Kurds see that IS is a Turkish subcontractor used against the Kurds.

October 13, 2014 By administrator

The state is fighting Kurds through IS.’

On Oct. 7, I joined my colleague and old friend Hasan Cemal at dinner in Istanbul. While I was on my way to the restaurant, I learned about disturbances in the Kurdish-inhabited provinces of Turkey, loss of lives and the imposition of a curfew in six provincial centers and a number of districts.

By Cengiz Candar is a columnist for Al-Monitor‘s Turkey Pulse.

As we sat down for dinner, we were informed that in different areas in Istanbul clashes had erupted between protesters and security forces; Cemal was receiving calls nonstop. He told me early the next morning that he would go to the border province of Mardin to be hosted by Mayor Ahmet Turk, a veteran Kurdish politician and perhaps the most respected Kurdish name in Turkish public opinion.

This news did not surprise me. Cemal is considered the dean of the Turkish journalism corps. He has been in the profession for over 40 years, and he served as the editor-in-chief of Turkey’s oldest paper Cumhuriyet for a decade. During the military rule of the early 1980s, he was on the Executive Committee of the International Press Institute. After a long and brilliant professional career, he dedicated himself to field reporting mainly on the Kurdish issue. He traveled frequently and developed strong connections among the Kurdish political elite. He just published a new book titled, “Kurdistan Gunlukleri” (“Kurdistan Chronicles”), about his extensive travels and contacts in Rojava, the Syrian Kurdish area adjacent to Turkey’s border.

While the aggression of the Islamic State (IS) on Kobani was underway with a reluctant Turkey standing by, watching extremist Islamist forces on the verge of slaughtering the Kurds and thinking of its repercussions in Turkey’s Kurdish population, Cemal could not do anything else but go to the region to report.

And that’s what he did. These are excerpts of a first piece he wrote on Oct. 8 under the title “Serhildan-I” (“Uprising-I” in Kurdish). Reading Cemal’s impressions made the title even more interesting: “Ahmet Turk said, ‘Even I am confounded by this Kobani issue. I was thinking that in the end Turkey would help the Kurds. I was wrong. It didn’t.’”

Cemal believes for Ankara to leave the Kurds alone to face the barbaric IS gangs was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. He wrote, “Those who had never voted for us, those who had supported the AKP [Justice and Development Party] were all at Suruc. They are all in the streets now. Ankara’s policy of let’s leave it to IS to cleanse the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] an PYD [Democratic Union Party] and to teach them a lesson has destroyed everything. Beheadings by IS, the rape of women and Turkey’s passivity in the face of all this barbarity has become a breaking point for the Kurds. … Before it was the guerrillas who said that this state cannot be trusted, but now the people in the street are saying it, too. Kurds see how the state is turning a blind eye to IS.”

“The TV was on. We were watching the Sterk and Ronahi Kurdish channels. The news ticker read: ‘A statement by the KCK [Kurdistan Communities Union]: Kobani is AKP’s new war concept.’ A second statement followed: ‘Don’t leave the streets. Every place is Kobani, every place is resistance.’ Striking pictures were aired of streets full of people; places on fire. Ahmet Turk said, ‘I don’t remember anything like this. This is the first time. This is a true uprising, a serhildan. Last night, the governor called me to say, Tell them to go home. It was like a joke. Who is going to listen to us? In popular actions like this a point comes when you can no longer keep a rein.’

“In referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ahmet Turk said, ‘In the people’s eyes, Erdogan is now a dictator. What kind of arrogance is that?’

“Ahmet Turk continued, ‘Listen, what we have been living through for the past two days is serhildan of Kobani, an uprising. It is beyond an organization. It is an uprising of the people. This state’s mentality has not changed in substance. Look, years later tanks are back on the streets. With this sort of state mentality Kurdish equality is a false dream. You can’t solve the issue with this mentality.'”

Cemal then quotes views of some anonymous Kurds: “On separatism one of them said, ‘The AKP’s policy is to back IS. That’s the policy that is dividing Turkey. Kurds now see this reality. They understand that the solution process is not seeking to solve the question but to undo the Kurds.’

“Another added, ‘Kurds see that IS is a subcontractor used against the Kurds. The state is fighting Kurds through IS.’

“Another said, ‘Erdogan put IS and the PKK in the same basket; called both of them terror organizations. This really hurt the Kurds. They couldn’t believe it.'”

