Turkey Archives

Kurdish PKK Army killed One Turkish soldier eight wounded in Turkey’s southeast

December 2, 2015 By administrator

One soldier was killed and eight were wounded on Dec. 2 in an Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack in the southeastern province of Mardin.

PKK remotely detonated a bomb placed on the Mardin-Midyat motorway during the passing of a military convoy. One soldier was killed and five soldiers in the military vehicle were wounded while three civilians also passing in their own vehicles were also wounded as a result of the attack.

The wounded were taken to Mardin State Hospital for treatment.

Security forces blocked the motorway to traffic as a wide-scale operation was launched to apprehend the PKK responsible for the attack.

A search for another possible explosive is also ongoing.

Erdoğan advisor We unleash refugees EU bows to Turkey’s threat we got 3 billion euros

December 2, 2015 By administrator

Erdoğan’s advisor Burhan Kuzu. (Photo: Cihan)

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s advisor Burhan Kuzu commented on the migrant deal between the EU and turkey, saying on his twitter account on Wednesday that the EU finally bowed to Turkey’s threat to open its borders to refugees by deciding to provide Turkey with financial support for the migrant crisis.

“The EU finally got Turkey’s message and opened its purse strings. What did we say? ‘We’ll open our borders and unleash all the Syrian refugees on you,’” Kuzu stated in his controversial tweet.

Kuzu’s tweet drew strong criticism, with a number of social media users saying that it is unethical to talk about “unleashing [the refugees] on” the EU as if they were animals.

A social media user reacted against Kuzu’s statement, saying, “Are those whom you are talking about [unleashing] dogs, Mr. Kuzu?”

Referring to the many incidents of migrant boats sinking in their attempt to cross the seas between Greece and Turkey, another Twitter user asked, “Is this the reason why all those people drowned in Aegean Sea?”

More than 400 migrants, including many children, have drowned in the Aegean since the start of 2015.

On Nov. 24 the EU’s executive branch confirmed it will set up a fund of 3 billion euros for two years to help improve the living conditions of migrants in Turkey and prevent further influxes into Europe. The agreement was finalized on Nov. 29 at the EU-Turkey summit held in Brussels, where Turkey promised to help stem the flow of migrants to Europe in return for financial support, visa-free travel to Europe’s Schengen zone and renewed EU accession talks.

Iraq Will File Protest at UNSC if Turkey Confirmed to Be Buying Daesh Oil

December 2, 2015 By administrator

Baghdad will immediately lodge a protest in the UN Security Council if claims that Turkey is involved in oil smuggling with Islamic State terrorists are confirmed, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

“If the Iraqi government receives enough evidence and details, without any hesitation it will file a protest at the UN Security Council and all other relevant international bodies,” ministry’s spokesman Naseer Nuri told Sputnik in a phone interview.

According to him, certain “general information about the smuggling of Iraqi oil by trucks to certain countries, including Turkey” is already available. “This oil is used to fund Daesh”, Nuri said.

“There is evidence, satellite photos and security services’ reports which confirm that Daesh smuggles oil to Turkey,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry has provided evidence of the Turkish involvement into Daesh illegal oil trade at the briefing in Moscow.

Moscow also expects that members of the UN Security Council will quickly adopt a revised Russia-backed draft resolution on curbing financing of the Islamic State (IS or Daesh in the Arab world) militant group, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Wednesday.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia had received additional evidence that oil from fields controlled by ISIL were being transported to Turkey on an industrial scale.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on Tuesday that he was ready to resign if it were proven that Ankara was purchasing oil from Daesh.

Various estimates put the income generated by Daesh through oil sales on the black market at about $1 billion a year. Mowaffak Rubaie, an Iraqi parliamentarian and former national security adviser, told Sputnik last week that Daesh, an organization outlawed in Russia and many other states, has managed to sell some $800 million worth of oil on the Turkish black market.

Main Illegal Oil Transportation Routes Located on Turkey-Syria Border (Video)

December 2, 2015 By administrator

Russian Defense Ministry has presented photos of oil delivery convoys at Syria-Turkey border, the head of the Russian General Staff’s operative command said.

The general staff has irrefutable evidence on Turkey’s involvement in illegal oil trade. Moscow has called on Turkey to open access to the places where, according to the retrieved Russian intel, Daesh oil trade centers are located:

“If there is nothing there — then the territories in question should be inspected,” the Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov stressed.

