#Iraqi top commander says #Turkey still backing #ISIL, #BoycottTurkishProduct
The commander of the Iraqi volunteer forces fighting the ISIL Takfiri group says there is no evidence that Turkey has altered its stance against the terrorist group and is still supporting the militants.
“Turkey has not changed its stance; it carried out operations against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), which is fighting with the Kurds against ISIL in Syria,” Hadi al-Ameri said on Monday.
Ameri made the remarks after a meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Turkey launched a military campaign against what it claims to be ISIL targets in Syria and PKK positions in northern Iraq last week, after an ISIL attack in the southwestern Turkish town of Suruç claimed the lives of at least 32 people on July 20.
“Turkey still supports ISIL right now,” said Ameri, adding “I think [the strikes] Turkey carried out were to support ISIL and not what some had imagined,” said Ameri.
Ankara blames the PKK for a string of attacks against its security forces in recent days and has vowed to continue fighting ISIL, which has taken over parts of land in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
Turkey’s pledge to confront ISIL Takfiris comes despite its longtime support for the militancy against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with reports showing that Ankara actively trains and arms the Takfiri extremists operating in Syria, and also facilitates the safe passage of foreign terrorists into the Arab country.
Iraq’s army has been joined by Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen in operations to drive the ISIL terrorists out of the areas the Takfiri militants have seized.
Source: presstv
Kurdish YPG forces retake Syrian town from ISIL despite of Turkey & its allay ISIS attack on Kurd #BoycottTurkishProduct
Kurdish fighters have managed to retake a town in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo from Takfiri ISIL militants as they continue to push the terrorists back from the area. Report Presstv
The People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces took full control of the town of Sarrin, which lies northeast of the provincial capital of Aleppo and situated 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) east of the Euphrates River, on Sunday, following days of heavy clashes with ISIL terrorists, the Kurdish-language Rudaw television network reported on Monday.
Kurdish troopers also wrested control of the nearby districts of Mujbala, Iza’a, Tal Showaiha and Shaikh Salih.
Meanwhile, Syrian army forces inflicted heavy losses on foreign-backed militants as they carried out mop-up operations against them.
On Monday, scores of al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front terrorists were killed during intense clashes with Syrian troops in the Khan al-Sheeh neighborhood southwest of the capital, Damascus, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.
Syrian troopers also fired a barrage of mortar rounds at militant hideouts in Jubata al-Khashab and Tranja villages, located approximately four kilometers (2.4 miles) north of Syria’s southwestern city of Quneitra. A number of al-Nusra Front Takfiris were reportedly killed in the attacks.
Separately, Syrian government forces killed several ISIL militants on the outskirts of the ancient city of Palmyra, situated 215 kilometers (133 miles) northeast of Damascus.
The developments come as Syrian army soldiers and Kurdish forces have managed to make gains against ISIL terrorists in Syria’s northeastern city of Hasakah.
Last month, ISIL terrorists began their assault on Hasakah before capturing a number of its neighborhoods and forcing the evacuation of many of its residents.
The conflict in Syria, which started in March 2011, has reportedly claimed more than 230,000 lives up until now.
The violence has also forced over 3.8 million Syrians to take refuge in neighboring countries, including Jordan and Lebanon. More than 7.2 million others have been displaced within Syria, according to the United Nations.
How Erdogan foul the Kurd with Peace Process & now resumed the violent confrontation with the PKK
The Arab Spring was the invention of Davutoglu the neo-ottoman project According to Mr. Davutoglu, the nation states established after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire are artificial creations and Turkey must now carve out its own Lebensraum — a phrase he uses unapologetically. Doing so would bring about the cultural and economic integration of the Islamic world, which Turkey would eventually lead. Turkey must either establish economic hegemony over the Caucasus, the Balkans and the Middle East, or remain a conflict-riven nation-state that risks falling apart.
Davutoglu predicted that the overthrown of Arab dictatorships would be replaced with Islamic regimes, thus creating a regional ‘Muslim Brotherhood belt’ under Turkey’s leadership.
