ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD

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Joint statement from HDP, DTK and DBP
(All the people who sit and eat too much but do nothing)

HDP-DTK-DBP Co-Presidents and HDK co-spokespersons have made a statement regarding the incidents that have occurred during solidarity protests for Kobanê, calling for “people not to resort to violence against one another”, for “a full investigation of the incident Bingöl” and “for messages that reduce tension”.

HDP Co-Presidents Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, DTK Co-Presidents Selma Irmak and Hatip Dicle, DBP Co-Presidents Emine Ayna and Kamuran Yüksek HDK co-spokespersons Sebahat Tuncel and Ertuğrul Kürkçü have issued a joint statement regarding the solidarity protests with Kobanê that have continued since 6 October.

They want to seize Mürşitpınar

The joint statement by HDP-DTK-DBP- HDK warned that developments linked to the ISIS encirclement of Kobanê have reached grave levels,and that the situation is critical, adding; “ISIS is mounting unrelenting attacks with heavy weaponry in order to capture the Mürşitpınar border crossing. Air strikes by the coalition forces are only having a partial effect and are far from achieving success.”

Security must be established in order for situation in Kobanê to be normalised

HDP-DTK-DBP Co-Presidents said they do not feel it is necessary to express the humanitarian and political outcome that would result if ISIS were to seize Kobanê; “We want to eliminate this internal and external threat to our peoples together with the government. We wish to draw attention to the vital importance of keeping the Turkish border, which is the only access point to Kobanê, open.”

The statement continued; “Although there may be problems from time to time, we consider the fact that the Mürşitpınar border gate allows humanitarian aid into Kobanê, and that wounded people can cross, is a significant and positive stance. We also believe that everyone should contribute to the establishing of an environment of trust so that support may be provided to Kobanê. We are at the moment endeavouring to improve relations based on common sense and dialogue in order that the situation in Kobanê be ameliorated.”

Attempts being made to create internal conflict

The Co-Presidents stressed that they consider it significant and necessary that the Kurdish people are coming onto the streets to take ownership of Kobanê and raise public awareness. However, -the statement added- it is apparent that there are circles that have been lying in wait and are attempting to create serious internal conflict. “Although we do not know exactly who these people are, it is clear that they are not involved in the process of resolution.”

Common sense policies needed for Kobanê

Kurdish politicians also emphasised that “In this chaotic environment we must form common sense policies that do not abandon Kobanê, do not present an opportunity for provocations, maintain the process and protect people.”

People should not resort to violence against each other

The HDP-DTK-DBP- HDK called on people to refrain from resorting to violence.

Bingöl incident should be investigated

Commenting the attack on the Police chief in Bingöl and subsequent incidents and deaths as a serious development, the statement said there should be a full investigation, as such incidents have the potential to negatively influence events.

Messages should be issued to defuse tension

“Despite all the tension and pain, we expect the government to continue its positive steps (such as facilitating the passage of wounded people and humanitarian aid across the border), taking into consideration the contribution of Mr. Öcalan, preventing the attacks by provocateurs on civilians, and acting in a responsible way by issuing messages that will defuse tension”, the co-presidents said, adding that they hope that the KCK executive will also repeat their call to demonstrators to refrain from violence, investigate armed actions and take measures to reduce tension.”

The statement by Kurdish politicians noted that they also believe that if the press use a more reasonable language towards the pro-Kurdish party and leaders instead of threats and insults, this would make a positive contribution to our efforts.

It is possible to prevent serious conflict and massacre if we work together, the statement added.

Source: Firat News Agency

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Al Jazeera

A Kurdish voice from Kobani's battlefield
Mohammad Syed

My name is Mohammad Syed and I'm a former fighter with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) from the northern Syrian town of Kobane.

I was forced to leave Kobane and arrived at Yumurtalik border crossing on October 4. I arrived with no money in my pockets and no personal belongings, no clothes, no shoes. Just one large packet of cigarettes. I don't need much.

I never carry anything with me these days anyway. I don't need to - not since I joined the battle against those terrorists. In the same way that I don't need to take anything with me into battle. My fellow fighters and I would all look after each other and we shared whatever food was available.

I was one of the very few older men engaged in the fighting but I have a strong heart and strong body. The younger boys and the older men, we are all the same. But then again, I am 65 years old. They thought I am an old man so they sent me here. I don't mind going back but I won't be able to do much in the fight. It's a little tougher now - tougher than it was before. There is too much pressure and I can't make quick decisions anymore. The boys work fast. They are very strong.Although I want to be there with the others, I don't want to hold them back either. I don't want them to get into trouble because of me. Maybe sometimes I am slow and can lag behind. The boys are much stronger.

I am originally from Aleppo but I had to leave when ISIL arrived. It was horrible. We saw horrible things. ISIL is so brutal, even Satan himself would cower. They kill people in their homes. In some places, we saw blood streaming from homes. The red blood of humans, our brothers, innocent people.

It's then that I decided to join the YPG, to help fight against ISIL in any way that I could. I want to rid the world of this evil.

I went to Kobane, to stay with relatives who gave shelter to me and my family.

During the fighting, we heard many times that Turkey would eventually step in and help. We heard the US would intervene. Some said that Europe would probably join too. But days passed, and nothing. We're still waiting. And this was even before ISIL advanced towards Kobane. We had hope then that we would fight hard now, and then help would come. We didn't have enough weapons. But the Kurds are brave.