At midnight on Oct. 9, Cemal wrote the “Serhildan-II” piece from the Kurdish town of Suruc on the frontier separated by the railroad from Kobani:

“You hear grievances against Erdogan every step of the way. He said Kobani is about to fall and will fall. Is he aware that Diyarbakir has already fallen? If it continues like this, may God help us; the entire country will be set on fire. Is Erdogan aware of this?”

Arzu Yilmaz is a young academic of Kurdish origin. She is a doctoral candidate in the School of Political Sciences at Ankara University, and she has a reputation as the most perceptive academic personality in regard to the Kurdish issue. For her Ph.D. dissertation, she spent more than two years in Dahuk, Iraqi Kurdistan, where she studied the Kurdish political movement. The moment Turkey’s Kurdish provinces erupted, she wrote the following:

“Don’t let anyone play the three monkeys. Turkey is openly heading to war, not only across its borders but also inside. Kurds have risen. In Kurdistan, there is popular uprising with unprecedented popular participation. … What is clear is that it doesn’t matter what city, town, village. It is like a bomb ready to go off.”

A small news item that may not have attracted the attention of many people, for me is the most striking. Teyrenbazen Azadiya Kurdistan (TAK), believed to be a faction within the PKK that was responsible for a number of acts of urban terrorism, issued a statement that read: “It is time to call to account the owner of the gun barrels pointing at Kobani. From now on, all major cities are our fields of action and all enemy forces are our primary targets. When Kobani is burning, Turkish cities will not be sleeping comfortably. TAK will transfer the conflagration at Kobani to enemy forces in big cities and turn them to hell.”

A media report on Oct. 9 described TAK’s record as follows: “TAK, which is part of the PKK but operates independently from the organization, has until now claimed responsibility for many bomb attacks against big cities and tourist destinations. The attacks in Kusadasi, Marmaris and Antalya in 2005 and 2006, and [the attacks] on June 22, 2010, in Istanbul that killed five people, four of them soldiers, were among those claimed by TAK. The attack on Oct. 31, 2010, at Taksim in Istanbul that wounded 32 people, and [the attack] on Sept. 20, 2011, in Ankara that killed three were also claimed by this organization.”

Turkey is heading down a very dangerous path toward violence, with the potential of a civil war and/or intercommunal fighting. This would be very bad news. Even worse, the PKK and its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan may not be able to control the developments.

We will be watching the scope of the spontaneity of the Kurdish outrage in Turkey and the talent of the Kurdish political elite to handle the situation.

For the government — which seems to have lost its ability to think comprehensively — the task to prevent Turkey from drifting into a civil war depends mainly on the Kurdish political elite and their control over the new generation of Kurds, whose outrage has grown further with the situation in Kobani.

Because if this is a “serhildan,” then it may be the harbinger of worse to come.

Iraqi Christian village Al Qosh takes the fight to ‘IS’

October 13, 2014 By administrator

While the world’s focus is on Kobani, “Islamic State” fighters are continuing their campaign against minorities in Iraq. In the ancient village of Al Qosh, a group of poorly armed Christians are trying to stop them. report DW.com

Mrayma Mansour, who leads the night patrol of Assyrian Christian fighters in the town of Al Qosh, looks jumpy. He has a dagger tucked into the waist band of his fatigues and his large green eyes are bloodshot.

Around him sit his men, holding hand-me-down weapons and drinking sugary tea. The talk is of betrayal. When the Kurdish peshmerga forces retreated from the “Islamic State” (IS) advance on Christian towns at the beginning of August, Mrayma’s and his men stayed on, not knowing if Al Qosh would be attacked. IS forces were just a few kilometers south. Almost all the residents fled, fearing the worst. “We had 70-80 men who stayed and stood watch on the mountain,” he said. “They were from different local parties, fighters, men with guns. We were scared thieves would come.”

Al Qosh, an Assyrian Christian town of around 6,000 people, overlooks the flat Ninawa plains from its hillside perch. Families are now cautiously returning and peshmerga fighters are pushing back again on the front line, just 15 kilometers away. A lone-shopkeeper mans a corner store in the boarded up bazaar. The afternoon tolling of the church bells and the passing of an occasional vehicle punctuate the silence. The 7th century Rabban Hormizd monastery built in the cliffs overlooking the town is closed due to the security situation.

