Turkey attacks Kurds, threatens military action against Syria
international |
anti-war / imperialism |
other press 
Tuesday August 07, 2012 18:56
by pat c
Turkey is massacring Kurdish resistance fighters yet at the same time it is shedding crocodile tears over potential massacres in Aleppo. Its threat to invade Syria to deal with Kurds is a cover for a NATO invasion of Syria. Full text at link.
On the eve of an expected major offensive in Aleppo by the Syrian regime, Turkey has threatened to invade Syria, using the pretext of Kurdish groups seizing control of northern border areas. Such a move could pitch Ankara directly into war against Syria, after it has long sought to dictate events through control of the opposition Syrian National Congress and Free Syrian Army. This would be done with the full support of the United States.
Al Ahram cited reports in the Turkish media that the US embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Adana in southeast Turkey have “been planning military operations against the Baathist regime in Syria with the knowledge of the Turkish government.”
Large numbers of trucks have been seen coming out of the US airbase at Incirlik, laden with arms for distribution to the Syrian opposition.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has warned of an impending massacre in Aleppo, close to the Turkish border, and appealed for action. This is combined with ever escalating rhetoric over the “terrorist threat” posed by the Kurds.
In the past fortnight, up to 115 Kurdish fighters have been killed in a south eastern Turkey in military operations, including air strikes near the town of Semdinli. Sunday saw a counter-offensive in which Kurdish forces raided three military posts near the Iraq border that left at least six soldiers and 14 rebels dead. Turkish officials claim to be combating a 200-strong force of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
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Jump To Comment: 1Iran supports Assad and holds the US responsible for the lives of the 48 kidnapped Iranian pilgrims. Full text at link.
Iran has launched a new campaign to intervene in the Syrian crisis, sending its top officials across the Middle East, blasting US "warmongering" and publicly backing a defiant Bashar al-Assad as the country sinks deeper into war.
Saeed Jalili, Iran's powerful national security adviser, met the Syrian president in Damascus on Tuesday, while Iran's foreign minister urged Turkey and Qatar to use their influence with Syrian rebels to free 48 kidnapped Iranian pilgrims.
Iran said that it was holding the US responsible for the fate of the pilgrims, three of whom were reported killed in shelling on Monday. Anti-Assad fighters have claimed the pilgrims are in fact Iranian Revolutionary Guards helping suppress the 17-month long uprising.
The message was passed to Switzerland, which represents US interests in Iran. "Because of the US manifest support of terrorist groups and the dispatch of weapons to Syria, the US is responsible for the lives of the 48 Iranian pilgrims abducted in Damascus," it said.
Jalili pledged that Iran would not allow anything to break the "axis of resistance" of which Syria formed a "fundamental element," Syria's ad-Dounia TV reported. The phrase usually also includes Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian group Hamas, united by hostility to Israel.
Assad told Jalili of "the determination of the people and government of Syria to cleanse the country of terrorists," the TV station added. Syria, said Assad, was "capable of thwarting the foreign conspiracies".
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