Young boys and girls are fighting. Have you ever heard of girls fighting anywhere? But our girls fight. And many of our girls have died fighting. One young girl was captured by ISIL. Do you know what they did to her? They beheaded her. A woman. They beheaded a woman. Then they threw her body in the water. She was a strong girl.

A lot of families had to leave their homes only to save their girls. In Aleppo, ISIL used to come and take our girls. They raped them, they they killed them. The daughter of my dear neighbour, she did not want to fight them, but they killed her too.

In Kobane, they've killed many women fighters too. They are barbarians. They don't care if it's a woman or a man. They are not Muslims. This is not how Muslims behave. I am Muslim. I could not even imagine committing such barbarous acts.

I left Kobane before things got even worse. My relatives chose to stay but they are in trouble now. They don't want to come to Turkey. We don't hear good things about our people in Turkey, you know. But I was willing to risk that, so I came here. I sent my family to Turkey a few days before, so now I am on my way to join them.

Mohammad Syed is a former Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighter from Kobane.
This testimony was transcribed by Kiran Nazish at the Yumurtalik border crossing.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio ... 49674.html

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BBC News

A Kurdish mother has expressed her grief over the death of her 25-year-old son who was killed while fighting Islamic State (IS) militants in Kobane.

She told the BBC that "IS are not Muslim, they have no faith - they kill people".

The BBC's Wael El Hajjar reports from the Turkish town of Suruc on the Syrian border.

Link to Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29564828

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International Business Times

Turkey Subjugates the Kurds because it Shares Isis' Ideological Bed

Turkey's Isis Policy: Subjugation of Kurds
By Uzay Bulut in Ankara

When Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) government came to power in 2002, it defined itself not as an Islamic party but as a conservative democratic party, stating that Turkey's ascension bid to the European Union would be its strategic target.

Hence, the West thought that despite its Islamist roots, the AKP government was not going to pursue an overt Islamist agenda and thus was content with the new government of Turkey - until the ties of its "ally" with the jihadist groups in the Middle East recently came to light.

The founders of the AKP, including current Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan, were members of the Islamist Welfare and Virtue parties and came out of the National View movement of Dr Necmettin Erbakan, who founded a series of Islamist parties and was very influential as deputy prime minister in the 1970s and as prime minister in the 1990s.

No such thing as a 'Moderate Muslim'

Erbakan, a former mentor of Erdogan, never appealed to the term "moderate Muslim" and openly criticised the report of the American RAND Corporation on Islam at a public meeting in 2007, saying that "being a moderate Muslim means being a slave to the Jew."

He explained: "What does 'moderate' mean? It means that a moderate will not have a consciousness of Jihad. He won't get involved with the system. He will be a slave to the Jew but will do his salat [five times a day Islamic prayers] and fast. The system, however, will be regulated by the Jew. The moderate will pay for the goods to the Jew. But do you want to do your salat? You can. Pay the money and do your salat."

He continued: "The report says that 'let's increase the number of Muslims who think that way. Let's give them money and possibilities. Let's encourage and promote them. Let's contact them with one another. Let's support and strengthen them so that they will take over the Muslim world and we will present Islam like that.' That is why they print Qurans after removing the verses of Jihad from them."

The AKP authorities - through their remarks, policies, and stance toward the Jihadist terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria - have once more made it clear that Islamism and democracy could not go hand in hand.

Speaking on a national TV programme in 2007, Erdogan commented on the term "moderate Islam", reminding of Erbakan's former remarks on the issue. "These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that's it."
A year later, Erdogan's statements on moderate Islam were still the same.

Speaking at Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in 2008, Erdogan rejected attempts to call Turkey the representative of moderate Islam: "It is unacceptable for us to agree with such a definition. Turkey has never been a country to represent such a concept. Moreover, Islam cannot be classified as moderate or not."

Turkey's response to Isis (Islamic State)

Ever since the outbreak of the wars in Syria and Iraq, several sources and witnesses reported that Turkey has aided the rise of Isis, enabling flows of funds, fighters, and support to it. Then, what is the point of Turkey's joining the US-led anti-Isis coalition after providing the Isis terrorists with all those facilities?

There are two things that should be taken notice of while analyzing Turkey's Isis policy. The first one is that the AKP government is not ideologically distant from the Isis. The second one is that the subjugation of Kurds has always been an institutionalized policy of Turkey and the current Turkish stance toward Isis is a continuation of this anti-Kurdish policy.

That is why, the AKP government abstained from calling Isis a terrorist organization for a long time. But it has recently and emphatically started calling it a terrorist organization, apparently in an attempt to refute the reports that the AKP government supports Isis and to compensate for its silence over the crimes of Isis.

On 29 September, Erdogan, for instance, finally referred to Isis as a terrorist organization, equating Isis with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party).

"In my country, there is the PKK, a terrorist organization that has been active for 32 years. I wonder why this has not disturbed the world. The reason is this organization does not have "Islam" in its name. This means that [the world's] problem is something else. Isis has nothing to do with Islam," he said.

His words can be interpreted this way: The PKK and Isis are terrorist organizations and we can fight against both of them but the West takes notice of Isis alone, not because Isis is a terrorist organization, but because its name contains the word 'Islam'. So the West actually targets Islam.