Peshmerga pullout

An air of unease still cloaks the town. A few peshmerga checkpoints dot the road between here and the front line just outside the town of Tel Isqof. Mrayma saw the peshmerga retreating from his lookout. “I saw cars and tanks withdrawing from Tel Isqof to Dohuk,” he says, “when we saw this we told our families to go because it’s not safe.”

Now the Christian fighters, who dress in camouflage and drive rusted-out vehicles, are determined to protect their beloved town, but they know they are no match for the IS forces. Instead they reassure residents and stay alert for signs of the peshmerga retreating. “If I see them withdrawing I know [IS] is coming so it is a good alarm,” he says, adding, “If they leave us and go what can we do? [IS] will kill us without weapons.”

Hemin Hawrami, who heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s foreign relations office, said that the peshmerga forces were “outgunned” by IS. There are around 100 fighters with the Assyrian Democratic Movement, and around 2,000 volunteers ready to fight, as well as forces aligned to different Christian parties.

Arms are bought privately or come from the Assyrian Democratic Movement and their supporters, say leaders.

In such a small community, rumors travel fast. Thaer is Mrayma’s father-in-law. Over a lunch of cracked wheat in their airy home, he says “yesterday people were shouting, telling us to leave our homes, but that was just a rumor.” He looks down. “Nobody knows why ISIS didn’t come here, maybe it is because we are in the mountains. But we are still scared, at any time we could be attacked.”

A village vs. IS

A deacon with the local church of Saint George, Wadhah Sabih, leans over and whispers to DW as prayers are recited in the ancient Syriac language. “We’ve defended Al Qosh many times against different enemies over centuries. But right now it’s impossible to defend ourselves,” he continues in hushed tones. “The army can’t stand before IS – so how can a small village? IS sold themselves to the devil.”

Christians are angry about being pushed from their ancient heartlands – August 10 this year was the first Sunday in centuries that the church bells of Saint George in Al Qosh didn’t ring, Wadhah tells DW.

efore 2003 it was estimated that there was 1.5 million Christians in Iraq, now there are around 400,000 left, many with plans to leave. Caught between Kurdish and Arab Iraq , the Ninawa plains has long been fought over, but when IS forces swept into control Mosul, ethnic and religious minorities say they felt terrified.

After massacres and the widespread displacement of the Yazidis religious minority, a new Yazidi fighting force was set up for self-protection around Sinjar.

“In Sinjar the [Yazidi] people don’t trust strange men, Kurd or Arab, to protect them – they want a share in protecting themselves. We don’t want to split Iraq, we just want to be in charge of our own place,” says Yaqoob Yaqo, an Assyrian Democratic Movement member of the Kurdish Regional parliament.

Taking charge

Christian politicians say other minorities in the Ninawa plains should also be able to protect themselves, including Shabaks and Yazidis. But it is unlikely that divergent militia groups will be able to defeat the IS fighters. Yaqoob knows that to have any fighting chance, they need backup.

The fighters have so far requested support; weapons, training and tactical coordination from Baghdad and Erbil. They have also called for international protection, in the form of a safe zone.

Mrayma echoes the views of many when he says that if international support is not given to his people, “I will get my passport, family and try to go to another country because it won’t be safe here.”

On a rocky bern at the edge of the town, Assyrian fighters continue to vigilantly man the defence as evening falls. A young fighter stares out at the flat burnt plains below him. Back in the town the church bells are tolling again. On narrow streets in the old heart of Al Qosh, a baby is being taken to be baptized. The people here have lost trust in their protectors; but they don’t yet know who in this conflict they can depend on.

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Armed PKK back in Turkey, senior group leader says

October 11, 2014 By administrator

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has deployed armed forces back to Turkey, said Cemil Bayık, a senior leader of the organization, also retreting his pessimism about the recent talks between the Turkish government and the PKK.

The PKK will restart fights in case killings of Kurds continue in Kobane, the Syrian border town where the clashes between the armed Kurdish forces and Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have contiued since more than three weeks.

News agencies report that ISIL keeps advancing in and outside the town, from where more than 150,000 people fled to Turkey.

“If things continue this way, the guerrilas will fight to defend our people. The core task of the guerillas is to defend the people,” Bayık reportedly said.

A group of PKK launched the symbolic withdrawal in May 2013, as part of the talks to resolve the decades-long Kurdish issue.

Bayık did not mention how many militants were sent back to the Turkish soil.

