ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD

[Anthea]

The Independent

Isis in Kobani:
Turkey’s act of abandonment may mark an irrevocable breach with Kurds across the region

The likely fall of Kobani to the Islamic militants has huge implications for Turkey, which has ignored its Kurdish minority’s pleas to help fellow Kurds in Syria

A man died and dozens of people were wounded in demonstrations across Turkey today as Kurds vented their fury at the Turkish government for standing by as Isis fighters looked poised to take the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani in view of the Turkish border and the watching Turkish army.

Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who burnt cars and tyres as they took to the streets mainly in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish eastern and southeastern provinces, although clashes erupted in the nation’s biggest city, Istanbul, and the capital Ankara as well.

The likely fall of Kobani may mark an irrevocable breach between Turks and Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Many of the 30 million Kurds in the region believe that, if Kobani falls, it will be because Turkey refused to help its defenders as they faced repeated Isis assaults and cut them off from reinforcements and fresh supplies of weapons and ammunition. “We are besieged by Turkey, it is not something new,” said Ismet Sheikh Hassan, the Kurdish Defence Chief for the Kobani region.

The already faltering peace process between the Turkish government and its Kurdish minority could be a long-term casualty of Kobani, particularly if its capture is accompanied by ritual massacres of surviving defenders by Isis.

The capture of Kobani by Isis may be a turning point in the present crisis in Iraq and Syria because it marks the failure of the US plan to contain Isis using air power alone. President Obama promised less than a month ago “to degrade and destroy” the fundamentalists with air power, but Isis is still expanding and winning victories.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made very clear where he stood during a visit to a refugee camp at Gazantep, saying “Kobani is about to fall”. He explained that the Turkish price for rescuing Kobani and acting against Isis would have been three measures aimed, not at Isis, but at displacing President Bashar al-Assad. Mr Erdogan said: “We asked for three things: one, for a no-fly zone to be created; two for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped.” In effect, he was saying that given a choice between Isis and Assad, he would chose the former.

In a further sign of the Turkish government’s lack of sympathy for the Syrian Kurds, some 200 of whom fled from Kobani into Turkey this week and were detained and questioned about their links with the YPG, the Kurdish militia defending the town. Turkey is deeply suspicious of the YPG and its political counterpart the PYD because they are the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has fought for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey since 1984.

The refusal by the Turkish government to help the Syrian Kurds in their hour of need immediately provoked demonstrations by Kurds across Turkey. There have been protests, often violent, in the Kurdish south-east and wherever there are Kurdish minorities, such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Bursa. In Varto, a man was killed and in Istanbul a prominent human rights lawyer, Tamer Dogan, was shot in the head. His friends say he may have been targeted. Smoke was rising over many towns where demonstrators had lit fires in the streets and police used tear gas and water cannon.

Turks may react angrily to reports that a bust of Ataturk was burned by a crowd in Van province. The General Staff in Ankara put out a report that the Turkish flag had also been set alight. An office of the Kurdish political party, the HDP, was surrounded in one Istanbul district by a crowd shouting ‘Allahu Akhbar’.

One observer in Turkey writes: “These events could turn what began as a general humanitarian protest at the abandonment of the besieged in Kobani into a headlong collision between the Kurds and the Turks.”

The fall of Kobani will give Isis control of a large part of the 510-mile Syrian frontier with Turkey. This will be a further incentive for Turkey to establish a buffer or ‘safe’ zone on the Syrian side of the border, though this would shift Turkey towards becoming a military participant in the civil war. It plans to use a Turkish-controlled zone to train anti-government fighters and to house Syrian refugees.

The Turks were not alone in abandoning Kobani to the Islamic militants. The US was careful not have any direct liaison with Kurdish fighters on the ground though local intelligence should have made their air strikes more effective and might have stopped the Isis advance. Over the past 24 hours, these strikes have increased in number but may come too late as Isis militants fight street to street.

The US campaign against Isis is weakened not so much by lack ‘boots on the ground’, but by seeking to hold at arm’s-length those who are actually fighting Isis while embracing those such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey who are not. There is a similar situation in Iraq, where most of the fighting against Isis is by the Shia militias from which the US keeps its distance.

