Category Archives: PKK

Mutlu Çiviroğlu 03:11 on November 29, 2018  

How long will Turkey stay in Syria?

In recent months, Turkey has made significant investments in areas under its control in northern Syria, launching local employment projects, opening Turkish post offices and even building a new highway linking the Syrian city of Al-Bab to Turkey. These commitments indicate that Ankara seeks a significant role in shaping the future of northern Syria, an area of great strategic importance.

Turkey currently controls a large swathe of territory in northwestern Syria consisting of Al-Bab and the border cities of Jarablus and Azaz, captured from Islamic State (ISIS) in the Euphrates Shield operation it launched in August 2016. It also occupies the enclave of Afrin, situated a little further westward of the Euphrates Shield zone, which it captured from Syrian Kurdish forces in its Olive Branch operation early this year.

Earlier this month, Turkish media highlighted several new projects launched by Ankara. It began training 6,500 more of the proxy militiamen who fight on Turkey’s behalf under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Azaz. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that 260,000 Syrian refugees had successfully resettled there. Turkey also supplied 3.6 million textbooks to Syrian schools and drilled 69 wells to provide water for 432,000 people. A business association head also announced that 4,000 Turkish firms were operating in both the Euphrates Shield zone and Afrin.

State-run Turkish news outlets have a clear motive in extolling Turkey’s more humanitarian endeavours. Nevertheless, such reports demonstrate a clear intention on Ankara’s part to consolidate its sizeable foothold in northern Syria.

“The head is Turkish, the body Syrian,” quipped one Syrian man when describing all the various institutions, ranging from the security and police forces to the local councils that Turkey has established in the areas it controls. ‘Brotherhood has no borders’ is also a slogan inscribed on those Turkish-built institutions in both Turkish and Arabic. While such anecdotal examples may indicate that Turkey seeks to gradually annex these territories, Ankara invariably stresses that it supports preserving Syria’s territorial integrity.

Turkey’s two operations into Syria did fulfil some of its security needs. ISIS no longer has a foothold on Turkey’s border thanks to Euphrates Shield, and Olive Branch fulfilled Ankara’s goal of preventing the Syrian Kurds from taking over all of Syria’s northern border. Remaining in Syria, or at least retaining a sizeable proxy FSA presence there, will help ensure these battlefield victories are not undone.

“Turkish actions in northern Syria are driven by security concerns,” Timur Akhmetov, a Middle East analyst at the Russian International Affairs Council, told Ahval News.

“To enhance its chances there, Turkey supports a military presence by providing limited humanitarian assistance. It is not, however, feasible at the moment to see if such investments will be guaranteed by the main actors in Syria, such as Damascus, or whether they will result in pro-Turkish sentiments in the long-run.”

The Syrian regime, which has retaken most of the country, has staunchly opposed Turkey’s cross-border incursions since the start of Euphrates Shield. Russia has proven more tolerant of the Turkish military presence, but is unlikely to recognise or acquiesce to any potential Turkish annexation of Syrian territory.

“Turkey is trying to convert its presence into political influence, but Russia so far has clearly signalled to Turkey that the Turkish presence in northern Syria is tolerated due to Turkish security concerns, meaning that no political claims are recognised as legitimate by the Astana agreements,” Akhmetov said.

Akhmetov compared Turkey’s presence in Syria to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to remove the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from the south of the country next to its border. For much of the next 18 years, it controlled a swathe of southern Lebanon alongside a proxy army called the South Lebanon Army (SLA) that, much like the Turkish-backed FSA forces today, it armed and trained to help enforce a buffer zone in that area, before finally withdrawing in 2000.

As with most analogies, there are some important distinctions between this ongoing case and that historic case.

“I’m not sure if the best way to look at it is in terms of legal annexation,” said Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank. “These areas have been a direct Turkish sphere of influence, and have been getting more and more integrated into Turkish administration. In many ways, for historical, political and cultural reasons, that goes well beyond what Israel had in southern Lebanon.”

Badran, like Akhmetov, sees Russia as the primary player in determining how long this situation lasts.

“For as long as the status quo between Turkey and Russia persists, and the limitations on the Assad regime’s manpower and capabilities continue to be an obstacle to its territorial ambitions, then I suspect this arrangement is likely to remain in its current, de facto, form,” Badran said.