“As the government continues to deploy soldiers to the southeast and east, we decided to take action,” saying that a military action motion approved at the Turkish Parliament on earlier this week was “a declaration of war” against them.

A total of 37 people were killed this week’s unrest that broke at demostrations in the country, densely at provinces with high Kurdish population.

The PKK calls on government to do more for the Kurds trapped in Kobane. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan said Oct. 10 that Turkish soldiers were not mercenaries.

Battle for Baghdad: ISIS now within 8 miles of airport, armed with MANPADS

October 11, 2014 By administrator

Islamic State’s offensive on the Iraqi capital intensified as the jihadist fighters advanced as far as Abu Ghraib, a suburb only 8 miles away from Baghdad’s international airport.

The outer suburb of Abu Ghraib is also the site of the infamous prison the US military used to humiliate and torture Iraqi detainees.

There are reports by the Iraqi military that the militants are in possession of MANPAD anti-aircraft missiles. The short-range, shoulder-fired missiles can shoot down airplanes within a range of 15,000 feet.

The Iraqi military, aided by US military personnel, have so far failed in foiling the advance toward Baghdad of the Islamic State militia (also known as ISIS, or ISIL), which has expanded its control of huge swathes of Iraq and Syria despite the increase in US-led airstrikes.

A total of 60,000 Iraqi soldiers are assigned to defend the capital, alongside 12 teams of American advisors, an Iraqi officer told CBS News.

Meanwhile, undercover IS militants active within Baghdad are setting off bombs and carrying out attacks.
Swift advances have also been by the jihadist militia in Anbar, where Iraqi officials have made an open plea for military aid, warning the city will soon fall to IS.

The situation in Anbar, a town due west of Baghdad, is “fragile” a US official told AFP. IS has seized army bases in Anbar province, and has been shelling the provincial capital, Ramadi, 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Baghdad.
CNN reported that Iraqi troops in Anbar are in danger of being bottlenecked, citing a senior US defense official.

We do see ISIL continue to make gains in Anbar province and [are] mindful of how Anbar relates to the security of Baghdad,” another senior US defense official said.

Anbar province is home to Iraq’s second biggest dam at Haditha, a major source of water and electrical power.

The dam is currently controlled by Iraqi forces, and US airstrikes have targeted IS forces in the area .

It has been stated both by the US and Iraq that preventing IS from capturing the area is a key objective, as is holding Baghdad.

In Syria, IS forces are vying for control of Kobani, which they now control 40 percent. Kobani is on the Syria-Turkish border and has a Kurdish majority.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura warned Friday that if Kobani falls to ISIS, civilians there would “most likely be massacred.”

In June, ISIS insurgents quickly captured Iraq’s second-biggest city, Mosul, north of Baghdad. When they took the city, they seized a large amount of military US equipment originally given to the Iraqi army.

Syria Observer: ‘Islamic State’ takes Kurdish headquarters in Kobani

October 10, 2014 By administrator

The Syrian city of Kobani near the Turkish border is dangerously close to falling to self-proclaimed “Islamic State” militants. The UN envoy for Syria has asked the Turkish government to step in. Report DW

“Islamic State” (IS) militants are dangerously close to taking the Turkey-Syria border city of Kobani, seizing a secure compound on Friday according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The compound included the headquarters of the local Kurdish administration and the city prison in Ayn al-Arab, more commonly called Kobani or Kobane by its majority Kurdish population.

According to the Observatory, the militants were also shelling the eastern side of the city, site of the border crossing with Turkey, trapping the civilians remaining in the city and preventing further refugees fleeing Kobani.

The jidhadists have successfully surrounded Kobani on three sides and fighting between IS and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) continues street by street, despite nine US air raids on Thursday night.

The outgunned YPG has criticized the Turkish government for preventing their forces from resupplying. In an unusual step from the generally neutral United Nations, the UN Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has called for Ankara to allow Kurdish refugees to cross back across the border to help protect Kobani. He said that Turkey should “support the deterrent actions of the coalition through whatever means from their own territory,” and at the very least allow volunteers and equipment across the border to assist in defending the city, according to news agency AFP.

Mistura issued grave warnings about what would befall the city if overtaken by IS as he urged Turkey to consider the up to 700 civilians still in the city and the 12,000 gathered nearby: “If this falls, the 700 plus perhaps if they move a little bit further the 12,000 people … will be most likely massacred.”