As Isis closes in on Kobani, the city’s defenders have been abandoned. They may have hoped for assistance from the Syrian government, with whom they have a truce, but there are no reports of Syrian aircraft in action at Kobani though bombing Isis there would have been keeping with Mr Assad’s claim to be defending Syrians from Isis.

Kobani: A brief history

Kobani started out in 1912 as a stop on the Konya-Baghdad railway and was populated by Armenian refugees fleeing the forces of the Ottoman Empire in 1915. The name “Kobani” may be a corruption of the word “company”, although in Arabic the town is called Ayn al-Arab or “the spring of the Arabs”.

Kurds and other groups also moved into the town, which was developed under French rule in Syria after the end of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the population was Kurdish but also included Turkmen, Arabs and Armenians. The 2004 census gave Kobani’s population as 45,000, but the outlying districts were home to hundreds of thousands of people in villages. In 2012, Kurdish People’s Protection Units took over control of the own and other Kurdish areas from the Damascus government, in what was seen as a deal between Kurds and the Assad regime. As the war continued, Kobani became a haven for those escaping the fighting. Some reports say 160,000 people have left Kobani for Turkey recently.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 80941.html

[Anthea]

Kurdish rallies in Turkey turn bloody at least 12 killed



At least 12 people have reportedly been killed and scores others wounded as pro-Kurdish demonstrators clashed with police in eastern provinces as well as in Istanbul and Ankara, according to local media, as people demand action against the Islamic State.

Clashes with police in Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city in the southeast, resulted in seven deaths, Hurriyet Daily Newsreports. Another protester died in clashes in Varto, in the province of Mus, where at least half a dozen people were wounded, local media reported. Two people died in south-eastern Siirt province, CNN Turk Television reported, while another died in Batman.



The violence led to the introduction of curfews in five provinces. “Violence is not the solution. Violence triggers reprisals. This irrational attitude should come to an end immediately,” Interior Minister Efkan Ala said, calling for an end to the protests.

The minister accused the pro-Kurdish protesters of “betraying their own country” and warned them to disperse or face “unpredictable” consequences.



Turkey's Kurdish population, as well as thousands who fled Syria’s Kobani region, are furious over the government's decision to not intervene militarily against the Islamic State.

"It is a massive lie that Turkey is doing nothing about Kobani," Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said on Twitter. "Turkey is doing whatever can be done in humanitarian aspects."

Earlier on Tuesday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Kobani was “about to fall” to the jihadists. With over 400 lives already lost in a three week battle for Kobani, the rallies in Turkey are part of Europe-wide Kurdish demonstrations against the IS offensive, with participants demanding increased aid for the Kurdish forces struggling to hold off the militants.

The Kurdish party meanwhile had issued a statement saying: "The situation in Kobani is extremely critical. We call on our people to go out into the streets, or support those that have gone onto the streets, to protest the ISIL (Islamic State) attacks and the ... stance of (Turkey's) AKP government against Kobani."

Link to Article Photos Videos:

http://rt.com/files/news/2f/5e/40/00/29.jpg

[Anthea]

Col. R.Peters:Obama's phony air strikes did nothing.

Massacre Looms in Kobane thanks 2 Obama's Cowardice

phpBB [video]

[Anthea]

NBC News

Turkey Waits, Watches as ISIS Pushes Toward Border
By Cassandra Vinograd

With plumes of smoke visible from across the Syrian border, Turkey has a front-row seat to the key battleground against ISIS: Kobani.

Refugees have flooded into Turkey, fleeing ISIS and pleading for more assistance for the Kurdish fighters battling to stave off the militants’ advance on town just six miles from the border.

Turkey has a powerful and well-equipped military. It has bases from which the U.S. could stage military strikes. It is geographically crucial to the anti-ISIS coalition, sharing long borders with Syria and Iraq. So why then has the key U.S. ally and country with NATO's second-largest army hesitated to jump into the fray?

“Turkey should have skin in the game here — they have not done enough,” said David Schenker, director of the program on Arab politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Their participation or their role has been insufficiently helpful.”

While Turkey’s parliament adopted a resolution authorizing military action against ISIS, the country so far has not offered any assets to the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS — or significant participation.

To most analysts, the role would be clear-cut: allow U.S. aircraft to use Turkey airbases for flights over Iraq and Syria and pony up combat troops.