Davutoglu, who has argued that Turkey should create an Islamic Union by abolishing borders,
Arab Spring where going on in the Arab world and Turkey where concern that the Kurd my take the opportunity to ask for independent, therefore to coming down the Kurd Erdogan/Davutoglu use Turkish MIT to secretly negotiated with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and started the so called peace process. there was a reason why they called peace process because a process can be stopped and reversed.
Edrdogan wanted to become president needed Kurdish vote which even Iraqi Kurdish leader Barazani was campaign for Erdogan and it was successful.
Turkey wanted to get in EU the Kurd peace process was positive point.
So why Erdoğan resumed the violent confrontation with the PKK
The election of 2015 change everything because he was not expecting that the Kurdish party HDP will pass the threshold of 10% which they did and Erdogan lost the parliamentary majority that infuriated Erdogan.
The Kurd in Syria YPJ was and is having success in cleaning up the the Turkish allay Islamic State ISIS and the Kurds where making it very difficult for the Turks to supply ISIS with weapons and needed material.
Turkey needed the annexation of northern Syrian to destroy all evidence of Turkish link to Islamic state ISIS ISIL.
Davutoglu and Turkish MIT False Flag operations one failure after another prompted Erdogan to switch to military operation instate of MIT Turkish military intelligent.
#BoycottTurkishProduct
Report: Seized USB drives reveal Turkey’s links to ISIL
A senior Western official claimed that information gathered at the compound of Abu Sayyaf, the individual responsible for oil smuggling operations on behalf of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who was killed in a US commando operation a few months ago, points to high-level contacts between Turkish officials and leading ISIL members, the Guardian newspaper in the UK has recently reported.
While they had given voice to some resentment and mild criticism of Turkey‘s much-questioned approach against ISIL, until very recently, Western officials had refrained from directly criticizing Turkish decision makers. The recent revelation appears to be the first public criticism of Turkey’s approach and could complicate Ankara’s relations with its Western allies.
Turkey, which entered the fray against ISIL after two years of reluctance to take an active part in the international coalition against the militant group, had faced charges of ignoring, if not openly facilitating, militants’ border crossings to join ISIL in Syria. Ankara’s refutations of such accusations seemingly fall short of convincing its Western allies, and the Guardian report will likely fuel underlying questions about ISIL’s links with Turkey.
“In the wake of the raid that killed Abu Sayyaf, suspicions of an undeclared alliance have hardened,” the Guardian report said.
One senior Western official familiar with the intelligence found at the compound told the Guardian that “direct dealings between Turkish officials and ranking Isis [ISIL] members was now ‘undeniable.’”
The Guardian report continues: “’There are hundreds of flash drives and documents that were seized there,’ the official told the Observer. ‘They are being analyzed at the moment, but the links are already so clear that they could end up having profound policy implications for the relationship between us and Ankara.’”
With Turkey now striking ISIL targets in Syria after a bomb attack suspected to have been carried out by a militant killed 32 in the southern Turkish town of Suruç near the Syrian border and the killing of a soldier on the border, Ankara may have earned loud praise and strong support among its Western allies.
But questions and charges of tacit cooperation with the militant group over the past two years will, especially after the discovery of new information at Abu Sayyaf’s compound, overshadow today’s efforts and haunt Ankara’s ties with the West in years to come.
Turkey could ‘tip Syria balance’ as Kurdish villages shelled
With its warplanes hitting Kurdish targets in neighbouring northern Iraq again on Sunday, Turkey also called an extraordinary NATO meeting for Tuesday over its cross-border “anti-terror” offensive against Kurdish separatists and Islamic State jihadists.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg defended Turkey’s right to defend itself but told the BBC “of course self-defence has to be proportionate”.
And he cautioned Turkey about burning bridges with the Kurds. “ForTurkish tanks shelled Kurdish-held villages in northern Syria as Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Monday that a military campaign by Ankara could “change the balance” in the region. years there has been progress to try to find a peaceful political solution,” he told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK. “It is important not to renounce that… because force will never solve the conflict in the long term.”
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — which pushed IS out of the Syrian flashpoint of Kobane early this year with the help of Western air strikes — said Turkish tanks hit its positions and those of allied Arab rebels in the village of Zur Maghar in Aleppo province.
