Tag: Mazloum Abdi

Syrian Kurdish official rejects Turkish calls to lay down arms, says SDF seeks integration instead +

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

A top Syrian Kurdish official has rejected Turkish calls for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to give up their weapons as part of Ankara’s broader peace efforts with Kurdish militants, saying the situation in Syria requires integration, not the laying down of arms.

Ilham Ahmed, co-chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava), told BBC’s Turkish service that the SDF’s continued armed presence is necessary due to ongoing security threats, particularly from Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) remnants and the lack of a permanent Syrian constitution.

Syrian Kurdish official rejects Turkish calls to lay down arms, says SDF seeks integration instead

The U.S. continues to back the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—a coalition dominated by the YPG, which Turkey sees as indistinguishable from the PKK. Despite the PKK’s recent disarmament announcement, Washington has resuscitated funding and military coordination with the SDF—a coalition whose very name was crafted to obscure its PKK lineage. This comes even as the U.S. consolidates its military presence to a single base in Hasakah, signaling a shift from occupation to strategic entrenchment.

In 2019, as Trump was weighing a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria during his first term, Tulsi Gabbard brought Ilham Ahmed—the then-head of the Syrian Democratic Council, political wing of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Rojava—as her guest to Trump’s second State of the Union. The message was clear: autonomy should have air support. Ahmed currently serves as Co-Chair of the Foreign Affairs Department of Rojava, also known as the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

Related:

Trump should be convinced of US pullout from Syria- but… (Disarmament, dissolution of YPG)

The SDF equals the YPG/PKK/Kurds: A timeline of the PKK’s war on Türkiye

Russia, Iran were urged not to intervene militarily in Syria

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Türkiye says its embassy in Damascus to open on Saturday (Anadolu Agency)

On the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime earlier this month in the face of rapid anti-regime advances, Fidan said Türkiye “paved the way for this to happen in a bloodless manner” by continuing to pursue talks with “two key actors,” referring to Russia and Iran.

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*Fidan said before the latest developments, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was controlling an area where 5 million Syrians were living and highlighted that they have gained experience in providing municipal services, education services, basic services, transportation and many other services in the past 5-6 years. [Idlib]

Related:

New Syria govt won’t recognise PKK/YPG terror group’s authority  — Fidan (TRT)

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Syria’s Rojava [Where They Run Torture Camps] Is in Grave Danger +

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Federalization of Syria a.k.a. Balkanization

Syria’s Rojava Revolution Is in Grave Danger (Reason magazine)

If the Kurdish-Arab alliance unravels, the U.S. military may decide to directly back Arab tribes as a bulwark against Iran and the Islamic State, according to Nicholas Heras, who has advised the U.S.-led military coalition in Syria and is now senior director for strategy at the nonprofit New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington. In 2019, when former President Donald Trump wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, the Trump administration considered a strategy of letting the Kurdish forces fall to Turkey and buying off Arab tribes.

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The United States has, directly and indirectly, backed all sides of the fight. Turkey is a NATO ally. Some of the SNA [Syrian National Army] units now attacking Kobane had received weapons and training from the CIA and the U.S. military. (After the Trump administration cut off support, a U.S. official condemned these same factions as “thugs, bandits, and pirates that should be wiped off the face of the earth,” and the Biden administration imposed human rights sanctions.) Meanwhile, several hundred U.S. troops are embedded with the SDF.

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In his Sunday victory speech about the fall of the Assad government, President Joe Biden said that he wanted to support an “independent, sovereign—an independent—independent—I want to say it again—sovereign Syria.” But U.S. policy at the moment seems to be creating the opposite: a Syria chopped up [Balkanization] by foreign powers.

Rojava is also known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

Related:

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Musk’s Starlink: Aiding Terrorists in Myanmar

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, “funded in part by non-governmental organizations such as Free Voice of the Netherlands, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the Freedom of Expression Foundation.” – Wikipedia.

David Eubank, the founder of the Free Burma Rangers, expressed his gratitude to Elon Musk in a Tweet on Twitter for bringing Starlink Internet to some parts of Kayah (Karenni) State, which previously lacked stable internet access due to the civil war.