“Turkey would be the principal actor in terms of a more effective operation,” Schenker said. “When we talk about boots on the ground and local actors, this is what we’re talking about. The problem is, Turkey just “hasn’t been there” — and for political reasons would be loath to send in troops.

Those reasons were brought to the fore when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday the coalition air campaign launched last month wouldn’t be enough to stall the ISIS advance and urged greater cooperation with the Syrian opposition, according to The Associated Press.

"Kobani is about to fall," Erdogan told Syrian refugees in the Turkish border town of Gaziantep, according to the AP. "We asked for three things: one, for a no-fly zone to be created; two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped."

That call for greater cooperation with the Syrian opposition underscored one of Turkey’s No. 1 priorities: ousting Syria’s president Bashar al Assad.

Some experts suggest that Turkey is holding out on the option of combat troops until the U.S. adds knocking out Assad to the anti-ISIS coalition’s agenda. Others say that Turkey will only militarily engage when its interests are directly at play.

The U.S. government has been reluctant to spell out publicly what it expects of Turkey.

“The leaders of Turkey have indicated over the past several weeks they want to play a more prominent, active role in the coalition,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday. “We’re having discussions with them about what that role is, what ideas they have. Beyond that, I’m not going to get ahead of that process.”

The importance of Turkey to U.S. plans to defeat ISIS has been repeated in recent days. There have been frequent calls between American officials and Erdogan, and the White House took the unusual step of saying that Vice President Joe Biden had apologized to Erdogan for “any implication” that the country had “intentionally supplied or facilitated” the growth of ISIS in remarks he’d made at Harvard last week.

“You can see just how important it is to the administration to get Turkey on board,” Schenker said. “The president has a choice: either our allies are going to step up and play a more robust and positive role — Turkey in particular — or this is going to be a limited containment operation that is not going to be particularly effective and is going to leave ISIS as a problem for the next U.S. president,” Schenker said.

“That’s what it’s looking like right now,” he added.

Given Turkey’s restive Kurdish minority, Ankara's reluctance to engage also could be linked to concerns about a shift in the balance of power if the U.S. gives Iraqi Kurds heavy weapons. Ankara is wary of making any moves that could give a boost to Syrian Kurds with links to militants who've fought a 30-year insurgency for greater autonomy.

Demonstrations already have erupted across Turkey, with Kurds demanding the government do more to protect Kobani from ISIS. At least one person died and dozens were wounded in protests Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Still, some analysts caution that Turkey could simply be taking the time to study its options.

“Those sorts of military operations don’t just snap into effect immediately,” said Matthew Henman, manager of IHS Janes Terrorism and Insurgency Center. “They’re probably looking carefully and looking to coordinate with the Americans on this.”

With no sign that Turkey is ready to pull the trigger, Kobani — six miles from the border — remains in the spotlight. The battles have become bloodier, and Syrian Kurdish leaders have pleaded for weapons from the West, saying there will be a massacre in Kobani if help does not come soon.

“Both sides have invested a lot in it," Henman said."It’s almost become too important for either side to lose."

Article Photos Videos:

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-t ... er-n220401

[Anthea]

The Guardian

Battle for Kobani between Isis and Syrian Kurds sparks unrest in Turkey

President Erdoğan calls for ground operation to defeat militants as thousands protest over government’s inaction
Anthea: f**king pig should call his own troops to action - would take them 5 MINUTES to reach Kobani
I think Turkey should be thrown out of NATO

Fighting between Kurdish forces and Islamic State (Isis) militants for the Syrian border town of Kobani fuelled rising tensions inside Turkey on Tuesday as thousands of protesters took to the streets to voice anger and frustration about the inaction of the Ankara government.

In a graphic illustration of the domestic and regional impact of the deepening crisis, demonstrations turned violent and Turkish police used teargas and water cannon.

Following a warning from the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, that Kobani was about to fall, Turkish media reports said up to 14 people had been killed in eastern cities and dozens more wounded.

The toll included eight deaths in the eastern city of Diyarbakir, the Dogan news agency said. One man was reported to have been killed by a bullet to the head in Varto in the eastern province of Mus when police allegedly fired live ammunition.

Clashes also took place at protests in the western cities of Ankara and Istanbul. Curfews were imposed in five Turkish provinces.