While the Euphrates Shield zone has proven relatively stable and secure under Turkish control, the same cannot be said about Turkish-occupied Afrin.

“When you look at Afrin today there is no stability or security, it is just chaos,” Mutlu Çiviroğlu, a Kurdish and Syria affairs analyst, told Ahval News.

“Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the U.N. Human Rights Commission all state that human rights violations, torture, kidnapping and looting are common in today’s Afrin. This was a region which had exemplary stability and was a refuge for many thousands of displaced people. A place where Kurds and Arabs, Muslims and Yezidis and so on coexisted.”

Çiviroğlu said most of Afrin’s residents had been displaced by Turkey’s invasion while Ankara has facilitated the resettlement of many Syrians from across the country there, sparking accusations that it is working to alter Afrin’s Kurdish-majority demographics.

This month, clashes in Afrin between Turkish-backed factions have left at least 25 dead and bode ill for Ankara’s claims to have brought stability to the tiny enclave. “The clashes provoked terror among civilians,” said the head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdul Rahman, who summed them up as “unprecedented since the rebels seized Afrin”.

Çiviroğlu said that since Turkey is the “occupying power” in Afrin it had the responsibility to maintain stability and security, both of which Afrin has been chronically lacking.

“Turkey’s argument of removing terrorists from that region and bringing stability and security rings hollow,” he said, adding that Turkey’s occupation of Afrin is an attempt to “expand the territories under its control to use as a bargaining chip for negotiations so it can have more of a say over Syria’s future.”

Paul Iddon

https://ahvalnews.com/syrian-war/how-long-will-turkey-stay-syria

Mutlu Çiviroğlu 03:52 on November 4, 2018  

Senior U.S. diplomat visits Kurdish journalist injured by Turkish gunfire

Senior U.S. diplomat William Roebuck on Saturday visited a Kurdish journalist in hospital in northern Syria’s Manbij where she is recovering from being shot by Turkish forces, Rudaw reported.

Two journalist, two members of Syrian Kurdish forces and a civilian, were reportedly lost their lives this week due to the shelling from the Turkish side targeting Kurdish-held northern Syrian territory, media reports.

“I wish you a quick recovery. You’re a brave woman,” Ambassador Roebuck told Gulistan Mohammed, in comments published by the Manbij Military Council.

 

The U.S. envoy Roebuck, an advisor to Brett McGurk who deals with Syria policy from the U.S. State Department and helps coordinate stabilisation efforts in Syria, stressed the important role that journalists and the media play in stability and security which was very important for the United States. Roebuck will meet with the Manbij civil administration before leaving.

The 20-year-old Mohammed was one of two journalists working for local media ANHA news who were injured in Turkish fire on Friday morning. She was shot in the face. In critical condition, she was transferred to Manbij for surgery and is now in intensive care, according to ANHA.

The other journalist, Ibrahim Ahmed Marto,19, was wounded in hand by a bullet. He was treated at Gire Spi General Hospital.

The two were covering Turkish attacks on villages and Kurdish forces in the Kobane and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) area. ANHA said Turkish snipers deliberately targeted them.

The shelling by Turkey started last week and targeted areas held by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) which forms the backbone of the U.S. backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the battle against the Islamic State. However, Ankara considers the YPG as an extension of its own insurgent group Kurdistan Worker’s Party which took guns against the Turkish government in 1984. Both are seen as terrorist organisations by Turkey.

Turkey and the United States began joint patrols in neutral zones near Manbij on Friday. Ankara has threatened the YPG with military operations against them in Manbij and eastward. But Washington said that Turkish forces will not enter Manbij city, and the joint patrols are only to complement local security.

https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-ypg/senior-us-diplomat-visits-kurdish-journalist-injured-turkish-gunfire

Mutlu Çiviroğlu 03:03 on October 22, 2018  

Turkey-KRG relations one year after Kurdish independence vote

More than a year after Iraqi Kurdistan’s referendum on independence soured hitherto good ties with Turkey, relations are still very significant, particularly on the economic front. However, analysts anticipate that political relations are unlikely to once again become as close and cordial as they were before that referendum.