The “heavy tank fire” wounded four members of the allied rebel force and several villagers, the YPG — which Turkey accuses of being allied to its outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — said in a statement.
It said there was later a second round of shelling against Zur Maghar and another village in the same area.
The tank fire was also reported by activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
But Turkish officials denied the military was deliberately targeting Syrian Kurds said it was responding to fire from the Syrian side of the border.
“The bombing of the village is out of the question,” a foreign ministry official told AFP. “Turkey has its rules of engagement. If there’s fire from the Syrian side, it will be retaliated in kind.”
Zur Maghar is on Turkish border, east of the town of Jarabulus, which is held by IS.
– Deal with US –
“Instead of targeting IS terrorist occupied positions, Turkish forces attack our defenders’ positions,” the YPG added.
As the bombardments were going on Davutoglu told a group of Turkish newspaper editors that Turkey’s intervention would “change the balance” in the region, but ruled out sending ground troops into Syria.
He denied Turkey was worried by Kurdish gains against jihadists in northern Syria.
“Why should we be disturbed? If we had been disturbed by Kurdish gains we would have been by Barzani’s Kurdish region,” he said, referring to the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq.
Turkey has given a green light to the United States to use of its Incirlik air base to attack IS targets in Syria after months of tough negotiations.
Davutoglu declined to provide details of the agreement but said the concerns of Ankara, which had been pressing for a no-fly zone, were addressed “to a certain extent”, according to the Hurriyet daily.
“Air cover is important, the air protection for the Free Syrian Army and other moderate elements fighting Daesh,” he said, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.
“If we will not send ground forces — and that we will not do — then certain elements that cooperate with us on the ground must be protected,” Davutoglu added.
Tensions are running high in Turkey, with police routinely using water cannon to disperse nightly protests in Istanbul and other major cities denouncing IS and the government’s policies on Syria.
Davutoglu ordered the air strikes and artillery barrages after IS violence spilled over into Turkey last Monday with a suicide bombing in a town close to the Syrian border that killed 32 people.
This incensed Turkey’s Kurds, who have long accused the government of actively colluding with IS, allegations the government categorically denies.
Protests raged in a flashpoint Kurdish and leftist district of Istanbul, leaving one policeman dead, as police said 900 people with alleged links to IS, the PKK and other leftist organisations had been rounded up.
Ankara started its campaign on Friday against IS targets in Syria but then expanded it to PKK rebels in neighbouring northern Iraq who are bitterly opposed to the jihadists.
The strikes seemed to torpedo long-running peace talks, with the separatists saying conditions were no longer in place to observe its ceasefire.
The Turkish army Sunday blamed PKK militants for a deadly car bomb attack that killed two of its soldiers in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, further shaking the truce.
The PKK’s military wing, the People’s Defence Forces (HPG), claimed the car bomb attack in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province but gave much higher toll of eight soldiers killed.
– ‘Don’t give up on peace’ –
The HPG said three more PKK fighters had been killed in Turkish air strikes Saturday, after one was killed in the first wave.
Two Turkish policemen were shot dead Wednesday while sleeping in their homes in the southeast, in murders also claimed by the PKK.
Meanwhile Turkey, NATO’s only majority Muslim member, called an extraordinary meeting of ambassadors of NATO states on Tuesday for talks on its military operations.
With Washington gladdened by Turkey’s readiness to step up its fight against IS, the White House backed Turkey’s right to bomb the PKK which the United States categorises as a terror group.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel however urged Davutoglu “not to give up the peace process with the Kurds but to continue it despite all the difficulties,” her spokesman Georg Streiter said.
Azerbaijan unprepared for war in either military or economic terms – Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan
Active negotiations were, to an extent, unexpected in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are aware this phase is important for both Armenia and Azerbaijan, political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan told reporters on Monday.
According to him, Azerbaijan is now unprepared for war.
“Nevertheless, no serious developments should be expected. A presidential meeting is the most that can be expected. To break the deadlock in the talks, the co-chairs only have to organize a meeting. And one can hardly say whether or not they will succeed. It will depend on the events on the battlefield,” Mr Melik-Shahnazaryan said.
