ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD

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Haaretz

The eyes of the world look to Kobani

The Arabs have appropriated Saladin, the Kurdish leader who defeated the Crusaders; yet while they embrace him they have turned their backs on his grandchildren.
By Oudeh Basharat

Four wolves fight each other all day, but at night they unite in their desire to take a bite out of the Kurdish nation. Each one claims the Kurds as if they were its private property, with slogans of nationalism, history and unity, but at the moment of truth they all turn their backs on them.

Less than a month after the 2011 revolution began, Syria granted citizenship to hundreds of thousands of Kurds 50 years after stripping it from them. During this period these Kurds were barred from working in government institution. Their marriages were not recognized by the state, even if one of the partners was Syrian, and because they had no passports their freedom of movement, in particular foreign travel, was restricted. The state also changed the names of their villages, in order to lend them a Syrian flavor.

In Turkey, progressive in the spirit of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, even speaking Kurdish was a criminal offense until 1991. In Iraq, President Saddam Hussein tested his chemical weapons for the first time on the Kurds in Halabja. The Khomeini regime in Iran oppressed the Kurds and blocked them from participating in drawing up the constitution. It was not until the election of President Mohammad Khatami that Tehran’s attitude to the community shifted.

Now that a fifth wolf, the Islamic State, has emerged, there’s no one to save the Kurds. Neither the Iraq wolf nor the Syrian wolf, which is supported by the Iranian wolf, could save them even if they wanted, and they don’t want. That leaves only the Turkish wolf, and only God knows what shady deal President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made with IS.

IS had barely begun its conquest of Syria’s Kurdish region, along the Turkish border, when Erdogan predicted the imminent downfall of the area’s main city, Kobani. Somehow I got the feeling that this was closer to wishful thinking than it was to an analytical assessment. Afterward Erdogan went on to brutally suppress demonstrations by Kurds in Turkey pleading to save their brethren from the jaws of the Islamic State. And while Turkey’s borders are open to all the world’s fanatics, Erdogan closes it to Kurds and Arabs whose hearts are with the besieged Kurds. Lest there be any illusions, if Erdogan were to extend a hand to the Kurds in Syria it would be a betrayal of a long-standing Turkish tradition.

Kobani’s Arabic name is Ein al-Arab (“eye of the Arab”); if that’s how the Arabs treat the apple of their eye, it doesn’t bode well. What’s worse, the besieged Kurds in Ein al-Arab today are the descendants of Salah al-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub, or Saladin, the Kurdish commander who liberated the Arabs from the Crusader occupation.

The Arabs have appropriated Saladin and his legacy. Yet while they embrace him they have turned their backs on his grandchildren, who are putting his legacy into practice and bringing his message of resisting evil to the Arabs and the entire world.

In northern Iraq the Kurdish peshmerga forces are the only ones that, with air support from the U.S.-led alliance, have racked up impressive successes against IS. Compare their performance to the Iraqi military’s embarrassing campaign against the organization.

The eyes of the world now look to Kobani. The heart goes out to these brave people. What’s more, women, mainly young women and teenagers, are taking an active role in the combat.

History sometimes provides opportunities in which by standing up and fighting for his freedom the individual can symbolizes the greatness of mankind. Today that opportunity is in Kobani.

In Arabic there’s a phrase “the Kurdish satchel,” a bag filled with all the various items that the Kurd has accumulated in his arduous, endless wanderings. Each time that “satchel” surprises us anew with something unique.

How wonderful it would be if this time, from the depths of this difficult campaign, the surprise would be the establishment of an independent Kurdish state that would in every way be more cohesive than any of the states that surround it.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium ... um=twitter

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phpBB [video]

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JohnKerry says Kobani doesn't define strategy against ISIS



Full US Depertment of State Statementt:

Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Cairo, Egypt
October 12, 2014

http://m.state.gov/md232898.htm

[Anthea]

Rebels (mainly IF), in their clashes against Daesh in North Aleppo.
(Unconfirmed)

phpBB [video]

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Kurdish Question

Asya Abdullah: Kobane corridor is essential



One of the bravest women ever

PYD Co-President Asya Abdullah, who is in Kobanê with the resistance, said:
"In order for the encirclement of Kobanê to be broken a corridor is essential".

Abdullah said the gangs, who have suffered serious casualties, had brought in heavy weaponry and reinforcements from the areas under their control, and were launching concerted attacks. She added that they were press ganging Arab youths and forcing them to fight.