“Considering its current economic crisis resuming close economic relations with Iraqi Kurdistan, as they existed in the pre-referendum era, will be good for Turkey,” Mutlu Çiviroğlu, a Syria and Kurdish affairs analyst, told Ahval.

“I don’t think politically Turkey’s relations will be as they used to be, especially with Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP),” he said, referring to the former president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region. “But economically Turkey would like to take advantage of the region. Many Turkish companies have been very active in Kurdistan, especially in the western parts of the region where the KDP is the predominant party. To some extent, this is continuing and will likely continue and even get stronger since the Kurdistan region is too important economically for Turkey to ignore or let go.”

Economic ties between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Turkey continued throughout the tense months following the referendum. While Ankara harshly condemned the KRG it never closed its border crossings with it in order to blockade the region, which Iran did from September 2017 to January 2018.

Joel Wing, an Iraq analyst and author of Musings on Iraq, believes that Ankara and the KRG “are set to repair their relationship” one year after it became strained during the referendum.

“While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was angry at the vote, he didn’t put as many sanctions on the KRG as he could have,” Wing told Ahval. “Given that it was only natural that the two would eventually move back together.”

At present, economic ties between the KRG and Turkey are still very significant. Turkey’s pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper reported this month that Turkey would “undertake the lion’s share of infrastructure projects in northern Iraq”.

Turkey and the KRG also agreed to open a new international border crossing between the two, the first with the Kurdish province of Erbil, where the autonomous region’s capital city is located.

“Two weeks ago there was an underground tunnel built in the Iraqi Kurdish border city of Zakho by a Turkish company,” Çiviroğlu said. Iraqi Kurdistan regional Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani “is very keen to improve relations and open doors for Turkish companies, construction and other, in the region. As a result, we can see the continuation of economic relations and maybe even improvement of relations overall.”

Wing agreed that Kurdistan was an important economic partner that Turkey did not want to lose.

For Turkey, the KDP, the predominant Kurdish party in Iraqi Kurdistan’s western Erbil and Duhok provinces, remains “an important ally within Iraq and a counter to other Kurdish groups in the region”, Wing said.

“For the KDP, it’s of utmost importance to maintain this ally as the KRG is economically dependent upon its northern neighbour for its oil exports, trade, and investment,” Wing said. “The referendum was more of a bump in the road than a lasting break between the two.”

Bilal Wahab, the Nathan and Esther K. Wagner Fellow at the Washington Institute think-tank, where his focus is on KRG governance, also sees the Turkish-KRG relationship improving, but does not see it reverting to its pre-referendum heights.

“Turkish-Iraq economic and security relations are improving, which enables Turkey to be less dependent on the KRG,” Wahab told Ahval.

Wahab is also sceptical that economic relations will return to pre-referendum heights since the KRG will no longer be the exclusive Iraqi market for Turkish investors.

In the immediate aftermath of the Kurdish referendum, Turkey’s ultra-conservative press reported that Ankara was contemplating opening a new border crossing near the village of Ovaköy, where the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Syria meet, to bypass and economically isolate the KRG, and trade directly with Iraq.

Ankara is exploring the feasibility of opening a crossing in that area today. Given that relations have thawed significantly since last year it is much less likely that Turkey is now seeking to isolate the KRG economically. It is more likely trying to lessen its sole dependence on that autonomous region for trade with the rest of Iraq. At present, it is unclear if this project will actually get off the ground anytime soon since the KRG still controls all of Iraq’s border with Turkey.

Çiviroğlu does not see military and political relations between Ankara and Erbil improving anytime soon.

“In Turkey, there have been calls to carry out more operations against PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) bases in Iraqi Kurdistan,” he said. “This may lead to Turkey trying to get the KDP to help them in such an operation. Although this will unlikely be possible in the near future since Kurds are more careful not to allow themselves to fight one and another.”

Another major hurdle in the way of restoring Turkish-KRG relations to pre-referendum levels was the political fallout and the harsh words Erdoğan used against then Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani.

“The referendum in the mindset of Turkish leaders was a betrayal by Barzani, and Iraqi Kurds generally, so maybe political relations will never be as good as before,” Çiviroğlu said. “But still I think compared to Turkish and Syrian Kurds the Iraqi Kurds comparatively still enjoy better relations.”