“We have identified three main oil routes,” the head of the Russian General Staff’s operative command Sergei Rudskoy said.

The western route leads to the Turkish ports in the Mediterranean, the northern — to Patma oil refinery, and the eastern — to Cazri transfer point.

The ministry provided photographs of columns of oil fuel tankers on the Turkish-Syrian border. Fuel tankers with oil freely cross the border between Turkey and Iraq, according to Russia’s General Staff.

“Space recoinassance established that after crossing the border tanker trucks move further into Turkey,” Rudskoy said. Then the oil is being delivered to third countries.

The oil from Daesh-controlled areas in Syria is being shipped to third countries for processing after having been transported to Turkey, the head of the Russian General Staff’s operative command noted.

“According to the most modest estimates, the terrorists’ revenues from criminal [oil] business stood at no less than $3 million per day. After our airstrikes, the revenues went down to $1.5 million per day,” Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy told reporters.

Russian Defense Ministry’s information on Daesh oil trucks in Syria will be made publicly available online.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow has evidence that its Su-24 was shot down by Turkish forces on the Syrian border in order to protect oil deliveries from Daesh to Turkey, and that oil from Daesh-controlled fields is being exported to Turkey on an industrial scale.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vehemently denied the allegations, vowing that if evidence does surface, he will resign from the presidency.

Pentagon head to US Congress: Turkey’s ops not directed at Islamic State

December 1, 2015 By administrator

Turkish plans to attack Islamic State excuse for hitting Kurds

The US says Turkey’s operations are not “directed” at Islamic State and the Pentagon would like Ankara “to do more” both in the air and on the ground. It has also failed to control its borders “effectively,” Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told Congress.

“I have been urging, actually, since I’ve come to this job, Turkey to do more,” the US defense chief said.

Carter stressed that Turkey’s geography – “right there next to Iraq and Syria” – makes it an especially useful asset to the US-led mission against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), but its NATO ally has failed to pull its weight so far.

“Most of their air operations are not directed at ISIL,” Carter said. “They are directed at the PKK, which we understand their concern about — it’s a terrorist organization within their borders — but we would like to see them do more against ISIL.”

The Pentagon wants Turkey to focus primarily on “its own territories,” i.e. go after “tentacles of ISIS” in Turkish territory and better control its borders with Syria, “which it has not done effectively since ISIS arose,” according to Carter’s testimony.

“We would like them to operate more both in the air and on the ground,” the Defense Secretary said.

In mid-November, the US and Turkey “entered an operation” to entirely close off the border of northern Syria, the territory long contested between Kurdish militias and IS fighters. The agreement came not long after Ankara declared its plans to “act militarily” against Islamic State.

Even earlier, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had stated that he would “do what is necessary,” including using force, to combat the Kurdish “mindset” of autonomy in Syria.

Since beginning its military operations, Turkey has been accused of targeting Kurdish militias that are fighting IS but also aligned with Turkish Kurds against the Turkish government.

The Kurds have also been involved in the fight against IS in Iraq, where in November they launched an offensive to retake Iraq’s northern city of Sinjar, which had been controlled by Islamic State for over a year.

The operation, dubbed Free Sinjar, included the Turkey-based Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), among several other factions.

In his Tuesday testimony, Carter also announced the deployment of special forces to Syria to “conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders.”

“That creates a virtuous cycle of better intelligence, which generates more targets, more raids, and more momentum,” he added.

EU Rewards Turkish State Terrorism

December 1, 2015 By administrator

BY Finian Cunningham,

Only days after Turkey’s fatal shoot-down of a Russian warplane, the European Union announces it is giving the Ankara government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan €3 billion in a “deal” allegedly aimed at halting the flow of refugees to the EU.

At best, the EU is bumbling in a completely misguided way to tackle the refugee crisis stemming from the Syrian conflict; at worst, and more accurately, the European bloc is effectively rewarding Turkey for an act of state terrorism.

This crass move by Brussels will serve to embolden the Ankara regime in its criminal policy of fuelling regime change in Syria. It will also deepen the EU’s complicity in a criminal war of aggression on Syria. While European citizens are suffering economic austerity, soaring poverty and unemployment their governments see fit to indulge the Ankara regime with €3 billion ($3.4 billion)

Let’s get some facts straight. Russia’s Ministry of Defence has released objective flight data which shows beyond doubt that on November 24, Turk F-16 fighter jets violated the Syrian border and fired an air-to-air missile at a Russian Su-24 bomber. The Russian aircraft was at all times within Syrian territory and posed no threat to Turkey’s security.