Nearly 500 people have died since attacks began near Kobani in the middle of September, and an estimated 300,000 have fled the surrounding region. Fierce fighting has been concentrated on the city itself since IS militants overran the city’s defenses earlier this week.

If the jihadists take Kobani, they would control a large unbroken strip of the border with Turkey.

es/msh (AFP, dpa)

‘Islamic State is lesser evil for Turkey than Assad or Kurds’

October 10, 2014 By administrator

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is more concerned with the Kurdish problem in his own country and changing the Assad regime in Syria than with Islamic State militants, New Delhi based strategic studies professor Brahma Chellaney told RT.

RT: What’s it going to take for Ankara to do something to appease the Kurdish protesters, before the riots spin out of control?

Brahma Chellaney: Turkey is facing a bottom challenge largely because of the President Erdogan’s role in the rise of Islamic State. President Erdogan has played a crucial role in the efforts of the US and others to topple President Assad. He was the one who invited the CIA to come and actually train the Syrian rebels. Now he’s facing the blowback, and that blowback is going to be quite severe. In fact it’s going to get Turkey down the same road that Pakistan has traveled. So we are going to see the “Pakistanization” of Turkey in the coming years, and the Kurdish issue is one dimension in the larger picture.

RT: Some pro-Kurdish protesters have resorted to violence. How’s this going down with their supporters at home and abroad?

BC: The Kurds have long been repressed in Turkey. They’re not a small minority but a large minority, they dominate southeastern Turkey, the areas bordering with Syria. So they can be a major headache for the Turkish government, especially if the Kurdish insurgency were to revive in Turkey. The Turkish government, I think, handled these protests very prudently. If it tries to use too much force against these Kurdish protesters, the backlash could be quite severe and could trigger a revived Kurdish insurgency.

RT: Would a Turkish ground offensive against Islamic State be able to achieve a quick victory or is Ankara’s army more likely to get bogged down?

BC: Let’s be clear on one thing, for President Erdogan, the Islamic State is a lesser evil than President Assad and the Kurds. So he is even not sending his ground forces to battle the Islamic State. After all, his policies have contributed to the rise of Islamic State. He will not put his army against the Islamic State. That is the reason why Turkish tanks are just watching silently as IS terrorists continue to attack this town of Kobani from all sides.

RT: Turkey has reiterated its strong stance against the Syrian government, while Damascus says Ankara is acting as an aggressor. Is regime change in Syria still at the top of the agenda for Turkey?

BC: In fact, President Erdogan is telling Washington that if the US wants the Turkish military to intervene in Syria, it has to be on the specific promise by Washington that regime change in Damascus is part of the larger American game plan. And the Americans at the moment are reluctant to give that promise, and that is the reason why President Erdogan is not pressing his forces into action, even in Kobani, which is the city under siege by the Islamic militants.

RT: Islamic State forces are fighting hard to take Kobani. Why’s the city so vital to them?

BC: It’s strategic because it’s located on the access route which connects Turkey right across northern Syria to Iraq, but I think even more than the strategic importance of Kobani, is its symbolic value. This is the only city in northern Syria where some pictures of what is happening are available to the outside world, because it’s located right on the border with Turkey and therefore, international journalists can actually report some action from Turkish territory. But in other places in northern Syria where fighting is still raging, where the Islamic State terrorists are on the attack, we have no international pictures for our audiences. And because Kobani is an ongoing story that the media is covering from Kurdish territory, it has acquired great importance symbolically.

Turkey’s Hegemonial Ventures in Syria and Iraq

October 10, 2014 By administrator

BY SETO BOYADJIAN, ESQ.

As the U.S.-led air strikes targeted the Islamic State (IS) fighters across the Syrian frontier with Turkey, the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani became more forsaken than ever. The township is now at the mercy of IS militants, who are poised to capture it after three weeks of siege.

Kobani, which is the Kurdish name of the township, is known by its Arabic name as Ayn al Arab. Its original name was Arabounar, given by the survivors of the Armenian Genocide who established it as a haven from Turkish atrocities.

No one is lifting a finger to protect the township and its people from certain slaughter by the IS henchmen. Least of all Turkey, whose armed forces and tanks are within sight across the border, yet they are acting as spectators to the calamity befalling on Kobani.