Arab families living in these areas have begun to leave in order to protect them from the ISIS gangs. PYD Co-President Asya Abdullah said: ''Our Arab people should take a stand against this gang that is the enemy of humanity."

She reacted to statements by the Turkish authorities to the effect that "there are no civilians left in Kobanê,'' saying there were still thousands of civilians in the town. Abdullah reiterated her appeal for a corridor, emphasising that their resistance against mounting attacks by ISIS would continue without limit. PYD Co-President Asya Abdullah has been in Kobanê since the attacks began. She answered our questions regarding the Arab youth being inveigled into fighting by ISIS, the situation of civilians and the question of a corridor being opened to Kobanê.

The gangs are trying to plug the gaps by deceiving Arab youths

It has been reported in recent days that the ISIS gangs have forced, or deceived by promising booty, Arab youths in the Manbij, Jarablus and Tel Abyad areas under their control to fight in Kobanê. Could you comment on this?

The ISIS gangs have suffered serious blows from the YPG forces. They are constantly bringing in reinforcements from places such as Manbij, Jarablus, Rakka, Tel Abyad and Ayn Issa. As the gangs have suffered serious casualties, we have heard that they are telling young people in these areas that, 'You can come and take whatever you like from Kobanê. Go and gather booty. Kobanê is now in our hands.' They have fooled hundreds in this way. Arabs living here tell us that many of those deceived in this way have died here. The ISIS gangs are trying to plug the gaps by tricking the Arab people."

Arabs leaving the region

What is the reaction of the Arab people living here to this situation?

"We are aware that the Arab people are strongly opposed to this attitude of ISIS. We have heard that many people have begun to leave because of the ISIS practice of press ganging their children. ISIS is the enemy of the Arab people, too. We know from local sources that announcements are made from the mosques asking families to send their children to war and to join the jihad. In reaction to this families have not given their children to ISIS, and after repression have begun to leave.

ISIS is attacking the fraternity of peoples

Do you have an appeal to make to the Arab people in this regard?

"Our political project is clear. The democratic autonomy project encompasses all the peoples of the region and envisages them co-existing fraternally. In our cantons Arabs, Syriacs, Christians and Circassians all live together. The YPG protects all the communities that live in the cantons. It is not just the defence force of the Kurds. We call on the Arab people to oppose the divisive policy of the ISIS gangs, which wants to deceive their children into getting involved in internecine strife. We can say that the Arab people do not approve of ISIS, but because they are under the control of ISIS they cannot do anything. This murderous gang slaughters anyone who opposes their laws. And they do not stop at physical massacre, they are also trying to destroy the existing fraternity of peoples here and the culture of co-existence. We therefore call on all communities to oppose ISIS and not allow them to destroy the fraternity of peoples."

There are thousands of civilians in Kobanê

The Turkish authorities say there are no civilians left in Kobanê. What do you say to this?

"We are in Kobanê. The canton administration is here. There are thousands of civilians in Kobanê' at this moment. They are alongside the YPG. There are thousands of people waiting on the border at Tel Sheir. These people also have thousands of animals. There are families whose children are fighting in the ranks of the YPG and do not want to abandon them. There are families who have lost children and there are those who are defending their homes. They do not want to leave Kobanê. So far 15 civilians have died in Kobanê."

'Civilians being slaughtered'

It is reported a young woman was murdered?

"On 9 October we are aware that a civilian was shot by an ISIS sniper in the Tel Sheir area as she made her way to Kobanê. We have also heard that the gangs have murdered many civilian Kurds in the villages. A 20-year-old woman and an elderly woman were murdered, and we know of two elderly men being brutally murdered with stones."

They have civilians and children

Have the ISIS gangs captured any civilians?

"There are hundreds of civilians. Some of them were captured in the villages during this war. There are hundreds who were captured previously as they travelled from Kobanê to other regions. Some children have been released, but there are still around 30 children from Kobanê in the hands of the ISIS gangs."

A corridor is urgently needed

You have requested that a corridor be opened to Kobanê. What can you say about this?

ISIS is attacking with heavy weaponry. We have said many times that in order for there to be a stronger and more effective resistance and for civilians to be defended there is a need for a corridor. The coalition has made some interventions, which is positive, but a corridor is needed to counteract these heavy weapons and for support. The corridor is needed not just for arms, but also for humanitarian needs. Water supplies and electricity centres are now under the control of ISIS, so there is an urgent need for a corridor to be opened. In order for the encirclement of Kobanê to be broken a corridor is essential".