Erdoğan, speaking in the eastern city of Gaziantep, said that a ground operation was needed to defeat Isis – sidestepping accusations that he is unwilling to allow Kurds in Turkey to help their embattled kinfolk in Syria or to deploy the army across the border to fight Isis because of the country’s historic enmity towards Kurdish separatists – in addition to ongoing peace negotiations with them.

“I am telling the west – dropping bombs from the air will not provide a solution,” the president said to cheers from crowds of Syrian refugees in a speech that was translated into Arabic. Erdoğan also tested the readiness of the US, Britain, France and other allies by calling for a no-fly zone and a secure land zone as well as training for moderate Syrian rebels.

The Turkish parliament last week authorised the government to take military action against Isis. But Turkey has not announced plans for any operations, with Ankara apparently seeking a commitment from the west to move decisively against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, as well as the jihadis. Erdoğan said he wanted to fight both Isis and the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK).

France said on Tuesday that it was vital to act in order to stop the Isis advance. “Everything must be done so that the Daesh (Isis) terrorists are stopped and pushed back,” the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, told parliament. “A tragedy is unfolding, and we must all react.”

If Kobani does fall, Turkey is likely to face a massive backlash from its Kurdish population. Thousands of people have already arrived on the border from all over the country to offer their support. “If they take Kobani, we know they will come to Suruc,” said Ibrahim Akkus, watching from the nearby hillside on Tuesday.

Isis now controls large parts of both Syria and Iraq and has ramped up its offensive in recent days despite being targeted by US-led air strikes.

On the Turkish side of the border, journalists heard the sound of warplanes before two large plumes of smoke billowed west of Kobani. But the air attacks appear to have done little to slow Isis. The BBC reported eight strikes in total.

Hours after two of the group’s black flags were raised on the outskirts of the town on Monday, the militants punctured the Kurdish frontlines and advanced into the town itself, said the local coordination committee.

“They’re fighting inside the city. Hundreds of civilians have left,” said the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdurrahman. “IS controls three neighbourhoods on the eastern side of Kobani. They are trying to enter the town from the south-west as well.”

Capturing Kobani would give Isis, a direct link between its positions in the Syrian province of Aleppo and its stronghold of Raqqa, further east. It would also give the group full control of a long stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border.

Kobani residents described seeing Isis fighters looking “relaxed” and walking freely in the streets. But those who entered were soon killed by Kurdish fighters who are more familiar with the locality. “I don’t know where they were all coming from, but once they were killed, more Isis would come,” a man named Mahmoud said as he walked from Kobani to a nearby town. He said he believed that the Isis men were using hard drugs because of their confident demeanour. Looking exhausted, the 50-year-old lamented that he could not stay in his home town to fight.

“If I die, who will look after my children?” he asked. “I want to go to my land. I don’t want to live in Turkey. I don’t want to live in any country. I just want to live in my own land. Why is Isis coming to my land? The world has turned its back on Kobani.”

In Istanbul, hundreds of nationalists attacked an office of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People’s party (HDP) with sticks and knives, trapping around 60 people inside the building. In another neighbourhood, groups of pro-Kurdish protesters set fire to the building of the local Nationalist Movement party (MHP) after shots were reportedly fired from there.

Protests across Turkey were accompanied by pro-Kurdish demonstations elsewhere, including at the European parliament in Brussels. In Cypus, a protester urged the US to “hit the jihadists harder” to help Kurdish forces defend Kobani.

Please follow link for photos and interesting comment section:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/o ... ani-turkey

[Anthea]

[Anthea]

The Women of Kobani

Fleeing the Islamic State militants, they’ve left behind not only their homes in Syria, but also their husbands and sons who have stayed to fight.



Link to more photographs by Andrew Quilty:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... ria_turkey

Shasdar Aref woke up next to her husband, Mazlom Ibrahim, and three children on Friday morning.

It was the family's eighth day in a gray, plastic tent with only a plastic sheet covering the gravel floor. They have stayed here in this empty lot turned refugee camp since crossing the border into Turkey after fleeing their village in Syria more than two weeks ago. Friday was also the day Aref’s husband disappeared.

The young family and their neighbors -- who, like them, are Syrian Kurds -- have settled into the monotony of their new daily routine as refugees. They drink tea in the shade of roughly 100 tents just like theirs in an empty lot in Suruç, a medium-sized town a little over three miles into Turkey from the Syrian border.