Those words are a manifestation of Erdogan and his party's insincerity in their claims that they would fight against Isis. Coming from an Islamist political movement and not accepting a difference between moderate and immoderate Islam, can the authorities of AKP government genuinely join the fight against Isis, which they think is attacked by the West because it is Islamic?

Besides, if the PKK is a terrorist organization like Isis, why does the AKP government claim that it has been negotiating with its head, Abdullah Ocalan? Or do the AKP government officials pretend to be on negotiations with Ocalan in order to win the votes or support of Kurds in their election campaigns?

And if Isis is a terrorist organization, how would AKP authorities explain the numerous reports about the fact that Isis gets funds, fighters and support through or from Turkey?

Turkey sees Isis solving their Kurdish and Syrian problems

Since a television interview on 28 December, 2012, in which Erdogan said that the government was in negotiations with Ocalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, no concrete steps for constitutional and legal reform towards the recognition of the Kurds' right to self-rule have been taken.

And ever since the negotiations got started, the most concrete policy of the AKP government regarding Kurds' right to self government has been Turkey's reported support of ISIS which has besieged the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria.

On 1 October, 2014, pro-government newspapers unveiled the Turkish government's projects on Syria:

Star newspaper featured the headline "Four threats, one memorandum", explaining Turkey's targets in Syria would be the Isis, the Assad Regime, radical organizations, and the PKK.
Sabah newspaper reported "One memorandum for two fronts" in which the stated memorandum openly refers to Isis and the PKK as the two targets of Turkey.
Yeni Safak newspaper reported that "a unilateral safe region" would be established in Syria.
HaberTurk newspaper featured the headline "We can enter (Syria) on our own as well," stating that the Turkish army proposed its plan on Syria to the government.

Kurds in Turkey have not yet gained any legal rights from the resolution process which has been going on for at least 2 years, but in the midst of the escalating war, Syrian Kurds have taken a huge step in their quest for freedom and self-government, declaring autonomous administrations for their three ancient regions in Syrian Kurdistan, namely Kobani, Cizre, and Efrin.

On 7 October, however, Erdogan declared: "Right now, Kobani is on the brink of falling. The moderate opponent groups in Syria and Iraq must both be trained and equipped."

Erdogan, who has repeatedly rejected the term "moderate", seems to delight in using it while referring to the armed groups he supports in Syria.

Similarly, Emrullah Isler, the former deputy prime minister of Turkey and a current Ankara MP of the AKP, wrote a pro-ISIS tweet on 8 October, referring to Emrah Demir who was killed in the city of Batman a night before.

"What was the crime of the young man who was killed after his head was crushed with a stone? Isis cannot compete with those who did that. Isis kills but at least it does not torture people," he wrote on Twitter.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also defended Isis against accusations of terrorism, when on 8 August he stating that "if Sunni Arabs had not been left out, there would not be such an accumulation of anger" - thus fabricating a context for the actions of Isis.

‎"The organization called Isis might look like a radical, terrorizing organization. But among its ‎participants are Turks, Arabs, and Kurds," said Davutoglu. "That organization has emerged from former ‎discontent and indignation which has created a great reaction on a large scale.

"If Sunni Arabs ‎had not been left out in Iraq, there would not be such an accumulation of anger now. If ‎Bashar Assad had listened to us when we said to him 'Do not let an ethnic community of 12% rule the country, this country belongs to all of you', those things would not have been ‎experienced. ISIS is a growing threat due to anger but the essence of the issue must not be ‎forgotten."

Just as Isis was besieging Kobani and fears were rising that the region might fall at the hands of the Isis terrorists, Erdogan's statement that "Isis and PKK are the same things" made the impression that by joining the US-led anti-Isis coalition, Turkey was looking forward to the future attempts of ISIS to annihilate the PKK, and its affiliate, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which administers the three autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.

Kurds fight back

Frustrated by Turkey's support of Isis and wanting to raise awareness on a possible genocide against Kurds in Kobani, Kurds in Turkey took it to the streets this week. Turkish police and soldiers responded with harsh violence. At least 28 protestors have been killed and dozens have been wounded and hospitalized.

Supporting Isis terrorists against Syrian Kurds, Turkey does not make the impression that it aims to make peace with its own Kurds.

Given the AKP government's Neo-ottoman, imperial dreams, it seems that when it comes to subjugating Kurds, the government does not restrict itself to its own Kurds and its hands stretch towards Syrian Kurdistan, as well.

However, Its methods of subjugation may vary - it could join the future ground offensive in an attempt to occupy Syrian Kurdistan, try to establish a buffer zone between itself and Syria, or even annex Syrian Kurdistan if Kobani falls into the hands of Isis terrorists.

Sadly, Alawites, Yazidis, and Christians that have been beheaded or crucified, and young girls and women that have been raped or sold as concubines by Isis terrorists do not disturb the AKP authorities as much as Kurds that have declared autonomous administrations on their ancient homelands.