Have there been any developments regarding the opening of such a corridor?

"There are bodies that have put this on their agenda following our appeals and as a result of actions. We believe that there will be a positive outcome and that a corridor will be opened."

What can you say regarding the latest situation in the fighting?

They have brought in heavy weaponry and reinforcements from Rakka, Miabij and Jarablus and have stepped up their attacks since yesterday. They are trying to advance, but are suffering heavy casualties and cannot do so. They have heavy weaponry, but the YPG will continue its resistance to these attacks. The resistance to finish off ISIS will continue for months until it is accomplished."

http://kurdishquestion.com/interviews/a ... ntial.html

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Turkish army says YPG should withdraw from Kobani crossing north of Syria - The Syrian Observatory

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Bloomberg

Turkey Offers Military Bases to U.S.-Led Coalition
By David Lerman

Turkey pledged to open its military bases to coalition troops and help train Syrian rebels as Pentagon leaders prepare to host defense ministers from 20 nations this week to plot strategy against Islamic State forces.

After weeks of hesitation and complaints it wasn’t doing enough to combat Islamic State, Turkey agreed to let the U.S. and allies train moderate Syrian rebels on its soil and make use of its bases, U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said yesterday.

The agreement is a significant expansion of Turkish cooperation in the fight against Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq and is gaining territory along the Turkish border.

While Turkey has previously pledged to join the campaign, it hadn’t said what it would be willing to contribute militarily. The NATO member had ruled out sending ground troops into Syria unless the U.S. broadened the campaign to target the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey is now willing to join Saudi Arabia in offering territory to be used to train moderate Syrian rebels who could fight Islamic State on the ground in Syria, Rice said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.

“That is a new commitment,” Rice said of Turkey’s pledge.

The move to help train Syrian opposition forces bolsters Turkey’s twin objectives of weakening Islamic State fighters while trying to oust Assad.

U.S. Base

The Obama administration, while saying Assad must go, has stopped short of taking any military action against his regime and has limited its airstrikes to Islamic State targets. The U.S. has ruled out sending its own ground troops into Syria and Iraq.

Rice also said Turkish bases could be used by “the coalition forces -- American and otherwise -- to engage in activities inside of Iraq and Syria.”

Such a move would give U.S. aircraft close access to targets in neighboring Syria, such as the Kurdish town of Kobani, where Islamic State is making gains. The U.S. has an air base near Incirlik, Turkey.

“That’s a new commitment and one that we very much welcome,” Rice said.

Islamic State may capture Kobani within days if the U.S.- led coalition doesn’t step up airstrikes to help, Faysal Sariyildiz, a lawmaker in the Turkish parliament, said in an interview at the border with Syria yesterday.

Turkey’s Commitments

The Pentagon, taking into consideration political sensitivities of Arab allies, hasn’t disclosed which air bases it uses in the region to conduct strikes in Syria and Iraq.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said U.S. military officials will be in Turkey this week to review the plan for training and equipping Syrian rebels.

The officials will be “working with the Turkish general’s staff and appropriate leaders, going through the specifics of Turkey’s commitments to help the coalition specifically train and equip,” Hagel said at a press conference in Chile, according to a transcript distributed yesterday.

Hagel also spoke with Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz yesterday and thanked him “for Turkey’s willingness to contribute to coalition efforts, to include hosting and conducting training for Syrian opposition members,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, said in a statement.

McCain’s Approach

The Obama administration is under pressure to take more aggressive military action as the airstrikes do little to keep Islamic State from seizing new territory.

“They’re winning and we’re not,” Senator John McCain said of Islamic State’s recent gains.

“There has to be a fundamental re-evaluation of what we’re doing because we are not -- we are not degrading and ultimately destroying ISIS,” the Arizona Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program, using an acronym for Islamic State.

McCain, who serves on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees in Congress, called for putting “American forward-air controllers and special forces on the ground supplying weapons” to Kurdish troops and Syrian rebels, while targeting both Islamic State and the Assad regime.

Rice rejected the notion that the administration’s strategy needs to be revised.

“We are not going to be in a ground war again in Iraq,” Rice said on NBC. “It’s not what is required by the circumstances we face. And even if one were to take that step, which the president has made clear we are not going to do, it wouldn’t be sustainable. We got to do this in a sustainable way.”

Allies Meet

While Turkey has pressed the U.S. to establish a “buffer zone” and no-fly zone in Syria, Rice said there are no plans to do so.

