democratic anti-national structures and people like you distort this by accusing them for nationalism, that could only get reality via ethnic cleansings – the same tactics is using Erdogun by calling the “Turkish Syriza” “Kurdish”
Well, there you go. Biden goes all brown nosing and tells the Kurds they need to retreat to the left bank of the the Euphrates, giving up hard won territory. He also apologizes for not giving support earlier to Erdogan after the coup.
US foreign policy remains the disaster that it has been for the last few decades. They always make one of two mistakes — interfering in a region with all guns blazing for no good reason at all (eg Vietnam), and leaving with their tails between their legs; or interfering in a semi-committed amd half-hearted way, usually in a region of great importance to the world, then letting down their allies at short notice and basically fucking up everyone and everything.
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Well done, USA. Congratulations, Obama, on your joke of a Nobel Peace Prize. {PS, I am thinking of possibly writing a book about physics: could someone nominate me for the Nobel Physics Prize?]
They gave Obama a Nobel Peace Prize for wanting peace, for having good intentions. But the opposite came out of it. He was actually nominated before he entered the White House. I still think with amusement and also pain how he toured Europe while still a candidate and these hundreds of thousands of naive people showing up and applauding him. I told a friend who had lived in the US and who was all enthusiastic about him that Obama only could fail. But I was wrong, it was even worse. Mind you though, he inherited a horrible situation (economy back home and fucked ME by Bush). He went to Cairo University and gave a famous speech how he would develop new relations with the Muslim world but I guess the people there who were rejoicing did not have this cluster fuck in mind. A couple of years later the Muslim Brotherhood came to power and was overthrown by the military with Obama complaining about the undemocratic nature of that intervention.
But I need to give him that he wanted to hold on to his election promise of bringing troops back home from Iraq. However, he kept some there and bringing the troops back along with purging the country of Baath party people actually led to the rise of IS.
But yes, America’s foreign policy is a disaster. I cannot imagine that all people involved in that are that stupid. So perhaps it is by design?
My point about the Nobel Prize is that it is not supposed to be given for future actions. Most of the serious (science) prize winners have to wait decades after their research and publications to receive such an award. The Norwegians fucked up bigtime in their stupidity in awarding it like that, and seem not to be able to apologise for their politicised stupidity.
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As for US foreign policy, by design? I don’t think so, simply because the USA has not benefited from the chaos and wars caused by their incompetence. The world has more terrorism and more genuine refugees than ever, and the USA is affected by terrorism now (which it was not before 11/9). So no, this is just arrogance and stupidity, typical of people and institutions with money and power.
Yes, the fucked up big time. One member of the committee even admitted that and was forced to resign.
Some say America is Rome and Europe its vassal states. Rome did not hesitate to throw its allies under the bus if it could profit from it. Well, the Romans had an excuse for their stupidity: lead cups. America? Perhaps too much GMO, who knows.
This tail was 2 million massacred people in Vietnam against ridiculously 50.000 cowards that are now dead heroes that were bombing Asia that had never any chance to defend itself, not even one helicopter, just like today all cowards following this example that before WW 2 still was a war-crime Pablo Picasso painted, they are bombing against victims that have no airborne or any gun-power to shoot back and get these murderers off the sky.