Uzay Bulut is a freelance journalist based in Ankara.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/turkey-subjuga ... ed-1469381

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The Economist

Iraq, Syria and jihadism
The will and the way

THESE are early days, but the campaign that Barack Obama announced almost exactly a month ago to “degrade and ultimately destroy” Islamic State is not going well. In both Syria and Iraq, IS is scoring victories against the West and its Sunni Arab allies. The coalition’s strategy is beset by contradictions and self-imposed constraints, with two of the worst offenders being the two countries that could do the most to degrade IS: America and Turkey. The coalition must rise above these shortcomings, or IS will end up being validated in the eyes of could-be jihadists—the very opposite of what the coalition’s leaders set out to achieve.

As The Economist went to press, the strategically important Kurdish town of Kobane, on the border with Turkey, had been entered by heavily armed IS fighters and surrounded on three sides. Coalition air strikes have delayed the town’s fall, but probably by only a few days. If Kobane succumbs there will be a chorus of demands for a redoubled coalition effort, offset by dire warnings of the dangers of mission creep.

IS poses a threat to the entire Middle East and is potentially a source of terrorism against the West. So more effort makes sense, but only if the campaign can resolve its contradictions.

That task starts with Turkey. Despite a vote in the parliament in Ankara on October 2nd, authorising the country’s forces to operate in Syria, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is engaged in an elaborate juggling act. He says, correctly, that air strikes alone cannot overcome IS and that every means must be used to defeat it. But although he has tanks parked along the border, he refuses to help the Kurds, whom he sees as his enemies. Indeed, even as he leaves Kobane to its fate, his riot police are killing Kurds protesting within Turkey. Mr Erdogan seems wary of offering anything more than rhetorical Turkish support for the coalition, unless America enforces a buffer and no-fly zone on the Syrian side of the border. He is also insisting that America should make removing the Assad regime a higher priority than tackling IS.

America’s strategy is also beset with tensions. Although it wants to see Mr Assad go, it is reluctant to join that fight for now, partly because success in Iraq depends on persuading the government in Baghdad to become sufficiently inclusive to woo back the alienated Sunni tribes. And for that it needs the help of Iran, Mr Assad’s closest ally. Meanwhile, America’s collaboration with the Shia-led government has not made it any easier to win over suspicious Sunnis. While air strikes have helped the Kurds regain some ground from IS, security in Sunni-dominated Anbar province has continued to deteriorate. After IS fighters overran some Iraqi army bases and seized control of Abu Ghraib, within shelling range of Baghdad’s international airport, America sent in Apache attack helicopters to hit IS targets along the road that runs west of Baghdad to the IS stronghold of Falluja. Calling up the Apaches—not boots on the ground, perhaps, but certainly boots in the air—is an admission that high-flying fast jets have their limitations.

The coalition is also up against the law of unintended consequences. After its first big attack in Syria, it has targeted the oil refineries which help finance IS’s activities and other bits of IS infrastructure. But military action has also driven the dwindling band of “moderate rebels”—the ones that America aims to train and arm—into the embrace of jihadist groups, such as the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, which now portray the coalition as an anti-Sunni stooge of the Assad regime.

Kurds all the way

John Allen, a former general and Mr Obama’s special envoy for the coalition against IS, flew to Ankara this week in an effort to find common ground with the Turks. Nobody would claim there are easy answers for either Mr Obama or Mr Erdogan, but both are guilty of willing an end while withholding the means to secure it. In Mr Erdogan’s case, it is nonsense to claim he backs the effort to destroy IS while he leaves Kobane’s Kurds to be slaughtered. If the town falls, both Turkey’s reputation and its security will suffer a grievous blow. Better to act as a full member of the coalition and use the goodwill this generates to influence it from the inside. Mr Erdogan should use his troops to save Kobane—and give America permission to fly from the giant NATO airbase at nearby Incirlik.

For his part, Mr Obama needs to face up to two things. First, most of the coalition wants to see the back of Mr Assad: his serial brutalities against his own people have appalled Sunnis everywhere. Russia and Iran have hinted that they would accept a more pragmatic military figure in his place if their interests were respected. Mr Obama should work on that. Second, the fight against IS cannot succeed without competent troops on the ground to guide coalition aircraft to their targets, pursue enemy leaders and take and hold territory. That calls for the use of special forces in greater numbers and on more missions. Other troops need to be embedded in the better Iraqi units to train and mentor them. When Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, called for that, he was slapped down by Mr Obama. With such actions the president means to look resolute, but the people he reassures most are the jihadists.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... ll-and-way

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ISIS in KOBANi using Turkish weapon & attacking Kurds

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We Sacrifice our self for Kurdistan and people of Kurdistan"

HIATI & SALIH YPG fighter in Kobani

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Hawar News

UN envoy urges Turkey to allow Kurds to protect Kobanê

GENEVA - UN envoy Staffan de Mistura on Friday called on Turkey to allow Kurds to cross back into Syria to defend the key border town of Kobanê in West Kurdistan Rojava and has warned that the 12,000 civilians apart from the fighters in Kobanê "will most likely be massacred" if the town falls to Islamic State militants.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura called on the Turkish authorities to allow the flow of volunteers at least and their own equipment in order to be able to enter the city and contribute to a self-defence operation. "And if they can, to support the deterrent actions of the collation through whatever means from their own territory", he added.