“We don’t see it at this point as essential to the goal of degrading and ultimately destroying” Islamic State, she said.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will host more than 20 defense ministers from coalition countries on Oct. 14 to discuss the campaign against Islamic State.

In an interview for ABC that aired yesterday, Dempsey disclosed that the U.S. had to call in Apache attack helicopters to secure the airport in Baghdad and prevent Iraqi forces from being overrun.

‘Decisive Battle’

“Had they overrun the Iraqi unit, it was a straight shot to the airport,” Dempsey said in the taped interview for ABC’s “This Week” program. “So, we’re not going to allow that to happen. We need that airport.”

The Iraqi cities of Mosul and Fallujah, which are now controlled by Islamic State forces, have become the site of “crucifixions and beheadings of a nature that the world hasn’t seen in hundreds of years,” Dempsey said.

“Mosul will likely be the decisive battle in the ground campaign at some point in the future” when Iraqi troops are strong enough to go back on the offensive and retake territory, he said. “My instinct at this point is that that will require a different kind of advising and assisting, because of the complexity of the fight.”

To contact the reporter on this story: David Lerman in Washington at dlerman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vince Golle at vgolle@bloomberg.net; John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net; Maura Reynolds at mreynolds34@bloomberg.net Mark Williams

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

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Reuters

Islamic State suicide bomber detonates truck near Syria-Turkey border

An Islamic State suicide bomber detonated a truck laden with explosives on Monday in the besieged Kurdish town of Kobani, near the Turkish border crossing with Syria, a monitoring group and Kurdish sources said.

The attack took place in a northern district of Kobani, which has been the scene of heavy clashes between Kurdish forces and Islamic State fighters.

Idris Nassan, a Kurdish official in Kobani, said two Kurdish fighters had been wounded during the suicide bomb attack, which appeared to have been aimed at clearing a way for the IS fighters to advance further into the town.

"They (IS fighters) tried to advance towards the (border) crossing but the (Kurdish) People's Protection Units repelled them ... and they were not able to push forward," Nassan told Reuters.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported more heavy clashes on Monday inside the city, where U.S.-led air strikes have so far failed to halt the militants' advance.

The Observatory said there had been at least five U.S.-led strikes early on Monday, mainly targeting southern districts of Kobani, which is known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic.

Clashes also continued to the east, killing a dozen Islamic State fighters, the Observatory said.

The militant group wants to seize the town to consolidate a dramatic sweep across northern Iraq and Syria. The advances by the group, which espouses a rigidly conservative brand of Islam, has sent shockwaves through the Middle East.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... RI20141013

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Rudaw

Hundreds of European Kurds join Peshmerga and YPG

COPENHAGEN, Denmark –Hundreds of Kurds from the West are reported to have gone to fight alongside the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga and the Syrian-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces in their battles against the Islamic State.

Hussein Mohammad gave up his job as a musician in Germany and left his family there to become a Peshmerga in northern Iraq. Lukman Hassan also decided to return to Kurdish Regional Government territory from Germany.

“The Islamic State was attacking our brothers and sisters, and was trying to take over our land,” Hassan told France24. “So we had to return and defend it, even if it costs us our lives.”

Both Mohammad and Hassan fought in the Peshmerga ranks against former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1990s.

Susanne Guven, president of the Kurdish National Association, estimates that around 200 Swedish-Kurds left Sweden last month to participate in various ways in the fight against ISIS in the KRG, including some as Peshmerga. In August, Norwegian newspaper VG wrote that young Norwegian-Kurdish men were at the front. About 10 Danish Kurds are also there, according to Denmark’s Politiken.

Among them is 27-year-old Azad Mahmood Hamid.

"My ancestors have given their blood for us, so we could have Kurdish autonomy. I will not just watch ISIS come and take it all,” Hamid, who is currently in the frontlines against the fundamentalist group in Jalawla, told Rudaw. Officially he is still resident in Denmark, where he has worked as a mechanic and pizza maker.

For 30-year old Shaho Pirani, who has a MA in anthropology and political science, the last straw was when ISIS enteredIraq and then Seized Mosul in June. He decided to leave Denmark and receive weapons training at a training camp in the KRG and become a Peshmerga.

"If ISIS wins, we lose everything. As soon as the Kurds need my support, I'll be there for my people.” Now he plans to go to Kobane in Syria and defend the city.