Of course, compared to the PKK and other Kurdish groups that Turkey opposes outright the KDP will always be a favourable choice for Ankara and economic relations will likely endure.

The relationship between Turkey and the KDP is also much more cordial than the one between Ankara and the Patriotic Union Party (PUK), the most powerful party in Iraqi Kurdistan after the KDP.

In August 2017 Ankara expelled PUK representatives from Turkey after the PKK kidnapped Turkish intelligence agents in Sulaimani province, the PUK’s main stronghold in Iraqi Kurdistan. Furthermore, while Turkey opened its airspace to Erbil International Airport, following Baghdad’s lifting of the post-referendum flight ban over the Kurdistan region’s airspace in March, it has not yet done the same for Sulaimani International Airport.

“The KRG is not the united front it once was, whereby the PUK’s relationship with the PKK is not the same as the KDP’s,” said Wahab. “This manifests in Turkey banning its flagship airlines from flying to Sulaimani.”

Çiviroğlu sees Turkey’s refusal to reopen its airspace to air traffic going to Sulaimani as “an indicator of Turkish anger and displeasure with the PUK.”

He said the “PUK’s warm relations with Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) and HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) in Turkey, and generally with the PKK, makes the PUK less favourable to Turkey.”

But now that Iraq is working to establish a new government, in which there has been consensus “about the designated prime minister, speaker of parliament and Barham Salih being elected president there is some gradual optimism in Baghdad”, he said.

In light of these developments, Çiviroğlu does not believe that Ankara would try to be a spoiler, “but instead may try and use these changes for its advantage, especially Barham Salih becoming president.”

Ankara may also “use these developments to reset relations with Iraq generally and the Kurdistan region in particular, especially Sulaimani which has been suffering from Turkey’s closure of its airspace,” Çiviroğlu said.

The selection of Salih, a long-time PUK member, as Iraqi president was warmly welcomed by Ankara. İlnur Çevik, an advisor to Erdoğan, described Salih as a good ally of Turkey.

“Dr. Barham has always appreciated the importance of Turkey and has cherished the friendship of Ankara. Now we have a good ally in Baghdad just like Mam Jalal,” Çevik said in a recent editorial. Mam Jalal – Kurdish for ‘Uncle Jalal’ – is an endearing term many Kurds call the late former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who was also the leader of the PUK.

Such sentiments could signify that relations between Ankara and the PUK will be restored in the foreseeable future.

Wahab reasoned that while thawing the frozen relations between Ankara and the PUK “would be an opportunity for President Salih” he also argued that “what factors greater into PUK’s calculation of cosier relations with the PKK is its rivalry with the KDP – one that has heightened since the referendum and recently over Iraq’s presidency and election results.”

The KDP had sought to have its own candidate, Fuad Hussein, run as the next president of Iraq, a position traditionally reserved for the PUK, but lost that bid to Salih.

While Turkey’s relationship with Iraqi Kurdistan successfully endured the worst crisis since its establishment a decade ago, it still has some ways to go before it completely normalises.

Paul Iddon

https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-krg/turkey-krg-relations-one-year-after-kurdish-independence-vote

Mutlu Çiviroğlu 03:46 on February 19, 2018  

Syria tensions ramp up as Assad eyes Afrin

Political tensions are mounting once again in Syria as Damascus prepared to send troops into Afrin, where the Turkish military has launched a large-scale operation against Kurdish militants, the People’s Protection Forces (YPG).

As news of the possible deal between Damascus and the Kurds broke, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu warned that no one would stop Turkish troops should Syrian forces enter the enclave, in a barely veiled threat of confrontation. Turkey’s main share index fell on the news.

Turkey, the United States and Russia, as well as Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Kurds, are vying for control of northern Syria, ratcheting up tensions in a seven-year war, after the virtual defeat of Islamic State. The area, home to a mixture of Kurdish and Sunni Arab minorities, is strategically adjacent to Iraq and Turkey, with important oil resources.