Recalling that the inhabitants of the Kobanê town have decided to resist and they are resisting until now, Mistura said the latest figures they had is that about 10,000 to 13,000 of them are in a certain border line area just outside Kobani –Ayn al-Arab- between the border of Turkey and Syria, nearby the city. They are there and there are at the same time about 500 to 700 mostly elderly people and civilians still inside the centre of the city, he noted and added; "We know, we have seen it, what ISIL is capable of doing when they take over a city. We know what they are capable of doing with their own victims, with women, children, minorities and hostages."

"You remember Srebrenica? We do. We never forgot. And probably we never forgave ourselves for that", the U.N. Envoy for Syria said and called for urgent action to protect the civilians, in this case of Kobani –Ayn al-Arab.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura appealed Turkey to take some specific additional actions to stop the advance of ISIL, underlining; "We need that because otherwise all of us, including Turkey, will be regretting deeply that we have missed an opportunity of stopping ISIL and sending a signal that that cannot continue. If Kobani – Ayn al-Arab- falls, there will be close to 400 km of the Turkish border to be basically under control of ISIL out of the 900. And what would be next ?"

http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index. ... s&Itemid=2

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USA Today

Anger grows for Turkish Kurds over besieged Syrian town
Jonathan Krohn

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — As the battle for the Syrian border town of Kobani rages, Turkish Kurds are growing increasingly angry at the military's lack of action there.

Protests erupted across Turkey this week, leaving at least 31 dead, including three police officers, and scores injured. At least 10 of the dead were killed in the city of Diyarbakir alone, according to Turkish media. But even as the violence seems to have waned in the immediate, tensions remain and many fear protests will erupt again.

"If Kobani falls, and I don't want to say this, but there will be a domino effect," said Fatma Sik Barut, the co-mayor of the Sur municipality within the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. "There is the very distinct possibility of an urban war (in Turkey)."

The boiling anger and resentment is deeply ingrained in the relationship between Turkey and the Kurds in the country's south. What is largely considered the earliest Kurdish nationalist revolt occurred in 1925 when a cleric named Said led a short-lived uprising to re-establish an Islamic caliphate in Turkey. The rebellion ended with his hanging two months later.

The Turkish government brutally cracked down on the rebellion's following, sending many Kurdish families who supported the rebellion scurrying across the border into northern Syria.

"Many of the Sheikh Said families went to Kobani," Barut said, tying the fight for the town against Islamic State forces not just to a political but also a personal history for many of Turkey's Kurds.

"It looks like there is a war against all the things the Kurds have gotten," Barut said about the battle for Kobani. "The Kurds think they are really alone."

Even with all that history churning the waters, the Kobani situation is just the icing on top of a cake of Kurdish grievances.

Many Kurds in Southern Turkey remain angry with the Turkish government's long-standing and rather unfriendly stance toward Syria's Kurdish rebels, the Popular Protection Units (YPG), which has been among the most successful forces fighting the Islamic State in Syria.

Earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the YPG's parent organization, a guerrilla group known as the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), is no different from the Islamic State itself.

That remark took many Kurds aback, especially considering Erdogan began a peace process with the PKK early last year. As part of the agreement, the PKK, which had been at war with the Turkish government for several decades, withdrew to Iraq in exchange for a series of concessions. Since then, the Kurds see the Turks as having failed to live up to their end of the bargain.

Seemingly in response to Erdogan's remarks the PKK's jailed leader, Abdullah "Apo" Ocalan, gave the Turkish government an Oct. 15 deadline to fulfill their end of the bargain. But if Kobani falls, "it will be the end of the (peace) process," Ocalan said in a statement earlier this week.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the state of Turkish-Kurdish relations is much more visceral.

Neslihan Coban, 63, lost her son Mazlum, 23, on Wednesday, the second day of protests. She arrived at the hospital to find her son lying dead, his stomach slashed by a long knife, she says.

According to an eyewitness who met Neslihan at the hospital, Mazlum had been driving his car in a "noise protest," where drivers honked their horns to bring attention to the demonstration. Someone pulled him out of the car, says Neslihan, and stabbed him. According to doctors he bled out by the time he arrived at the hospital.

Neslihan specifically blames the Huda Party, a Kurdish Islamist Party that many say is aligned with the Islamic State, but she also blames the Turkish government for letting this kind of thing happen.

"Turkey is a terrorist country," she says, "I will never forgive any of them, for they are the murderers of my son."

Despite her loss, Neslihan says she still supports the protests and makes clear that things will continue to get worse if the Turkish government does nothing in Kobani.

"If it continues there will be an urban war here," she says, eerily using the same language as Barut.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/worl ... /17049539/

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Fox News

Kurds struggle to defend besieged Syrian town from ISIS



SURUC, Turkey – Kurdish militiamen are putting up a fierce fight to defend a Syrian town near the border with Turkey but are struggling to repel the Islamic State group, which is advancing and pushing in from two sides, Syrian activists and Kurdish officials said Saturday.

The battle for Kobani is still raging despite more than two weeks of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition targeting the militants in and around the town. The strikes, which are aimed at rolling back the militants' gains, appear to have done little to blunt their onslaught on Kobani, which began in mid-September.

Just outside the Turkish town of Suruc, across the border from Kobani, some 200 people gathered at a cemetery on Saturday to bury two Kurdish fighters, a woman and a man, who died in the fighting.