According to him, the intensified negotiating process has overlapped the regional developments, particularly Iran’s cooperation with the Six. Russia-US regional cooperation has been restarted and Azerbaijan is sparing no efforts to keep border tensions.
“I can assure you Azerbaijan is succeeding. It launches actions when any regional developments get under way,” Mr Melik-Shahnazaryan said.
As regards a possibility of new war, the expert said that he does not see Azerbaijan is prepared for that as it is unprepared for resuming hostilities either in military or economic terms.
“Social problems are very grave in Azerbaijan, and the country is not going to receive any support even from its strategic ally, Turkey. Therefore Azerbaijan cannot have any military success, whereas the Armenian side has high chances,” Mr Melik-Shahnazaryan said.
Thus, the only thing Azerbaijan can do is to create tensions on the border thereby getting political dividends.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ visits should not be linked to other European officials’ visits, as Europe’s task is to map out possible developments. Armenia’s role is increasing as Iran is trying to stress Armenia’s role in the region.
So the task is to make Azerbaijan face permanent border tension thereby divesting it of this “monopoly right.”
Source: tert.am
Armenia Public Services Regulatory Commission to invite consulting companies to study advisability of electricity price rise
The Public Services Regulatory Commission held a meeting on Monday approved an invitation to consultations on operation of Armenia’s electric energy system.
The Commission approved the decision in the context of Armenian President Serzh Sagsyan’s statement at a meeting with officials in charge of Armenia’s economic policy on June 27, 2015, with a view to raising the level of public confidence in the Commission and ruling out any comments on the legal or economic grounds for an electricity price rise.
In conformity with the decision, the Commission’s working group has been instructed to send out invitations to the best five international consulting companies and, within three days after the deadline for their offers expires, sum up their offers and present the results to the government staff.
According to the decision, the consultations are supposed to provide reasonable answers to the following questions: Is a planned electricity price rise justified? Is no raising electricity prices a potential threat to Armenia’s energy system?
A consulting company is to conduct an in-depth survey of different options of reducing electricity prices, considering the relevant regional and international procedures and present a list of priority measures as soon as possible.
After the two phases, considering unfolding discussions of the 2016-2036 strategic energy sector development program and a need to compare the results, the consulting company may be involved in further development of a long-term strategic program and in relevant consultations.
Armenian Genocide monument at Fresno State vandalized
Three months after the unveiling of the Armenian Genocide monument at Fresno State, the structure has been vandalized, Fresno Bee reports.
“The souls of the victims are disturbed,” said Berj Apkarian, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia in Fresno.
Someone yanked one of the panel from the monument last week, Apkarian said.
Fresno State said they’re investigating the tampering of the plaque. It was unbolted but not taken, and they said it will be re-installed this week.
“The panel had a lot of history,” Apkarian said. “It’s very heartbreaking and I’m so disappointed.”
“I am saddened by the recent vandalism attempt at our beautiful Armenian Genocide Memorial Monument,” said Joseph Castro, President of Fresno State. “I ask the campus and community to join together in protecting our historic monument.”
Apkarian plans to work with Castro and police to find out who vandalized the monument. The panel is made of Spanish steel, he said.
“This is a hate crime,” Apkarian said. “It must be taken very seriously, and it can’t be tolerated.”
The monument was unveiled in April to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide.
“The monument has a symbolic and historic importance for the community,” Apkarian said. “The community must take steps to not tolerate such acts.”
Obama Authorized Turkey to annex northern Syrian & kill Kurd #BoycottTurkishProduct
Deal on buffer area adds pressure on UK parliament to allow British military involvement in Syria and raises questions about Kurdish peace process,
After several days of prevarication, US officials have confirmed the Obama administration’s agreement to Turkish demands to set up a coalition-protected “safe zone” inside northern Syria in return for permitting US aircraft to use Turkey’s military bases to attack Islamic State.
The safe zone will stretch for 68 miles along the Turkey-Syria border, from the town of Jarabulus to Marea, and will be about 40 miles deep, reaching to the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria’s second city. Under a deal agreed last week by Barack Obama and and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, US and coalition air strikes will attempt to clear the area of Isis fighters.