The Russian data also shows that two Turkish F-16s were already in the air in the location. The timely presence of a Turkish film crew and Syrian militia on the ground awaiting the Russian jet crash also substantiates claims by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that this was a “planned ambush” that resulted in the brutal killing of a Russian pilot and later a Russian soldier attempting a rescue mission.

On the same day — Sunday — that the EU announced its €3 billion payout to Turkey, the Ankara regime said it was making arrangements to send back the corpse of the Russian pilot to Moscow. The airman was slain by radical Islamist Turkmen militia in northern Syria as he parachuted to the ground — a gross war crime. The fact that the pilot’s remains were hauled across the border and ended up in the custody of the Turk authorities is one more proof that the Ankara regime of Recep Erdogan is working hand-in-hand with illegally armed groups inside Syria.

The Turk shoot-down of the Russian jet was thus an act of aggression, an act of war, or more bluntly, a thuggish bout of state terrorism.

This is only the tip of a vile iceberg. The rightwing authoritarian Erdogan regime has been running a giant racket of oil smuggling and weapons supply to the jihadist mercenaries in Syria. These mercenaries are state-sponsored terrorists fighting a criminal covert war for regime change against the elected government of President Bashar al-Assad. This regime-change war is orchestrated by Washington, Britain and France, along with Turkey and the Gulf Arab dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Owing to Turkey’s shared border with Syria, Ankara has played a particularly significant role in funnelling weapons and mercenaries into Syria. Paid in part by crude oil stolen by the terror groups from Syrian state-owned oilfields.

Independent Turk media have uncovered this oil-for-arms racket, from as early as two years ago. The editor of Cumhuriyet newspaper, Can Dundar, was last weekend arrested on charges of “treason” and “spying” because he published articles which proved that Turk state intelligence has been ferrying convoys of heavy weapons into Syria. The editor and another colleague are facing up to 45 years in prison.

The arrests of the journalists are just part of a general crackdown by Erdogan’s regime against other newspapers and social media outlets that dare to circulate verifiable articles exposing the gun-running racket. This is the conduct of a despotic regime — a regime which is being feted by the European Union, as the handshakes and smiling faces in Brussels at the weekend attest to, on top of a fat cheque for €3 billion. So much for European values of “freedom of speech”.

Indisputably, Russia’s military intervention in Syria — on behalf of the Damascus government as permitted under international law — was the motive for why Turkey perpetrated its aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin called it a “stab in the back”.

Russia’s air power, in conjunction with Syrian army ground forces, has been annihilating the Western, Arab, Turk conspiracy against Syria. Russian warplanes have decimated the illegal oil trade and the weapons-supply routes from Turkey into Syria. Erdogan and his son, Bilal, are personally involved and profiting from the oil-for-weapons racket. The Russian damage inflicted was intolerable and so Erdogan regime lashed out. It remains to be seen if Washington had a hand in

the dirty deed.

But there is a lot more to Turkey’s heinous role in Syria’s torment. From the outset of the foreign-instigated conflict in Syria back in March 2011, Ankara embarked on a terrorist recruiting drive by unleashing the flow of refugees. Syrian sources have told this author that the Turkey regime has used the refugee camps on its territory as recruiting and training camps to form jihadist brigades. There are currently some two million Syrian refugee centres in Turkey, which Ankara claims it has spent $8 billion on for “humanitarian aid”.

No doubt many of the displaced are genuine cases of people fleeing from war zones. Nevertheless, there is abundant evidence to show that camps are being used as training and repair centres for mercenaries under the auspices of the Turk authorities. Erdogan’s 34-year-old daughter Sumeyye reportedly runs a hospital in Turkey’s southeast province of Sanluirfa. But this is not a medical centre for civilian refugees. It is where wounded mercenaries get patched up.

There are also camps in Turkey’s southwestern provinces of Hatay and Adana where Turk, American CIA and other NATO special forces are involved in training jihadists like the Turkmen who butchered the Russian pilot last week.

The notion that Turkey is generously tending to the refugees out of humanitarian concern is a cynical ruse.

There is also evidence that the Erdogan regime has deliberately opened human trafficking routes to the European Union via Greece and the Balkans, with the callous calculation that the resulting refugee crisis in Europe will act as a political lever on governments to extract concessions.