"I am ready to go to Rojava [part of Syrian Kurdistan] and fight for the Kurds there. For me there is no difference in what part of Kurdistan I am struggling."

In addition, Rudaw talked to two Turkish Kurds from Denmark, Mihemede Lice and Sofi Cengi, who have gone to the KRG to join the Peshmerga. They were both Peshmerga in the 1980s for the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Bakur.

Ozlem Cekic, an ethnically Kurdish MP in Denmark, said that she has talked to a "handful" Danish Kurds who want to go down and fight in Kobane and the KRG.

Three Dutch men are believed to have joined Peshmerga in KRG, according to NOS, Dutch Broadcast Foundation. The three men are member of the motorcycle club “No Surrender” and the President of “No Surrender”, Klaas Otto, confirmed that they are fighting against ISIS. They have both been in Syria, and are now in the KRG.

Not everyone is happy about the volunteers.

MP Soren Espersen from the Danish People's Party is concerned about Danish Kurds in the YPG, because it is related to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designed as a terrorist organization by the EU and NATO.

"It is deeply problematic if young people in Denmark directly or indirectly fight for an organization that is on our own terror list. We must tell them to stay home," he told Rudaw.

"We know that people who go out and fight wars often get mental problems. If you want to fight, then you can do it in the Danish army," MP Tom Behnke from the Danish Conservative People's Party, told Rudaw.

Frederik Harhoff, a lawyer and former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), said that it is not punishable to fight in another country, “as long as you comply with the conventions and do not commit war crimes.” But since the PKK is on the terrorist list, there might be problems for returning Kurdish fighters.

"Regarding the PKK it is a little unclear. You have to determine in a particular case who has fought for whom," Harhoff told Rudaw.

Anthea: remember that the Kurdish peshmerga were once classed as a terrorist organisation - now they are the army of South Kurdistan - the PKK should e the army of North Kurdistan

http://rudaw.net/english/world/13102014

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RT

US top-brass eye Syria no-fly zone



Even though Islamic State militants in Syria have no aircraft to speak of, the US’s top military commander says establishing a no-fly zone may be part of the campaign. Such a move is what US allies, including Turkey, have been pressing for.

The possible establishment of a no-fly zone over northern Syria was hinted at by Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey.

“Do I anticipate that there could be circumstances in the future where that would be part of the campaign? Yeah,” he told ABC’s This Week program.

The general also warned that IS are better than ever at blending in with the population and hiding from coalition attacks

“An enemy adapts and they'll be harder to target. Yeah, they know how to maneuver and how to use populations and concealment,” he said.

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel earlier hinted a no-fly zone in Syria, as per Ankara’s request, was on the cards.

“We’ve discussed all these possibilities and will continue to talk about what the Turks believe they will require,” The New York Times reported him as saying.

Turkey reportedly set a no-fly-zone as a condition for more direct engagement against the Islamic State, who have been gaining ground against Kurdish militias in northern Syria since last month.

On Sunday, officials confirmed to AP on condition of anonymity that Turkey would allow all anti-ISIS coalition members use Turkish air bases, including Incirlik Air Base in the south.

READ: Turkey allows US to use its bases for fight against ISIS - report

Establishing a no-fly zone, however, stretches an already thin US case for conflict even further. The Obama administration used post-9/11 extraordinary powers to go after Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria without Congressional approval – but the Islamic State is technically no longer part of Al-Qaeda after splitting from the terrorist network to pursue the establishment of a fundamentalist Sunni caliphate.

Internationally, the US-led military campaign is also in murky legal waters. There is no UNSC approval for use of force in Syria nor a request from Damascus to intervene (US planes reportedly met ‘passive’ Syrian defense systems when launching air strikes against ISIS.

Iran and Russia argue the US is just a hair’s breadth away from an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation on a pretext of fighting terrorism.

An anti-ISIS no-fly zone would also target the Syrian army, which the US and its allies accuse of war crimes against civilians. The US has pledged to train and arm so-called ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels fighting Assad’s government.

Any direct confrontation with Damascus in Syria will fuel suspicion that the US campaign against Islamic State is a pretext to weaken Assad. When NATO received a UN mandate to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya in 2011, it effectively militarized North Africa, decimated Muammar Gaddafi’s armed forces, leading to his brutal murder and the disintegration of the country into a fragmentary tribal/Islamist civil war.

http://rt.com/news/195420-syria-no-fly-zone/

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New York Times

Kurdish Rebels Assail Turkish Inaction on ISIS as Peril to Peace Talks



ENDZA, Iraq — As jihadist fighters of the Islamic State lay siege to the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria, the implications of the battle have resonated deeply among residents in this part of the Qandil Mountains in northeastern Iraq, hundreds of miles and a country away.