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad will enter Afrin in the coming hours after reaching an agreement with Kurdish forces, Syrian state media said. Syria woukd also re-establish a military presence along the border with Turkey, which has actively supported a range of armed groups intent on overthrowing Assad’s government, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA), deployed against the Kurds, it said

“If they (the Syrians) are entering to protect the YPG/PKK, nobody can stop the Turkish army,” Çavuşoğlu said at a news conference in Amman, Jordan.

FSA

Militants of the Turkish-backed FSA in Syria

Turkey has rejected any talk of Assad retaking the border, saying his government has courted and supported the Kurds against Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered Turkish troops into Syria on Jan. 20, saying an operation was needed to cleanse the area of Kurdish militants allied with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade war for autonomy from Turkey at the cost of about 40,000 lives, most of them Kurdish.

Russia, however, is concerned about possible clashes between Turkish and Syrian troops should Syria’s army be deployed, and has approached Turkey to negotiate a possible deal, according to Timur Akhmetov, a journalist and researcher for the Russian International Affairs Council.

The deployment of Syrian troops would come just three days after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Ankara and agreed with Turkey to set up working groups to deal with differences between the two NATO allies over Syria. Washington has opposed the Turkish incursion, saying it threatens to de-stablise Syria further and hurt the fight against Islamic State (ISIS) — the Kurds are the most powerful allies as the West does battle with the group.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is now “pushing the Assad piece forward” after Ankara and Washington reached the agreement to patch up their relationship, Tim Ash, senior emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management in London, said on Monday.

Moscow, which has benefited from a closer relationship with Ankara as ties with the U.S. frayed, could now close Syrian airspace to Turkish jets, leaving Turkish troops exposed on the ground, Ash said.

Turkey has broken international law by occupying Afrin after it realised its support for Islamist terrorists flowing across the border from Turkey failed, Bouthaina Shaaban, an aide to Assad, said on Monday, according to Turkish news website Gazete Duvar.

Mutlu Civiroglu, an expert on Kurdish affairs, said the deal between Damascus and the Kurds isn’t done, though may be signed in the coming hours.

Turkey’s main BIST-100 share index fell 0.2 percent to 116,330 points at 3:04 p.m. in Istanbul, reversing earlier gains.

Mark Bentley

https://ahvalnews.com/syria-turkey/syria-tensions-ramp-assad-eyes-afrin

Mutlu Çiviroğlu 20:56 on January 20, 2018  

Afrin’e hava saldırısı: ABD ve Rusya neden izledi?

HABER MERKEZİ – TSK’nin Afrin’e yönelik hava saldırısı sonrası en çok merak edilen konulardan biri Rusya ve ABD’nin tavrının ne olacağıydı. Rusya, saldırı sonrası Afrin’deki askerlerini çektiğini açıklayıp ‘krizden’ ABD’yi sorumlu tutarken, ABD ABD Savunma Bakanlığı Pentagon ise “taraflara şiddetten kaçınma çağrısı” yaptı. Bu durumu değerlendiren Rusya Kürt Kültür ve Ulusal Federal Otonomosi Başkanı Ferhat Patiyev, Rusya’nın tavrını “her tarafı denetimde tutma ve herkesi idare etme” tutumu olarak nitelendirirken, Mutlu Civiroğlu ise ABD’nin saldırı sonrası uzun süren sessizliğinin ülkede hükümetin resmen kapanmasından kaynaklı olabileceğini söyledi. Türkiye’nin bunu “fırsat olarak gördüğünü” kaydeden Çiviroğlu, “Kürtler ve müttefikleri ABD ile birlikte büyük başarılar elde ettiler. Siyaseten de kendilerini yeni döneme hazırlıyorken bu saldırıyı kabul etmeleri mümkün görünmüyor” değerlendirmesinde bulundu.

AKP Genel Başkanı ve Cumhurbaşkanı Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’ın “Afrin’e operasyonun fiilen başladığını” söylemesinin ardından Afrin ve çevresine Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri’ne (TSK) ait savaş uçakları tarafından hava saldırısı başlatıldı.

Yerleşim birimlerine yakın alanlara yapılan hava saldırılarında bölgedeki ajansların aktardığına göre şimdiye kadar aralarında çocukların da bulunduğu 10 sivil yaralandı.