The two fighters-- 22-year-old Mujaid Ahmed and 20-year- old Fatma Sheikh Hassan -- were laid to rest in two simple wooden coffins. Men took turns heaving shovels of dirt to cover the coffins, as women wept. One woman kneeled over a freshly dug-out grave, tears streaming down her nose as others tried to console her.

Then, the crowd -- which included Kurds from Suruc and others from Kobani -- broke into song, ending the burial ceremony with chants of "Long live Kobani!"

The Syrian Kurdish border town is the latest focus of the Islamic State group, which has rampaged across northern Syria and western and northern Iraq since the summer, swallowing up large chunks of territory and imposing its reign of terror.

Capturing Kobani, also known under its Arabic name of Ayn Arab, would give the group a direct link between its positions in the Syrian province of Aleppo and its stronghold of Raqqa, to the east. It would also crush a lingering pocket of Kurdish resistance and give the group full control of a large stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border.

Kurds are determined not to allow Kobani to fall and are fighting zealously, but they have not been able to curb advances by the more heavily armed extremists.

On Friday, the militants seized the so-called Kurdish security quarter -- an area in the town's east where Kurdish militiamen maintain security buildings and where the police station, municipality and other local government offices are located.

A senior Kurdish official, Ismet Sheikh Hasan, said clashes were focused in the southern and eastern parts of the town. He said the situation was dire and appealed for international help.

"We are defending (the town) but ... we have only simple weapons and they (militants) have heavy weapons," he said in a call with The Associated Press Friday evening. "They are not besieged and can move easily," he said.

Hasan said the U.S.-led airstrikes were not effective, and urged the international community and the United Nations to intervene, predicting a massacre if the militants seize control of Kobani. He also appealed to Turkey to open a corridor that would allow remaining civilians to leave Kobani and arms supplies to enter the town.

Since the Islamic State group's offensive on Kobani started, at least 500 people have been killed and more than 200,000 have been forced to flee across the border into Turkey.

Hasan said the Turks were now allowing only wounded civilians to cross into Turkey.

The director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdurrahman, said the town's Kurdish fighters "are putting up a fierce fight" but are simply outgunned by the militants.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/11 ... from-isis/

[Anthea]

Bloomberg

Islamist Terrorists Move to Encircle Kobani, Push Into Town
By Selcan Hacaoglu and Clea Benson

Islamic State militants pushed deeper into Kobani amid a round of U.S. airstrikes that sought to prevent them from encircling the besieged Syrian town.

Six U.S. airstrikes near Kobani today and yesterday struck an Islamic State fighting position and damaged buildings and trucks, according to a news release from the U.S. Central Command.

The jihadists now control almost half of the town on the frontier with NATO-member Turkey, including an area housing administrative and security buildings, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement yesterday, citing a witness. Amid clashes with Kurdish forces defending Kobani, the militants were advancing along the street that divides the eastern and western parts of the town, and were also at its southern entrance, the observatory said.

From the Turkish border, Islamic State fighters could be seen moving toward the northeast of Kobani, seeking to complete its encirclement.

“We are hearing from officials in Kobani that reinforcements for the Islamic State were on their way,” Faysal Sariyilkdiz, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Turkish Parliament, said today. “The U.S. should stop those reinforcements in the plains before they could reach Kobani.”

Militants’ Grip

The fall of Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, would extend Islamic State’s grip over a stretch of the Syria-Turkey border. It would also deliver a blow to Kurdish autonomy in the region that has deepened as the Syrian government lost control of large swaths of land to rebels during the country’s civil war.

Kobani has been besieged for more than three weeks, and the United Nations says more than 170,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. Temporarily pushed back by airstrikes carried out by a U.S.-led coalition, Islamic State has resupplied its fighters with arms and sent in reinforcements, according to the observatory.

The group has declared a caliphate in territory it controls stretching from northern Syria to the outskirts of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The observatory estimates that at least 554 people have died in Kobani since the Islamic State incursion began Sept. 16; about 298 were Islamic State militants and 226 were Kurdish fighters. About 20 civilians have been killed, the observatory said today in an e-mailed statement.

Massacre Fears

As many as 700 elderly people are still trapped in the center of Kobani, Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, told reporters yesterday in Geneva. Along with 12,000 other civilians and Kurdish fighters, they are likely to be killed if the international community allows Kobani to fall, he said.

De Mistura appealed to Turkey to allow Kurdish fighters and their equipment into Kobani and to “contribute to a self-defense operation” as coalition airstrikes alone “may not be enough to save the city.”

Turkey has placed troops on the border and says it will allow only humanitarian supplies to cross. The military said in a statement that army units fired warning shots at a group in Syria that approached the border on Oct. 9.

PKK Talks

Kurds have protested this week in Turkey’s main western cities and its southeast over what they say is the Turkish government’s failure to come to the aid of Kobani. The eruption of anger, which left more than 30 people dead amid clashes with security forces, threatens Turkey’s bid to end three decades of conflict with Kurdish groups seeking wider rights.

The Kurdish fighters defending Kobani against Islamic State are affiliated to the most powerful Kurdish organization in Turkey, the PKK, which is classified as a terrorist group by Turkey and the U.S. The PKK said it would resume its armed struggle against Turkey if Kurds continue to be killed in clashes with security forces, CNNTurk cited senior PKK commander Cemil Bayik as saying in an interview with German broadcaster ARD.