Turkey’s inaction is very typical toward all Syrian and Iraqi areas that are similarly situated as Kobani. This inaction is deliberate, because it veils Turkey’s hegemonial objectives in Syria and Iraq that were once part of the Ottoman Empire.

What lies behind this transparent veil represents the underpinnings of Turkey’s Neo-Ottoman aspirations. As territories belonging to the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago, Syria with its strategic location and Iraq with its petroleum riches are coveted prizes in the eyes of Turkey. They cannot be reincorporated into Turkey, but they must surely be brought under Turkish influence via the imposition of the kind of leadership in Bagdad and Damascus that is docile to Turkey.

To achieve this objective, the current governing leadership in Syria and Iraq must be weakened and thereafter replaced by “friendly” faces. This approach explains why since 2010 Turkey has been training, arming and assisting a garden variety of terrorist militants, including Al-Qaeda elements, to carry out their insurgency in Syria and Iraq. It also explains the current Turkish inaction in the face of IS onslaughts against townships such as Kobani. The Turkish motto of the day is: Let IS disintegrate Syria and destabilize Iraq. The more the disintegration and destabilization progress, the better are Turkey’s chances to reach its hegemonial prospects over its two neighbors who are supposed to be sovereigns.

Turkey views the insurgents in Syria and Iraq as natural allies in terms of enhancing its hegemonial objectives. Its belated and reluctant accession to the U.S. led coalition against IS will hardly bring any changes in its ties with the insurgent elements. Recent statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan evidence Turkey’s double-talk on the matter of the fight against IS and its militants.

Last Tuesday, in a televised speech in the eastern city of Gaziantep, Erdogan claimed that air-strikes were insufficient and that “ground operation” was needed to defeat the militants. He said, “The terror will not be over… unless we cooperate for a ground operation,” adding, “I am telling the West … dropping bombs from the air will not provide a solution.” These all add up to one solution in the eyes of Erdogan – “ground operation” is needed and such an operation can only be carried out by Turkey’s armed forces.

Erdogan’s solution, therefore, is to obtain a free ticket to occupy northern Syria. Yet this ticket gets even cheaper if one is to follow Erdogan’s recommendation for a final solution to the IS threat. A week earlier, he reiterated his call for a “no-fly zone” to protect against attack against Syrian air force. He maintained, “A no-fly zone must be declared and this no fly-zone must be secured,” claiming that he has already discussed this matter with President Obama and Vice President Biden.

The sum total of these recommendations yield Turkish armed forces a free pass into northern Syria – “no-fly zone”, protection from Syrian air attacks, then a smooth ground operation led by the Turkish army. As they say it in Turkish, “gel guzelim, gel” (“come baby, come”).

Of course this recipe carries with it yet another prize – the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime from power. According to a statement made earlier, Erdogan said that Turkey will fight against IS and other militants, however it will adhere to its aim of seeing Bashar al-Assad removed from power. As Erdogan put it, Turkey will fight IS, yet “We will continue to prioritize our aim to remove the Syrian regime, to help protect the territorial integrity of Syria and to encourage a constitutional, parliamentary government system which embraces all citizens.”

The real issue then becomes – who is Turkey fighting against? The answer is very obvious. Turkish fight against IS may only be a side-show. Turkey’s real fight is for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad and his regime and their replacement with a government docile to Turkey.

Hopefully, President Obama and the State Department are not overlooking Erdogan’s designs in Syria. These are designs that are incompatible with U.S. policy objectives and work counter to U.S. strategic interests in the Middle East. In this sense, Erdogan and Turkey continue to act as spoilers to U.S. objectives in that region.

Some 95 years ago, President Woodrow Wilson and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George faced the same kind of Turkish bravado. This was back in June 1919, when Damat Farid Pasha, the Prime Minister (or the Grand Vizier) of the disintegrating Ottoman empire, presented himself with a memorandum to the Allied Powers at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris. Farid Pasha presented the Allies with many claims and proposals to save his Empire from further disintegration. Among his claims, the Pasha also presented that “In Asia, the Turkish lands are bounded on the south by the provinces of Mosul and Diyarbakir, as well as a part of Aleppo as far as the Mediterranean.”

After the Pasha left, the allies rejected the Ottoman claims. As for the Pasha’s claims, President Wilson said he had never seen anything more “stupid,” while Prime Minister Lloyd George considered the Pasha’s presentation a “good joke.”