That morning Aref had taken her children to use the bathroom -- a half-completed building of bare concrete and protruding steel hastily outfitted with portable toilets for the influx from Kobani. When they returned to their tent, Ibrahim, Aref’s husband of five years, was gone. He’d gone back to fight for Kobani, their home, and what is now the latest target of the Islamic State’s brutal sweep across the region.

Ibrahim would join an unknown number of fighters defending the city with People’s Protection Units (commonly known as the YPG) -- the armed wing of the Kurdish Supreme Committee of Syrian Kurdistan. They are vastly outgunned and ill equipped to fend off the IS offensive, and their calls for international assistance (for weapons) have so far gone unheeded.

Aref is among the countless thousands of women who have crossed into Turkey with only what little they could carry. Many have waited weeks on the Syrian side of the border. After finally reaching the bottlenecked border gate, they’re funneled through to the Turkish side, where they undergo a series of health and security checks before being deposited onto a dusty plain where they then must wait for trucks to collect them. Where they trucks will deliver them, however, is unknown.

The women and children, like Aref and her sons, sit with piles of white sacks filled with clothes and other necessities. Many are overcome by the hasty exodus they were forced to make from Kobani and all the uncertainty that awaits, unsure whether they’ll ever see their homes, or their men -- their boys -- again.

Anthea: my heart goes out to these brave women

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... ria_turkey

[Anthea]

More brave Kurdish ladies fighting Islamic State

[Anthea]

Reuters

Kurds say air strikes push Islamic State back from Kobani
By Daren Butler and Jonny Hogg

Anthea: let us hope and prey the Islamic State retreats now they have learnt Kurds NEVER give up

U.S.-led air strikes on Wednesday pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, which they had appeared set to seize after a three-week assault, local officials said.

The town has become the focus of international attention since the Islamists' advance drove 180,000 of the area's mostly Kurdish inhabitants to flee into adjoining Turkey, which has infuriated its own restive Kurdish minority -- and its NATO partners in Washington -- by refusing to intervene.

Islamic State hoisted its black flag on the eastern edge of the town on Monday but, since then, air strikes have redoubled by a U.S.-led coalition that includes Gulf states seeking to reverse the jihadists' dramatic advance across northern Syria and Iraq.

Intense gunfire could be heard on Wednesday morning from across the Turkish border.

"They are now outside the entrances of the city of Kobani. The shelling and bombardment was very effective and as a result of it, IS have been pushed from many positions," Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister of Kobani district, told Reuters by phone.

"This is their biggest retreat since their entry into the city and we can consider this as the beginning of the countdown of their retreat from the area."

Islamic State had been advancing on the strategically important town from three sides and pounding it with artillery despite dogged resistance from heavily outgunned Kurdish forces.

TURKISH TANKS

Defense experts said it was unlikely that the advance could be halted by air power alone -- a fact that left not only Washington but also the Syrian Kurds' ethnic kin across the border demanding to know why the Turkish tanks lined up within sight of Kobani had not rolled across the frontier.

However, many Turks outside the southeast think it is far better to risk alienating the Kurds than be sucked into a ground war in Syria.

At least 12 people died and dozens more were injured on Tuesday as sympathisers of the outlawed Kurdish PKK militant group clashed with police and Islamists in towns and cities across Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast as well as in Istanbul and Ankara.

Authorities imposed curfews in five southeastern provinces and sent troops and tanks onto the streets of Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city in the region, to try to quell the unrest.

"We are here to protest too. This is repression, this is an insult to the Kurdish people," said Ibrahim Oba, 54, who had traveled to the border near Kobani to join protests against Turkish inaction.

"If Turkey had intervened, this would not have happened, but they are just watching."

An unnamed senior U.S. official told the New York Times on Tuesday that there was "growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border".

"This isn’t how a NATO ally acts while hell is unfolding a stone's throw from their border," the official said.

While taking in Kobani's refugees and treating its wounded, Turkey -- which has the second largest army in NATO -- has deep reservations about military intervention.

LIST OF CONDITIONS

Beyond becoming a target for Islamic State, which is active along much of Syria's border with Turkey, it fears being sucked into Syria's complex civil war and perhaps even having to fight the forces of its declared enemy, President Bashar al-Assad.