Hava bombardımanının yanı sıra sınırdan Afrin’e dönük top atışları da yapıldı. TSK’den yapılan son açıklamada ise hava saldırısının sonlandırıldığı duyuruldu.

Türkiye’nin Afrin’e hava saldırısı karşısında ABD ve Rusya’nın tutumu merak ediliyordu.

Rusya, hava saldırısı sonrasında Afrin’deki askerlerini çektiğini açıklarken ‘kriz’den ABD’yi sorumlu tuttu. Rusya Savunma Bakanlığı’ndan yapılan açıklamada “Rus askerlerinin yaşamına ve sağlığına yönelik tehdidi önlemek için Ateşkesi İzleme Merkezi’nin Afrin bölgesinde bulunan grubunda yer alan askerler ve askeri polisler Tel Rıf’at’taki gerilimi azaltma bölgesine çekildi” denildi.

Açıklamada ayrıca ‘kriz’den ABD sorumlu tutularak, “ABD’nin sorumsuz davranışlarının ve kontrolsüz modern silah sevkiyatlarının Türkiye’yi operasyona ittiği” öne sürüldü.

Hava saldırısı öncesi Türkiye’yi olası harekat konusunda uyaran ABD Savunma Bakanlığı Pentagon’dan ise saldırıdan saatler sonra açıklama geldi. ABD, “Türkiye’nin güvenlik kaygılarını anladıklarını” belirtti, taraflara şiddetten kaçınma çağrısı yaptı.

Pentagon Sözcüsü Binbaşı Adrian Rankine-Galloway, “Bütün tarafları gerilimi tırmandırmaktan kaçınmaya ve en önemli iş olan IŞİD’i yenmeye odaklanmaya davet ediyoruz. ABD, PKK’ye herhangi bir destek sağlamıyor. ABD öncülüğündeki koalisyonun Efrin’de devam eden bir operasyonu yok çünkü IŞİD’i hedef alan askeri operasyonlara odaklanmış durumda” dedi.

Peki, hava saldırısı öncesi olası bir ‘operasyona’ karşı çıkan Rusya ve ABD’nin şu anki tutumu neden böyle?

Patiyev: Rusya ‘her tarafı denetimde tutma ve herkesi idare etme’ tutumunda

Konuya ilişkin Mezopotamya Ajansı’na konuşan Rusya Kürt Kültür ve Ulusal Federal Otonomosi Başkanı Ferhat Patiyev, Rusya’nın tutumunu “her tarafı denetimde tutma ve herkesi idare etme” tutumu olarak nitelendirdi.

Rusya’nın Kürtleri de gözden çıkarmak istemediğini ancak Kürtleri Suriye rejimine mecbur etmek istediğini söyleyen Patiyev, şöyle devam etti:

Rusya Kürtlere karşı pozitif bir dil kullanıyor, onların kimi kazanımlarını da şimdiye kadar gözetti. Ancak Türkiye’yi de kendi ekseninde tutmaya yönelik pazarlıklarda anlaşmaya vardığı da görülüyor. Türkiye Rusya’nın bütün taleplerini kabul etmiş ve taviz vermiştir.

Rusya’nın askerlerini Tel Rıfat’a çekmesini de değerlendiren Patiyev, “Burada provokasyonu önlemekten bahsediliyor. Beli ki ‘Türkiye’nin taleplerini kabul ettik’ demek istiyorlar” yorumunda bulundu.

Çiviroğlu: Türkiye ABD’nin iç gündemini fırsat gördü

ABD’nin sessizlik tutumunu ise gazeteci Mutlu Çiviroğlu değerlendirdi.

ABD’deki gündemin “Federal Hükümetin resmen kısa süreli kapanmış olması” olduğunu belirten Çiviroğlu, hafta sonu olması ve bu tür günlerde brifing verilmemiş olmasının da Türkiye tarafından “fırsat görüldüğünü” söyledi.