“If this continues like that, guerrillas will fight to protect our people,” Bayik was cited as saying.

Turkey has pledged to join the campaign against Islamic State, without specifying what it will do. Its main goal in Syria has been the removal of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told CNN this week that troops would only take part in operations in Syria if they were part of a wider U.S.-led strategy against Assad.

Separately, the U.S. conducted three airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq today and yesterday, striking a unit and a truck, Central Command said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net; Clea Benson in Washington at cbenson20@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net Maura Reynolds, Nancy Moran

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-1 ... -says.html

[Anthea]

The Guardian

Kurdish fighters in Kobani call for escalation of air strikes against Isis

Kurdish forces defending the embattled Syrian border town of Kobani urged the US-led coalition to escalate air strikes on Islamic State (Isis) fighters as the militants tightened their grip on the town on Saturday.

A Kurdish military official said that Isis had brought more tanks and artillery to the frontlines, while street-to-street fighting was making it harder for jets to target the militants’ positions.

“We have a problem, which is the war between houses,” said Esmat al-Sheikh, head of the Kobani defence council.

“The air strikes are benefiting us, but Islamic State is bringing tanks and artillery from the east. We didn’t see them with tanks, but yesterday we saw T-57 tanks,” he added.

The US said it carried out six air strikes on Isis militants near Kobani on Friday and Saturday, while US and Dutch planes launched three strikes on targets in Iraq near Tal Afar and Hit.

The aerial attacks, which were cheered by refugees on the Turkish side of the border, have helped to delay the advance of Isis by destroying some of their largest guns.

“We are getting stronger,” said Anwar Muslim, a lawyer and head of the city council who stayed on in Kobani after most officials left. “What we wanted from the beginning was to get rid of the heavy weapons so we can fight honestly. They tried everything to get inside [Kurdish-controlled areas], but for now they are still outside.”

A group that monitors the Syrian civil war said the Kurdish forces faced inevitable defeat in Kobani if Turkey did not open its border to let through arms - something Ankara has so far appeared reluctant to do.

“[Islamic State] is getting supplies and men, while Turkey is preventing Kobani from getting ammunition. Even with the resistance, if things stay like this, the Kurdish forces will be like a car without fuel,” said Rami Abdelrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Earlier on Saturday, Kurdish fighters held back a push by Isis towards the heart of Kobani.

The pre-dawn attack came after Isis militants overran the Kurdish headquarters in the border town on Friday, sparking fears they would cut off the last escape route to neighbouring Turkey.

The renewed Isis drive on the centre of Kobani sparked 90 minutes of heavy fighting with the town’s Kurdish defenders before the jihadis fell back, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has warned that about 12,000 civilians still living in or near Kobani, including about 700 mainly elderly people in the town centre, “will most likely be massacred” by Isis if the town falls.

Kobani was “literally surrounded” except for one narrow entry and exit point to the Turkish border, and De Mistura called on Turkey to support the coalition’s actions. Ankara has been deeply reluctant to allow weapons or Kurdish fighters to cross the border.

However, US officials warned that while world attention is focused on Kobani, Isis has been piling pressure on government troops in neighbouring Iraq, leaving the army in a “fragile” position in Anbar province between Baghdad and the Syrian border.

US defence officials said that the main focus of the coalition’s campaign is Iraq, where there are capable local forces on the ground. However, officials voiced concern about the “tenuous” position of Iraqi troops in Anbar province, where the few remaining government-controlled areas have come under repeated attack.

Some of Anbar province fell to Isis at the start of the year and most of the rest was seized by the Sunni extremists in a lightning sweep through Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland in June.

The area was the main battleground for the Sunni insurgency that erupted after the US-led invasion of 2003.

Meanwhile, a television journalist in Iraq’s Salahuddin province has been killed by Isis.

Raad al-Azzawi, who was a cameraman for Iraq’s Salahuddin network, was reportedly killed by militants on Friday in Tikrit.

The militant group has beheaded a number of journalists in Syria in what it says is retaliation for US-led coalition air strikes.

Reporters Without Borders said last month that the militants had threatened to execute Azzawi, a father of three, for refusing to join Isis. He was abducted on 7 September.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/o ... ate-kobani

[Anthea]

Al Arabiya

ISIS ‘misleads’ Iraqi jets with smokescreens


ISIS militants are reportedly setting dozens of old tires ablaze to create billows of smoke

Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have recently adopted a tactic that involves burning dozens of old tires in order to create a smokescreen to “mislead” warplanes targeting their positions, a military official told Al Arabiya News.

“Apparently, this idea came to ISIS militants through some former Iraqi army officers, because it resembles one of the ways used by Saddam Hussein,” said Army General Mohamed al-Askary , spokesman for the Iraqi Defense ministry, said Saturday.

“This trick has not worked back in the old days,” he said, referring to a tactic employed by the deposed former Iraqi leader in the 2003-U.S. invasion.

Huge clouds

“It did not prevent the aircrafts of the international coalition to destroy the Iraqi war machine,” he added.

Askary recalled the days when Saddam burned oil wells to create huge clouds of smoke, saying they “remained lit for months, and its smoke clouds covered neighboring countries.”

He also downplayed the method used now by ISIS, saying that warplanes now have developed methods of combat which enable them to hit their targets through radars and it is highly unlikely for them to pick the wrong targets.