Now, another Turkish leader with Ottoman penchants, namely Turkey’s President and former Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is making a similar claim.

Will President Obama display President Wilson’s courage and call Erdogan’s designs “stupid”? Will Vice President Biden manifest Prime Minister Lloyd George’s wit and treat Erdogan’s plans as a “good joke?”

ANCA Leaders Consult with Menendez, Royce on Crisis in Syria and Iraq

October 10, 2014 By administrator

LOS ANGELES—The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) recently held consultations with the chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee on a broad range of Armenian American policy priorities, including the welfare of Armenian communities amid a worsening ISIS crisis, an increasingly strained U.S.-Turkey relationship, and growing instability throughout the greater Middle East.

In separate meetings with Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Representative Ed Royce (R-CA), ANCA leaders discussed the threat posed by Turkey-backed ISIS aggression in Syria and Iraq, and the welfare of Armenian and other at-risk minority communities in the region, as part of the larger landscape of Armenian American concerns. In each meeting, key points included efforts to end White House complicity in Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide prior to the centennial of this crime, U.S. legislation seeking Turkey’s return of Christian churches, the security of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, and the further strengthening of U.S.-Armenia relations. These meetings are part of the ANCA’s ongoing engagement with policymakers in the White House, State Department, and Congress on the full range of Armenian American advocacy priorities.

“We thank both Chairman Menendez and Chairman Royce for sharing their insights, for working with us to explore principled and pragmatic solutions, and – most importantly – for exercising their thoughtful and decisive leadership on issues of urgent concern to the Armenian American community,” said ANCA Board Member Raffi Hamparian, who took part in both meetings. “With so many crucial challenges facing the Armenian nation – and so much room for improvement in the Obama Administration’s deeply flawed policies on these issues – we place special meaning on our relationships with friends in Congress, and look forward to working in cooperation with legislators from both parties and across our country to advance our shared interests and common values.”

In April of this year, Chairman Menendez led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s successful adoption of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (S.Res. 410), the first such action by a Senate Committee in more than two decades. On the House side, in June of this year, Chairman Royce spearheaded the adoption in the Foreign Affairs Committee of H.R.4347, the Turkey Christian Churches Accountability Act, a bipartisan measure to help secure Turkey’s surrender of stolen Armenian and other Christian Church properties. Chairman Royce also led an April 24, 2014, Congressional delegation to Armenia, where he joined with House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY) and fellow Committee members David Cicilline (D-RI), and Lois Frankel (D-FL) in marking the Armenian Genocide at the Dzidzernagapert memorial.

ANCA Urges Obama to Challenge Turkey’s Support For ISIS

October 9, 2014 By administrator

Hachikian: “Mr. President, we need not lie for Turkey; nor are we obliged to passively accept its transparently false denials.”

WASHINGTON—The Armenian National Committee of Americajoined growing calls for U.S. leadership in challenging Turkey’s manipulation of the Syria crisis, through direct and indirect support for ISIS, as part of its century-long genocidal drive to weaken or destroy Kurds, Armenians, Arabs, Assyrians, Alawites, and other ethnic minorities within or near its borders.

In a letter sent to the White House Wednesday, ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian urged President Obama to continue fighting ISIS militants, but noted that the international community cannot stop there, saying that the U.S. must, “in equal measure, forcefully confront Turkey, a treaty ally, that is using these terrorists as surrogate soldiers in a neo-Ottoman drive to destroy minorities, grow its regional influence and expand its borders – all at the expense of U.S. interests and counter to the core values of the American people.”

Expressing regret over Vice-President Biden’s recent “forced” apology to Turkey for speaking truthfully about the Erdogan regime’s destabilization of the region, Hachikian stated, “Mr. President, we need not lie for Turkey; nor are we obliged to passively accept its transparently false denials. Rather than turning a blind eye to Ankara’s ongoing aggression – in Kobane, Der Zor, Aleppo, Kessab and across northern Syria – we should press for a halt to Turkish support for ISIS, an end to its interference in Syria, and the unconditional opening of its border.”

The ANCA has launched a nationwide action alert urging advocates to write to the White House and call for an end U.S. silence in the face of Turkey’s destructive interference in Syria. Take action NOW. http://www.anca.org/savekobane

Over the past two days, ANCA representatives have joined with Kurdish Americans at White House protests calling for U.S. leadership in ending ISIS aggression.