Önümüzdeki saatlerde ABD Dışişleri Bakanlığı’ndan yazılı bir açıklama gelebileceğini belirten Çiviroğlu, şunları söyledi:

Şuanda ABD’deki gündem Federal Hükümetin resmen kısa süreli kapanmış olmasıdır. Kongre dün gece 12’ye kadar uzlaşma arayışındaydı ve uzlaşma olmadı. Hükümetin kapanmış olması nadir görülen durumlardan biridir. Demokratlar ve Cumhuriyetçiler arasındaki rekabet kızıştı. Dış politika arka planda. Hafta sonu olması ve bu tür günlerde brifing verilmemiş olmasını da Türkiye fırsat olarak gördü.

Önümüzdeki saatlerde ABD Dışişleri Bakanlığından yazılı bir açıklama gelebilir. Eleştirel bir dil kullanılması bekleniyor. Perşembe ve Cuma günü ortada ciddi bir saldırı yokken açıklama yokken ABD Dışişleri Bakanlığı açıklama yapmıştı. Hava saldırıları yokken yapılmıştı o saldırı, şimdi daha sert bir tonda olabilir.

Kürtler ve müttefikleri ABD ile birlikte büyük başarılar elde ettiler. Siyaseten de kendilerini yeni döneme hazırlıyorken bu saldırı kabul etmeleri mümkün görünmüyor. Ama Türkiye’de ABD müttefiki ve bu gerginliğin tırmandırmamasına çalışacaktır. Kürtler tepkilerini dile getirdiler oraya saldırıyı Cizre ve Kobane’ye yönelik saldırı olarak aldıklarını söylediler. Bu da ABD karar vericiler arasında görülüyor. Dışişleri Bakanlığı sınır güvenliği tehlikede açıklamasının doğru bulunmadığına ilişkin açıklama yapılmıştı.

Afrin’e hava saldırısı: ABD ve Rusya neden izledi?

Mutlu Çiviroğlu 18:29 on June 29, 2017  

A bullet almost killed this Kurdish sniper. Then she laughed about it.

Kurdish fighters rest in a house in Raqqa, Syria,  on June 26. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Kurdish fighters rest in a house in Raqqa, Syria,  on June 26. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

A Kurdish sniper, reportedly targeting Islamic State fighters in the Syrian city of Raqqa, laughed in the face of death after a gunshot cracked into a wall above her head, showering her with chunks of concrete.

A video of the incident, posted online and circulating on social media, shows a female sniper purportedly of the Kurdish Women’s Defense Units, or YPJ.

Clad in a blue bandanna and standing in a nondescript building’s window, she acquires a target and squeezes the trigger on what appears to be a Dragunov rifle. In an instant, a bullet strikes the wall above her.

 

Hamza Hemze #EFRÎNÎYE@21Liciye

Sniper battle inside Raqqa city. Thank god the ISIS terrorist missed 🙏🙏

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Mutlu Civiroglu, a Syrian and Kurdish affairs analyst, reviewed the video for The Washington Post and provided a rough translation.

“I killed Daesh,” the sniper says, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, according to Civiroglu. Someone off camera said the bullet almost killed her. She laughs and asks to stop recording, Civiroglu said.

YPJ is an all-female wing of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units militia group, or YPG, a U.S.-backed group critical in the fight to retake terrain from the Islamic State.

Critics quickly questioned the veracity of the video, criticizing the sniper’s weapon handling and position or claiming it was fake.

Maximilian Uriarte, a Marine Corps combat veteran and creator of the popular Terminal Lance comic, pushed back on claims it was faked since it appears the shot comes from a different direction than she is engaging.

Maximilian Uriarte

✔@TLCplMax

Keyboard warriors calling the sniper video fake, here is a very easy diagram of how this could have went down.

View image on Twitter

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The unnamed woman’s left arm is emblazoned with a yellow patch bearing the face of Abdullah Ocalan, known also as Apo, a Kurdish nationalist and co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

 

The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, and Turkey has long tied the YPG to the PKK. U.S. officials have maintained that they are separate organizations, with U.S. Special Operations forces working with YPG troops in the offensive to retake Raqqa.

Turkey criticized the United States after its Special Operations troops were photographed wearing YPG and YPJ patches near Raqqa in May 2016. The Pentagon later said it was “unauthorized” and inappropriate” for U.S. troops to wear those patches.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/06/28/a-bullet-almost-killed-this-kurdish-sniper-then-she-laughed-about-it/