The U.S.-led coalition also continued its air assault in Iraq and Syria Friday and Saturday with fresh strikes, the Pentagon said.

In Iraq, three airstrikes were carried out by attack and fighter jets -- one in Tall Afar in the north and two in Hit in Anbar province -- with the help of Dutch aircraft.

Bomber and fighter jets conducted six airstrikes in Syria, including four in the battleground town of Kobane near the Turkish border.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/mi ... anes-.html

[Anthea]

Mail Online

Thousands of Kurds in Britain and across Europe protest against the ISIS attack on Kobane as Turkey stubbornly refuses to help the besieged town
By Corey Charlton

Protesters in Britain, France and Germany show solidarity with Kurds
Thousands of people rail against Turkish government's lack of assistance
Demonstration in London became heated as police clashed with protesters
Kurdish city of Kobane remains besieged by advancing ISIS fanatics

Protesters marched through the streets of several major European cities today in an orchestrated show of support for besieged Kurdish fighters currently battling Islamic State (ISIS) forces in Kobane.

The Kurdish city of Kobane on the border of Syria and Turkey has been the scene of fierce fighting for weeks now between Kurdish resistance forces and the advancing ISIS jihadists.

In a show of solidarity for the embattled Kurds, protesters in France, Britain and Germany today called on their governments to provide further assistance to the city's Kurdish fighters.

Although the US has conducted air strikes on targets within the city, ISIS has tightened its grip on the town in recent days and thousands of Kurds face massacre should Turkey not open its border to allow the delivery of arms.

The Kurds, an ethnic group spread across much of the Middle East have borne the brunt of much of the war against ISIS.

In recent months Kurds in northern Iraq have defended, and in some instances successfully retaken, cities along the Iraq border from the jihadists. However, it is their attempts to halt the ISIS takeover of Kobane, in Syria, which triggered today's demonstrations.

In London protesters bearing placards and flags were marshalled by police as they marched on Parliament Square, Westminster.

The demonstration later became heated when the angry protesters clashed with the police force security cordons.

A similar demonstration took place in Paris, with thousands marching through the city to try and force a French Government commitment to help the Kurds and pile pressure on the Turkish Government.

And in Germany, more than 20,000 Kurdish immigrants undertook a demonstration in the western city of Duesseldorf.

Police said the German demonstration was peaceful with people marching through the city's downtown area and waving large Kurdish flags.

Similar protests in Germany last week had turned violent when Kurds clashed with supporters of a hard-line Islamic movement.

Meanwhile, the Kurdish forces defending Kobane have urged the U.S.-led coalition to escalate air strikes on ISIS fighters who have tightened their grip on the border town.

The Kurdish forces are now believed to face inevitable defeat in Kobane if Turkey does not open its border to let through arms - something Ankara has so far appeared reluctant to do.

The U.S.-led coalition escalated air strikes on ISIS in and around Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, some four days ago.

The main Kurdish armed group, the YPG, said in a statement the air strikes had inflicted heavy losses on ISIS, but had been less effective in the last two days.

A Kurdish military official, speaking from Kobane, said street-to-street fighting was making it harder for the warplanes to target ISIS positions.

'We have a problem, which is the war between houses,' said Esmat Al-Sheikh, head of the Kobane defence council.

'The air strikes are benefiting us, but Islamic State is bringing tanks and artillery from the east. We didn't see them with tanks, but yesterday we saw T-57 tanks,' he added.

While ISIS has been able to reinforce its fighters, the Kurds have not.

The militants have besieged the town to the east, south and west, meaning the Kurds' only possible supply route is the Turkish border to the north.

The U.N. envoy to Syria on Friday called on Turkey to help prevent a slaughter in Kobane, asking it to let 'volunteers' cross the frontier so they could reinforce the Kurdish forces defending the town that lies within sight of Turkish territory.

Turkey has also yet to respond to the remarks by Staffan de Mistura, who said he feared a repeat of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia when thousands died.

Kurdish leaders in Syria have asked Ankara to establish a corridor through Turkey to allow aid and military supplies to reach Kobane.

'(ISIS) is getting supplies and men, while Turkey is preventing Kobane from getting ammunition. Even with the resistance, if things stay like this, the Kurdish forces will be like a car without fuel,' said Rami Abdelrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an organisation that monitors the conflict in Syria through sources on the ground.

While much of the population has already fled Kobane, 500-700 mostly elderly people are still in the town, while 10,000-13,000 are nearby in a border area between Syria and Turkey, U.N. envoy De Mistura said.

The observatory said no fewer than 226 Kurdish fighters and 298 Islamic State militants had been killed since the group launched its Kobane offensive in mid-September. It said the overall death toll including civilians was probably much higher.

The Kobane crisis has sparked deadly violence in Turkey, which has a Kurdish population numbering 15million.

Turkish Kurds have risen up since Tuesday against President Tayyip Erdogan's government, which they accuse of allowing their kin to be slaughtered.

At least 33 people have been killed in three days of riots across the mainly Kurdish southeast, including two police officers shot dead in an apparent attempt to assassinate a police chief. The police chief was wounded.

A senior Kurdish militant has threatened Turkey with a new Kurdish revolt if it sticks with its current policy of non-intervention in the battle for Kobane.

Link to Article - Photos - Comments:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -town.html