The text of ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian’s letter to President Obama is available in full below.

Dear Mr. President:

In the wake of the devastating ISIS assault on Kobani, I am writing to urge you to challenge Turkey’s aggressive exploitation of the Syria crisis, through its active support of extremist fighters, in order to complete its century-long genocidal drive to weaken or destroy Kurds, Armenians, Arabs, Assyrians, Alawites, and other ethnic minorities within or near its borders.

Sadly, Ankara’s success in bullying successive U.S. Administrations into silence on the Armenian Genocide and inaction in the face of Turkish brutal repression of Kurds has spoiled Turkey’s leaders into believing, with considerable justification, that they can openly strong-arm the United States on other key regional issues. The most recent example of this troubling trend is, of course, the sad spectacle of Turkish President Erdogan forcing Vice President Biden into a public apology for telling an obvious truth about Ankara’s well-documented support for ISIS.

Mr. President, we need not lie for Turkey; nor are we obliged to passively accept its transparently false denials. Rather than turning a blind eye to Ankara’s ongoing aggression – in Kobani, Der Zor, Aleppo, Kessab and across northern Syria – we should press for a halt to Turkish support for ISIS, an end to its interference in Syria, and the unconditional opening of its border. Parallel to this, our government must issue strong warnings to ISIS to cease its attacks on civilian areas in Kobani, Aleppo and elsewhere, and to allow humanitarian corridors, including from Aleppo to Latakia.

We must roll back ISIS, an avowedly anti-American military force committing horrific atrocities, and, in equal measure, forcefully confront Turkey, a treaty ally, that is using these terrorists as surrogate soldiers in a neo-Ottoman drive to destroy minorities, grow its regional influence and expand its borders – all at the expense of U.S. interests and counter to the core values of the American people.

We thank you for your consideration of our concerns, and ask, once again, for a meeting with you to discuss the crisis in the Middle East, your unmet pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, the security of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, and our community’s other policy priorities.

Sincerely,

Kenneth V. Hachikian
Chairman
Armenian National Committee of America

Turkish Inaction on ISIS Advance Dismays the U.S. Report NYT

October 8, 2014 By administrator

By MARK LANDLER, ANNE BARNARD and ERIC SCHMITTOCT. 7, 2014

NYT

WASHINGTON — As fighters with the Islamic State bore down Tuesday on the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border, President Obama’s plan to fight the militant group without being drawn deeper into the Syrian civil war was coming under acute strain.

While Turkish troops watched the fighting in Kobani through a chicken-wire fence, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that the town was about to fall and Kurdish fighters warned of an impending blood bath if they were not reinforced — fears the United States shares.

But Mr. Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey would not get more deeply involved in the conflict with the Islamic State unless the United States agreed to give greater support to rebels trying to unseat the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. That has deepened tensions with President Obama, who would like Turkey to take stronger action against the Islamic State and to leave the fight against Mr. Assad out of it.

Even as it stepped up airstrikes against the militants Tuesday, the Obama administration was frustrated by what it regards as Turkey’s excuses for not doing more militarily. Officials note, for example, that the American-led coalition, with its heavy rotation of flights and airstrikes, has effectively imposed a no-fly zone over northern Syria already, so Mr. Erdogan’s demand for such a zone rings hollow.

“There’s growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border,” a senior administration official said. “After all the fulminating about Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe, they’re inventing reasons not to act to avoid another catastrophe.

“This isn’t how a NATO ally acts while hell is unfolding a stone’s throw from their border,” said the official, who spoke anonymously to avoid publicly criticizing an ally.

Secretary of State John Kerry has had multiple phone calls in the last 72 hours with Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, and foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to try to resolve the border crisis, American officials said.

For Mr. Obama, a split with Turkey would jeopardize his efforts to hold together a coalition of Sunni Muslim countries to fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. While Turkey is not the only country that might put the ouster of Mr. Assad ahead of defeating the radical Sunnis of the Islamic State, the White House has strongly argued that the immediate threat is from the militants.

But if Turkey remains a holdout, it could cause other fissures in the coalition. It is not only a NATO ally but the main transit route for foreigners seeking to enlist in the ranks of the Islamic State.

Ultimately, American officials said, the Islamic State cannot be pushed back without ground troops that are drawn from the ranks of the Syrian opposition. But until those troops are trained, equipped and put in the field, something that will take some time, officials said, Turkey can play a vital role.