With this in mind, President Tayyip Erdogan has set stringent conditions for Turkey to contemplate attacking Islamic State on Syrian sovereign territory.

On Tuesday, he reiterated those demands: the enforcement of a 'no-fly zone' over Syria near Turkey's border; the creation of a safe zone inside Syria to enable an estimated 1.2 million refugees currently in Turkey to return; and the arming of moderate opposition groups to help topple Assad.

Ankara said on Tuesday that it had, however, urged the United States to step up air strikes against Islamic State to hold up its advance on Kobani.

Abdullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the PKK, last week said a massacre of Kurds in Kobani would doom a fragile peace process with the Turkish authorities aimed at ending the group's 30-year fight for more autonomy, in which around 40,000 people have been killed.

The street protests across Turkey were already making the prospect of reconciliation with nationalists seem more remote, as protesters set fire to Turkish flags and attacked statues of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of the HDP, Turkey's leading Kurdish party, condemned those acts, calling them "provocations carried out to prevent help coming to the east (Kobani) from the west".

(Reporting by Daren Butler, Humeyra Pamuk in Turkey and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman; writing by Jonny Hogg; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... ce=twitter

[Anthea]

Hyeavy fighting around South Aleppo few details known

[Anthea]

Talk of ISIS post-strike retreats in Kobani seem exaggerated. ISIS probes fronts, moves quickly.

More likely temporary tactical withdrawals.

[Anthea]

Amvid claims to show fierce fighting against IS in Kobani

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[Anthea]

8 ISIS tanks destroyed by France air force around Kobani

Unconfirmed but hopefully true

[Anthea]

The Guardian

New air strikes on Isis as pressure builds to win battle for Kobani

New US-led airstrikes targeted Islamic State (Isis) fighters near the strategic Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani on Wednesday amid urgent appeals for action to save it and rising political tensions over intervention by Turkey.

Warplanes from the US-led coalition bombed Isis positions as heavy gunfire was heard inside the town and the UN envoy for Syria called on the international community to act now. The fall of Kobani would be “a massacre and a humanitarian tragedy, Staffan de Mistura told the BBC.

The Kobani battle, highlighting the regional and international complexities of the Syrian war, is also fuelling domestic tensions inside Turkey, where thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to voice anger and frustration about the inaction of the Ankara government.

It has also caused a spat between the US and Turkey over the latter’s commitment to the western-Arab coalition fighting the jihadi group.

Following a warning from the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, that Kobani was about to fall, Turkish media reports said up to 14 people had been killed in eastern cities and dozens more wounded.

The toll included eight deaths in the city of Diyarbakir, the Dogan news agency said. One man was reported to have been killed by a bullet to the head in Varto in the eastern province of Mus when police allegedly fired live ammunition.

Clashes also took place at protests in the western cities of Ankara and Istanbul. Curfews were imposed in five Turkish provinces.

Erdoğan, speaking in the eastern city of Gaziantep, said on Tuesday that a ground operation was needed to defeat Isis – sidestepping accusations that he is unwilling to allow Kurds in Turkey to help their embattled kinfolk in Syria or to deploy the army across the border to fight Isis because of the country’s historic enmity towards Kurdish separatists – in addition to ongoing peace negotiations with them.

“I am telling the west – dropping bombs from the air will not provide a solution,” the president said to cheers from crowds of Syrian refugees in a speech that was translated into Arabic. Erdoğan also tested the readiness of the US, Britain, France and other allies by calling for a no-fly zone and a secure land zone as well as training for moderate Syrian rebels.

The Turkish parliament last week authorised the government to take military action against Isis. But Turkey has not announced plans for any operations, with Ankara apparently seeking a commitment from the west to move decisively against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, as well as the jihadis. Erdoğan said he wanted to fight both Isis and the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK).

If Kobani does fall, Turkey is likely to face a massive backlash from its Kurdish population. Thousands of people have already arrived on the border from all over the country to offer their support. “If they take Kobani, we know they will come to Suruç,” said Ibrahim Akkus, watching from the nearby hillside on Tuesday.

Isis now controls large parts of both Syria and Iraq and has ramped up its offensive in recent days despite being targeted by US-led air strikes.