Free Burma Rangers boss thanks Elon Musk for bringing Starlink internet to Myanmar’s conflict-ridden Kayah

Related:

An Overview of the Activities of Intelligence Organizations in Syria – The Free Burma Rangers (archived)

If US Can’t Have Myanmar, No One Will

US troops to expand patrols in Syria despite tension with Turkey + US forces prepare to build 1st military base in Syria’s Raqqa

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Pentagon is preparing to resume full ground operations alongside Kurdish partners in northern Syria, officials said Tuesday, a move that risks further inflaming relations with NATO ally Turkey, which blames the Kurds for a deadly bombing in Istanbul last month and has threatened a ground assault in retaliation.

US troops to expand patrols in Syria despite tension with Turkey

Related:

US forces prepare to build 1st military base in Syria’s Raqqa

The Syrian Democratic Forces is an armed militia of the rebels in North and East Syria (AANES). An alliance of forces formed during the Syrian civil war composed primarily of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian/Syriac, as well as some smaller Armenian, Turkmen and Chechen forces. It is militarily led by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia recognized as a terrorist group by Turkey, and also includes several ethnic militias, as well as elements of the Syrian opposition’s Free Syrian Army. Founded in October 2015, the SDF states its mission as fighting to create a secular, democratic and federalised Syria. According to Turkey, the Syrian Democratic Forces has direct links to the PKK.

Wikipedia

The SDF equals the YPG/PKK/Kurds

Turkish-Kurdish Tensions in Syria Expose NATO Dysfunction

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Jun 12, 2022 | Military activity in northern Syria is accelerating, Turkey is intent on striking at US-backed Kurdish militants who in turn are seeking aid not from the US but from Syria and Russia.

The situation in Syria is another illustration of the true nature of US foreign policy and another glimpse at what becomes of America’s many “partners.”

— The New Atlas (New Atlas on Telegram) (Video on Odysee)

“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests” – Henry Kissinger

Resources:

Turkey urges Russia to fulfill deals to clear N. Syria of terrorists

Ankara says it must act because Washington and Moscow failed to keep their promise to push the YPG 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border after a 2019 Turkish operation, adding that attacks from YPG-controlled areas have increased.

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In 2019, an operation into northeast Syria against the YPG drew widespread international condemnation, prompting Finland, Sweden and others to restrict arms sales to Turkey. Now Turkey is blocking the two Nordic countries’ historic bid to join NATO because of the weapons ban and their support of the terrorist group.

Turkey tells Russia it will respond to destabilising moves in north Syria

US-backed Syrian Kurds to turn to Damascus if Turkey attacks

Assad explains why Syria is sticking with Russia

The attacks increase as Turkey disapproves of Finland & Sweden’s NATO memberships?! Coincidence?! NOT!!

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[2017] The SDF equals the YPG/PKK/Kurds

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)4 Comments

UN, human rights groups verify YPG’s child recruitment

After strategic coordination with American officials, the YPG re-branded itself as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in July 2017 to dissociate itself with the PKK, which is recognized as a terror group by Turkey, the US, and the EU.

A terror campaign by the PKK has waged against Turkey for more than 30 years, resulting in the deaths of nearly 40,000 people.

U.S. general told Syria’s YPG: ‘You have got to change your brand’

One of America’s most senior generals said on Friday he instructed the Kurdish YPG militia to change its “brand” a day or so before it unveiled an alliance with Syrian Arabs in 2015 under the name Syrian Democratic Forces.

Stockholm’s failure to recognize SDF links to YPG, PKK

The SDF equals the YPG

Granted: before committing to accusations of any kind, journalists must do their fieldwork or desktop research. When it comes to clarifying whether the SDF is in fact the YPG and thus the PKK in disguise, the work is relatively easy.

The person who told the YPG to rebrand itself so as to appear independent of the PKK, confirmed in a 2017 speech in Aspen, Colorado, that he had instructed the YPG to reinvent itself a day or so before the group unveiled its alliance with the Syrian Arabs back in 2015. So who is the figure who went public? U.S. Army Gen. Raymond Thomas.

Related:

The Destabilization of Turkey Progresses: Neo Cons Sharpen Their Aim

Enormous Flag of Ocalan Raised in Raqqa—Greater Kurdistan Dead?

Ocalan, who was born in the Turkish province of Sanliurfa, was a co-founder of the PKK in 1978 and led a guerrilla war against the Turkish state that resulted in more than 40,000 deaths.

Although the YPG has claimed it is independent from the PKK, the group acknowledges Ocalan as its ideological figurehead and PKK commanders are thought to control key institutions in northern Syria.

A timeline of the PKK’s war on Turkey: 1974-2019