With up to a million refugees streaming into the EU this year alone, the German government of Angela Merkel is particularly under pressure to stem the flow. Merkel has latterly become the most vocal of the EU leaders approving the €3 billion payout to Turkey and promising to push on with Turkey’s accession to the 28-nation bloc.

No wonder discontent among the EU’s 500 million population is at record levels. EU leaders are increasingly seen as being lightyears removed from pressing social realities by voters. Rewarding a terrorist-supporting regime in Ankara with billions of euro of taxpayers’ money may be the final straw. The Erdogan ruling clique will use this money to fund more aggression in Syria, thereby creating an ever-worsening refugee crisis for Europe.

EU member states, Britain and France, had already blackened Europe’s reputation with their bilateral participation in regime change in

Syria. Now the whole EU bloc is systematically complicit in this war crime through its direct funding of a state sponsor of terror — Turkey.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.

ISIL leader’s ex-wife released in prisoner swap, wants to go to Turkey

December 1, 2015 By administrator

Al-Qaeda’s Syrian wing, the Nusra Front, released 16 Lebanese soldiers and policemen held captive since August, 2014 on Tuesday in a Qatari-mediated deal that also secured freedom for a jailed ex-wife of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The Nusra Front seized the Lebanese during an attack on the border town of Arsal mounted together with ISIL which is still believed to be holding nine soldiers captured in the incursion.

Families of soldiers and policemen who were kidnapped by militants from ISIL and the Nusra Front cheer after following news that they were being released, in front of tents set up for a protest in downtown Beirut on Dec. 1. (Photo: AP)

Live TV footage from the border area between Lebanon and Syria showed the Lebanese captives in vehicles accompanied by masked men armed with assault rifles and waving the Nusra Front flag before they were released to the Red Cross.

Thirteen Islamists in Lebanese jails, including Saja al-Dulaimi, the ex-wife of Baghdadi, were also released. Dulaimi, fully veiled, was shown in live TV footage from the area with her three children who were with her in prison.

Nusra Front fighters were shown kissing and hugging the sons of Dulaimi, who was arrested by the Lebanese authorities a year ago. Speaking to Al Jazeera, she said her wish was to return to Beirut and then to leave to Turkey.

“We accomplished the entire agreement with Nusra. We received our heroic soldiers and we are on our way back to Beirut,” top Lebanese security official Abbas Ibrahim, who oversaw the swap, told Reuters by telephone.

“This joy not complete until the return of those kidnapped by Daesh. We are ready to negotiate with Daesh if we find someone to negotiate with,” he said. Daesh is an Arabic name for ISIL.

The Nusra Front fighters chanted “God is great” as they arrived with the captives in preparation for the swap. One of the captives, interviewed by Al Jazeera, said the group had treated them well.

Nusra has killed four of the captives.

“Praise be to God. The joy cannot be described,” another of the captives told Al Jazeera.

The exchange began with the Nusra Front releasing the body of one of the Lebanese soldiers it had killed in captivity, Mohamed Hamieh.

Qatar has been involved in efforts to mediate the release of the captives for a year or more. A previous effort to secure their release broke down a year ago after one of the captives was killed.

UPDATE: Terrorist State of Turkey’s Crime against humanity (Journalist)

December 1, 2015 By administrator

Erdogan Court rejects appeal to release Cumhuriyet editors Dündar, Gül

An İstanbul court on Tuesday rejected an appeal against the arrest of Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül, who were arrested on Nov. 26 as part of an investigation into the paper’s coverage of a National Intelligence Organization (MİT) truck scandal.

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Atilla Taş sentenced to 11 months for ‘insulting’ İnegöl mayor on Twitter

(FOTO: IZMIR DHA)

Meydan daily columnist Atilla Taş was given on Tuesday a suspended prison sentence of 11 months and 20 days on Tuesday for “insulting” İnegöl Mayor Alinur Aktaş in Twitter posts.

Taş, whose hugely popular Twitter account has more than 1.3 million followers, has criticized the mayor over allegedly fatally poisoning 84 stray dogs in the İnegöl district of Bursa province in his tweets.

Aktaş is now planning to bring a second case against Taş to force him to pay for the court expenses, private Cihan news agency reported.