US officials said the still evolving plan envisaged occupation of the zone by “moderate” Syrian rebel forces including western-trained units from the Free Syrian Army, protected by coalition air cover. The area is largely beyond the control of Damascus, so the danger of clashes with Syrian regime forces or air defences is reduced. The Syrian military will in any case be told to keep out of the zone.
Erdoğan’s government has long been pushing for a buffer zone or no-fly zone inside Syria, similar to those imposed by the US, Britain and France over northern and southern Iraq in the 1990s, partly to create a safe haven for Syrian refugees. Until now the US has refused, fearing it could trigger clashes with forces loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and enrage his Iranian and Russian backers.
Washington is still resisting use of the term “no-fly zone”, preferring the more innocuous “safe zone”. But after initially ignoring Turkish media reports that a deal had been struck, US officials told the Washington Post and New York Times a protected area could soon be a reality.
Over the weekend, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said: “When areas in northern Syria are cleared of the [Isis] threat, the safe zones will be formed naturally. We have always defended safe zones and no-fly zones … People who have been displaced can be placed in those safe areas.”
US officials did not dispute the Turkish description and said American and coalition air cover would effectively operate around the clock while Isis targets were located, the Post reported.
The US-Turkey agreement on a safe zone will increase the pressure on Britain’s parliament and government to allow UK combat aircraft to go into action over Syria alongside the US, as they do in Iraq. David Cameron has already signalled willingness to fight Isis in Syria, a proposal he repeated on Monday.
Turkey hopes some of the two million Syrian refugees who have fled across the border may find safe haven in the new zone. But Erdoğan’s government is also anxious to prevent the area being taken over by Syrian Kurdish forces known as People’s Protection Units (YPG), if and when Isis is driven out.
Many Kurds seek an independent region in northern Syria, which they call Rojava (Western Kurdistan) – an aspiration which Ankara regards as a security threat. The YPG has made significant advances in recent months.
Western allies are worried about the consequences that recent Turkish air strikes on Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq will have on the overall Kurdish peace process. US officials, however, are said to be more sympathetic to Ankara’s concerns about Syrian Kurd forces moving west and taking control of large sections of the border adjacent to Turkey.
Erdoğan used last week’s volte-face, when Turkey finally began targeting Isis after months of inaction, to initiate a simultaneous offensive against the PKK on the grounds that they are all terrorists. Turkey denies it is also targeting the Syrian Kurds’ Democratic Union party (PYD) and its armed wing, the YPG, despite a border shelling incident overnight in which YPG fighters were injured.
More than 800 alleged Isis sympathisers and Kurdish activists have been arrested inside Turkey. Kurdish politicians accuse Erdoğan of “setting the country on fire” as a prelude to calling a snap election, in a bid to reverse his party’s losses in last month’s polls.
This has led some analysts to suggest the US tacitly agreed to the new assault on the Kurds in return for Erdoğan’s cooperation on Isis, a claim that is impossible to prove. Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey’s prime minister, said at the weekend that Turkey would not send ground troops into Syria. The deal with the US has “changed the regional game”, he added.
“Now the question is whether [Turkey’s] priority is to join the western alliance in its struggle against Isis or target the PKK in Iraq and Kurdish political circles including the Peace and Democracy party (HDP) inside the country. The other question is whether Turkey brokered a deal with the US to have a free hand against the PKK,” said Hurriyet newspaper columnist Nuray Mert. “What is clearer is that the Turkish government considered using this policy change as a chance to suppress Kurds by including them as part of its ‘war against terror’.”
The growing crisis along the Turkish border has raised international alarm bells. Nato will discuss the situation on Tuesday, at Turkey’s request. After ignoring alliance concerns about Isis for almost a year, Ankara now wants its full backing and support.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, told Çavuşoğlu that Turkey’s efforts to fight terrorism were welcome but the Kurdish peace process should be kept “alive and on track”. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, delivered a similar message to Davutoğlu in a phone call on Sunday.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was also in touch with Erdoğan at the weekend. Moscow and Tehran are certain to resist any development that threatens their ally, Assad, and the regional power balance. From their perspective, it looks like the de facto territorial partition of Syria has begun.
source: the Guardian