Russia adds 3 ships to naval fleet near Syria Archives

More than 100,000 people were displaced due to the Turkish forces’ operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), according to Turkey’s Interior Ministry.

ANKARA (Sputnik) — Some 100,000 people have been displaced due to armed clashes between Turkish security forces and militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the country’s majority-Kurdish southeastern regions, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

Severe clashes between Ankara forces and PKK militants have been arising sporadically since a July terror attack in the city of Suruc, which killed over 30 people, most of them Kurds. As Kurds killed two Turkish policemen soon after the attack, Ankara launched a military campaign against PKK. The clashes intensified earlier this week in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.

The Turkish forces’ operations are being carried out in the southeastern districts of Diyarbakir, Silopi, Silvan, Sur and Cizre, where the PKK has a strong presence.

The authorities also declared a police curfew in area most affected by the armed clashes, with a population of 1.3 million civilians.

Over 100,000 of them have been forced to flee their homes due to the ongoing violence and domestic hardships, according to an Interior Ministry report that was cited by the Hurriyet newspaper.

According to the ministry, the security forces have taken control of eight of the 13 high-risk areas where the PKK militants were trying to establish autonomous areas, not controlled by the central government.

The Kurds, Turkey’s largest ethnic minority, are striving to create their own independent state and gain independence from Turkey. The PKK was founded in the late 1970s to promote the self-determination for the Kurdish community. The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey.

The Kurdish struggle for independence gave rise to a conflict between Ankara and various Kurdish militant groups that has been ongoing since 1984.

Special to WorldTribune.com

MOSCOW — The Russian Navy plans to send a task force to the eastern Mediterranean that would outnumber the U.S. presence in the region.
The Russian Navy said it would deploy 10 warships in the eastern Mediterranean near Syria. Officials said seven surface vessels were already in the region. “The tasks are very clear: to avoid the slightest threat to the borders and national security,” Russian Navy commander Adm. Viktor Chirkov said.

In a briefing on Sept. 13, Chirkov identified the three ships that were being sent near the Syrian coast. They are the Moskva guided-missile cruiser, the Smetlivy destroyer and the Nikolai Filchenkov assault ship.

“This is the practice of all navies of the world — to be located where the level of tension is increasing,” Chirkov said.

“They [ships] are all acting according to the operational command plan of the offshore maritime zone.”

The Russian plan would deploy a naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean that was more than double that of the U.S. Navy. By mid-September, the U.S. Navy’s European Command, hampered by budget restrictions, sent four warships near Syria.

The Russian announcement came hours before Moscow and Washington reached agreement on the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile. That agreement suspended U.S. plans for an imminent air strike on the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Russian presence was part of a Kremlin plan to deploy a permanent task force in the eastern Mediterranean. Officials said the Russian Navy
began its buildup in 2012, and in May 2013 the warships came under a single task force.

Officials said Moskva was scheduled to arrive in the eastern Mediterranean on Sept. 16. They said some of the ships could receive
supplies from the Syrian port of Tartous, the only Russian Navy facility
abroad.

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Turkish occupied Kurdistan: Some 100,000 People Flee Homes Amid Clashes Between Ankara, PKK

Russia adds 3 ships to naval fleet near Syria, more than doubling U.S. presence