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Presenter at Belgium-based radio station dismissed over criticism of Turkish gov’t

A radio presenter at a Brussels-based Turkish radio station was fired for hosting a radio program that featured criticism of the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Kenan Erer presented the radio program “Karganın Kahvaltısı” [A Crow’s Breakfast] for the last time on Tuesday morning and said the managers of Gold FM radio station had decided to take his program off the air.

“Those who think that they silenced us with oppression and despotism seem to have achieved their goals, but I will continue to take a stand by singing songs and writing books,” said Erer in the program.

He said he received messages of support from the followers of his radio show after his dismissal. “Armenians, Kurds, Turks and people from all sects of this country [Turkey] called me to express sorrow [at my dismissal],” said Erer.

UAE foreign minister condemns downing of Russian jet by Turkey

December 1, 2015 By administrator

ABU DHABI – Doğan News Agency Report

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan has condemned the downing of a Russian jet by Turkish F-16s, while addressing the fifth meeting of the UAE-Russia joint ministerial committee at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Abu Dhabi.

Speaking back on Nov. 27, al-Nahyan also underlined the UAE’s condemnation of a series of terrorist acts that recently struck many countries.

He criticized Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian SU-24 jet along with the deadly downing of a Russian airplane in Egypt that was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The statement did not address Turkey’s name directly, but simply condemned the downing of the jet.

A Russian SU-24 fighter jet was shot down by Turkey near the Syrian border due to the violation of Turkish airspace on Nov. 24.

Russian Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov chaired Moscow’s delegation at the UAE-Russia joint meeting, which was also attended by UAE Minister of State Sultan bin Ahmed Sultan al-Jaber, a number of senior officials and business representatives from both countries.

Ways to enhance bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation were also discussed at the meeting.

Is Turkey Waging War on Russia in Crimea, the Caucasus, and Central Asia?

December 1, 2015 By administrator

What is taking place today is a battle for global dominance, waged by major Western geopolitical players, and what is at stake here is the future of our planet, an anonymous US analyst who goes by the name ‘The Saker’ told Sputnik; as for Daesh, it is simply a weapon, he adds.

During the Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21), Russian President Putin revealed that Moscow has evidence confirming that the Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down by Turkey in order to protect oil deliveries from Daesh (ISIL/ISIS), adding that oil from Daesh-occupied fields has been transferred to Turkey on an industrial scale.

But is it possible that Turkey is selling the stolen oil without Washington’s knowledge? Are the Turkish officials who are responsible for oil smuggling acting alone or are they backed by some influential oil market players?

“US intelligence agencies suffer from many weaknesses, but being unable to track money movements is not one of them,” The Saker, an anonymous top level American military analyst, told Sputnik in an exclusive interview.

“Furthermore, both the USA and Israel have an extensive network for agents in Turkey. I thus consider it extremely unlikely that anybody in Turkey would be able to move around large sums of money without the US being fully aware of that. Also, consider that Daesh is a top-priority target for US intelligence agencies and that their immense data collection capabilities are also focused on the Daesh side of the equation,” he emphasized.

“Finally,” The Saker added, “the illegal sale of oil is a minor element in a much more important battle between the USA and the Russia-Iran-Syria alliance and, thus, the US would never allow it to interfere with its bigger objectives.”

The analyst underscored that corruption has long been an integral part of the US “imperial” system.

“Corruption being one key feature of the US Empire, it is normal for the US deep state to allow its local puppets to engage in profitable war profiteering, but only as long as this does not interfere with the global US strategy,” he stressed.

Experts call attention to the fact that the shooting down of the Su-24 could have been Turkish President Erdogan’s “act of revenge,” given the fact that his family has reportedly been involved in Daesh’s oil smuggling business. In his recent interview with Radio Sputnik, Middle East analyst Stanislav Tarasov noted that “Erdogan’s family is directly involved in the incident,” and suggested that “we could soon learn that President Erdogan himself is directly linked to ISIL.”

But was the downing of the Su-24 bomber by the Turkish F-16 fighter a “lone wolf” operation or a preplanned action coordinated by NATO and Washington? If so, what goal does NATO/Washington have in mind?

“The downing of the SU-24 was definitely a major and carefully planned ambush operation which involved a large number of Turkish F-16 [being] constantly held on airborne alert positions. The notion that the Americans did not know about this all along is ridiculous,” The Saker elaborated.