Capturing Kobani would give it a direct link between its positions in the Syrian province of Aleppo and its stronghold of Raqqa, further east. It would also give the group full control of a long stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/o ... rds-turkey

[Anthea]

PUK Media

PUK Political Bureau Releases Statement Urging Further Actions to Protect Kobani

PUK Political Bureau has issued a statement over the emerging military development in Kobani, Kurdish city in Western Kurdistan Kobani, which and its surroundings have been under attack by ISIS militants for weeks. The following is the statement script:

Dears courageous people and Peshmerge of Kobani,
Freedom-fighting people of Western Kurdistan,

The U.S.-led coalition against ISIS,

At first, we on behalf of PUK Politburo salute all the brave Peshmerge forces standing in the frontlines of Kobani against the ISIS, and having taken their trenches tightly enough to defend the Kurds andKurdistan. They have deemed Kobani clear and measurable criterion for the international policy on maintaining the democratic struggle of the Kurds and the region. We salute you one by one; you are the inimitable forces in the Middle East.

Over the course of having a bright history of struggle recorded by the Kobani combatants who have been engaged into a war of either to die or survive, PUK Politburo finds it necessary to reaffirm its commitment and support for theWestern Kurdistan. Besides, it confirms that ISIS is the true foe of freedom, peace and reconstruction. Principally, ISIL has no friends, but it has only enemies. The whole nations, countries and freedom-fighters of the area consider the ISIS to be their own enemy.

The reason why they declared “Khilafat” or the Islamic state on regional territories is due to the fact that they are not merely aiming at Iraq and Syria, but also it is meant to be covering the entire Islamic states in the bigger Middle East andAsia. Therefore, if there is a country assuming that it can be going well with the ISIS, unquestionably, it continues in the strategically mistaken belief that its policy about the area could be about to right. Since according to the ISIS, anyone who is not on its ideological side (Salafi jihadist) is considered to be its enemy.

Bearing this in mind, there has been recently an anti-ISIS coalition from 29 states, and the threat ISIS poses to the region has been a wake-up call for regional nations to get serious stance. Despite having shown soften position, even the moderate Islamic forces are also subject to be assaulted by the ISIS whenever it is possible. Obviously, there is an enemy so-called ISIS that is against everyone; specifically, it poses a big threat to the Kurds and Christians in the Southern and WesternKurdistan. What other solid evidence then is needed for the western and super power countries to come to convince that the Kurds have done enough to confront and fight against the ISIS?

Thus, PUK considers it its duty to urge the entire states within the anti-ISIS coalition to accelerate their efforts reaching out to the Kobani, regardless of the former political calculations and not yet officially accepted the existence of theWestern Kurdistan’s cantons (which they are really required to be officially recognized and supported). At the moment, there is a fiercely fateful battle on the ground in the Western Kurdistanand particularly in Kobani.

The Peshmerge forces have for days held off an ISIS onslaught pushing its way into Kobani, and ISIS militants have now besieged the city on three sides aiming the city to fall to them. Undoubtedly, the city is not only military but also politically surrounded by ISIS, in order to expand the geographical territory of the ISIS power and through which the establishment of its Islamic State is to be further secured in Iraq, Syria as well as Southern and Western Kurdistan. As long as this is done, ISIS will spread out its authority over larger area in the region.

The battle against ISIS in Kobani is not only to do with defense, but also it has to do with destroying the ISIS’s occupation map because its threat and danger will be bigger than they appear once its aggressive intention is made. Hence, we are demanding further clear action by regional and European states to help defend Kobani and stave off ISIS’s advance to the city before it is too late.

The defeat of ISIS in Kobani would be a prelude to degrade and destroy its capability in Syria and then in Iraq including Kurdistan. Conversely, the success of ISIS in Kobani is going to make a huge threat to the entire military directions.
Therefore, we call for an urgent joint meeting by the anti-ISIS allied states with the aim of setting a joint military roadmap concerning Kobani and the Western Kurdistan alongside the military plan set generally for Syria. It is recommended that the intended meeting has to be held in cooperation with the Kurdistan Region in order to make effective outcome in the ground. Moreover, there should be a joint decision keeping Turkey, after revealing its stance against ISIS, to make its efforts within a joint plan. We are certain that the Islamic Republic of Iran has in the first place made its position clear against ISIS, and it is doing its best in this regard.

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