Is Turkey on the Chopping Block?

Penny’s post, “Turkey will not receive F-35s unless they eliminate the S-400s,” reminded me of this video that recently appeared in my YouTube feed. The video is from the World Liberty Congress, an organization that advocates for regime change. Turkish opposition figure Oğuzhan Albayrak talks about the failed 2016 coup attempt, the Saturday Mothers, and draws comparisons between Turkey and Iran and China, both of which are in the sights of the U.S. Empire. In his article on the WLC website, he also mentions Ekrem İmamoğlu, another opposition figure with connections to European and U.S. front organizations.

Sources are provided below my unfinished article on Turkey’s significance in The Grand Chessboard.

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

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

Over 1,000 Reported Killed, Mostly Civilians, as HTS Syrian Forces Attack Alawites

KernowDamo

The situation in northwestern Syria continues to spiral out of control this weekend, as the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been surging forces into the Alawite homelands in the Latakia and Tartus Governorates, clashing with Alawite militias and slaughtering civilians.

Over 1,000 Reported Killed, Mostly Civilians, as HTS Syrian Forces Attack Alawites

No. I won’t follow back, Twitter

The seal on the left is the seal of the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR). The seal on the right is of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). According to Reason, the CJTF–OIR is embedded with the SDF (see below*).

But Ahmed al-Sharaa AKA Abu Mohammad al-Julani said that the Kurds were the brethren of Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). /s

International anarchist and leftist groups declare their support for SDF

International League of Peoples’ Struggle:

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman José María Sison organized the ILPS in 2001.

CPP: The Great Left Divide

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

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

Russia, Iran were urged not to intervene militarily in Syria

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.

*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 +

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.

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.

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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