“Make no mistake, this was an act of war by the USA and NATO, but executed in such a manner as to provide the real culprits some degree of plausible deniability. The hope was to have Russia over-react and trigger a direct confrontation which could be them blamed on Russia. You have to keep in mind that the Russian force in Syria is a very small one and that it is vulnerable. Even with 60+ combat aircraft and S-400s, the Russian force is much smaller than the Turkish air force, which has well over 200 F-16s. The USA is now using this vulnerability to provoke Russia,” the analyst told Sputnik.

The Saker noted that the Turks themselves had violated the Syrian and, especially, Greek airspace hundreds of times “and not just once for 17 seconds.” In the wake of the incident, Ankara suggested that the alleged intrusion of the Russian Su-24 into Turkish airspace had lasted a mere 17 seconds.

“The very fact that they actually used this “17 seconds” excuse it by itself is a clear provocation, designed to humiliate Russian and trigger an over-reaction. Thank God Putin and the Kremlin did not take this bait,” The Saker underscored.

Interestingly enough, the incident in Syrian airspace had been preceded by an act of sabotage in Ukraine: on November 20, unidentified saboteurs blew up the main power lines in Ukraine leading into Crimea; Crimean Tatar activists blocked access to fallen lines. Given the close ties between Ankara and Crimean Tatars (Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is reportedly of Crimean Tatar descent himself), the question arises, whether the two action were connected in any way?

“I have no information showing any links, but what is clear is that Turkey is waging its own mini-war of influence against Russia, not only in Crimea, but also in the Caucasus and Central Asia,” The Saker told Sputnik, commenting on the issue.

“The Turkish ‘deep state’ appears to be ruled by a revanchist imperial ideology every bit as lunatic and dangerous as the Wahhabi ideology of Daesh & Co. Erdogan apparently wants to re-establish some kind of Grand Ottoman Empire v2 and for him Russia is the biggest obstacle. This is why Turkey is so precious for the USA — it is run by delusional maniacs every bit as dangerous as the Nazis in Kiev or the Wahhabi freaks of Daesh. This is what Russia is confronted by today — a war by the Anglo-Zionist Empire waged by means of various hate-filled regional powers which are used by the USA to destabilize Russia and her allies,” the analyst underscored.

Remarkably, in 2001, then-modest academic Dr. Ahmet Davutoglu published a book entitled “Strategic Depth.” In his book, Davutoglu suggested that Turkey possesses a unique “strategic depth” due to its historical and geographical position. The would-be Turkish prime minister argued that Turkey should simultaneously exercise its influence in the Middle East, the Balkan region, the Caucasus, and Central Asia as well in the Caspian, Mediterranean and Black Sea zones. According to Davutoglu, Turkey should re-establish its role as a global player, not just a regional power. In some sense, Davotoglu viewed the collapse of the Soviet Union as a historic chance for Turkey to expand its influence in the Caucasus region and Central Asia.

And here enters Daesh…

Given the fact that ISIL has been created and fuelled by a number of states and private donors, which geopolitical players are resisting Russia’s attempts to eradicate terrorism in the region and preserve the sovereignty of Syria? Is Russia confronting a bunch of terrorists fed by Saudi and Qatari sheikhs or some well-organized multi-national organizations?

“As for Daesh, it is simply one ‘weapon’ used by the [US] Empire to destroy its opponents. There is no such thing as ‘terrorism’ by itself, it is always a weapon used by one (or several) state actors,” The Saker explained.

“The sheikhs you mention are just pawns in the hands of the ‘deep state’ which runs the US Anglo-Zionist ‘Empire’ and they themselves only have a local influence. Thus, the Saudis or the Qatari are major players in Syria, but already at the Middle-Eastern level they are far less powerful than, say, the Turks or the Israelis. And while they can act as ‘private donors’ and sponsors of this or that faction of Daesh/al-Qaeda, they can only do that as long as the Americans tolerate that. One could say that the local sheikhs are influential or even powerful puppets, but they still remain fundamentally puppets,” the US military analyst told Sputnik.

However, he claims, this is only the tip of the iceberg; the situation in general is far more serious.

“What is taking place today is a world war between, on one hand, the so-called ‘West’ (the US Empire) and what I call the ‘Resistance’ i.e., Russia, China, the BRICS, the SCO countries, Latin America, etc. What is at stake here is the future of our planet: it will either be ruled by a single world Hegemon or it will be organized as a multi-polar world. The events in the Middle East are just one ‘front’ in this worldwide war, and the war in Syria just one “battle” in the Middle Eastern ‘front’,” The Saker concluded.