In this region, beneath craggy peaks near the Iranian border, is the headquarters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which has been fighting a guerrilla war against the Turkish state for three decades, a fight that has claimed more than 30,000 lives. Members of the group, along with fighters from an offshoot rebel army in Syria, have been at the heart of the Kurdish resistance in Kobani.

P.K.K. commanders say their halting, nine-year-old peace process with the Turkish government and, indeed, the future of the region, will turn on the battle for Kobani and on Turkey’s response. If Turkey does not help the embattled Kurdish forces in Kobani, the commanders say, they will break off peace talks and resume their guerrilla war within Turkey, plunging yet another country in the region into armed conflict.

“Negotiations cannot go on in an environment where they want to create a massacre in Kobani,” Cemil Bayik, a founder and leader of the P.K.K., said in a recent interview in a secret location in this area of the Qandil range. “We cannot bargain for settlement on the blood of Kobani.”

“We will mobilize the guerrillas,” he vowed.

Despite increased pressure from the United States and pleas from outgunned Kurdish fighters in Kobani, Turkey has refused to deploy its military against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, or to open the border to allow reinforcements, weapons and supplies to reach the town.

In a shift, though, Turkey will allow American and coalition troops to use its bases, including a key installation within 100 miles of the Syrian border, for operations against the Islamic State, Defense Department officials said Sunday. On Sunday, Kurdish officials said their fighters in Kobani had been able to fend off a two-day assault by Islamic State fighters on the center of town. Coalition airstrikes had destroyed a convoy on its way to support the jihadist fighters, according to Idris Nassan, a spokesman for the Kobani resistance, who said the Kurds had been able to “manage” the latest assault. But without more extensive airstrikes and supplies of weapons and ammunition, he added, “Maybe tomorrow the situation will change again.”

Turkey’s reluctance stems in part from its desire not to do anything that might strengthen the Kurdish populist movement in the region. The defense of Kobani is being led by the People’s Protection Units, or Y.P.G., an affiliate of the P.K.K., which is officially listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. In addition, Syrian Kurds have been trying to establish an autonomous region on the border, which Turkey wants to prevent.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has insisted that fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria should take precedence over fighting the Islamic State. And he holds the P.K.K. in such contempt that he recently equated the rebel group with the Islamic State.

“The P.K.K. and ISIS are the same for Turkey,” he told reporters. “It is wrong to view them differently. We need to deal with them jointly.”

According to analysts, Mr. Erdogan is calculating that if the Islamic State fighters overrun Kobani, the Kurdish defeat will not scuttle Turkey’s peace process with the P.K.K. But to the commanders of the P.K.K., Turkey’s refusal to act amounts to complicity with the Islamic State.

Turkey, Mr. Bayik said, “wants to use ISIL in order to inflict some blows on the Kurdish movement and to prevent the Kurdish people in Syrian Kurdistan to gain their rights.” He sat at a plastic table in an olive-drab tent beneath the boughs of a towering walnut tree that provided cover from surveillance drones as well as the sun.

“Turkey wants to victimize the Kurds,” he said. P.K.K. officials requested that the precise location of the interview not be revealed.

Turkey’s posture has spurred violent protests that have left more than 30 people dead across the country.

“The peace process is over,” a Kurdish protester said during a demonstration in Istanbul last week. He refused to give his name out of fear of being persecuted by the authorities. Standing near burning barricades and tires, and engulfed in clouds of tear gas, he said, “There can be no peace while ignoring Kobani.”

Mr. Erdogan’s strategy also carries considerable risks both to his domestic political standing and his legacy.

He owes his rise to power in part to the support of Kurds, which he has cultivated by taking a more conciliatory approach to Kurdish nationalism, developing closer ties with Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government and helping to secure more rights for Kurds, including laws that allowed the use of the Kurdish language in schools and the media and the use of Kurdish names for certain towns.

“It seemed they were making historic progress,” said Francis J. Ricciardone Jr., who until recently was the United States ambassador to Turkey and is now the director of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. The progress in Kurdish cultural and language rights, he said, “were things I never expected to see in my lifetime.”

Mr. Erdogan, who was prime minister from 2003 to 2014 and became president in August, is now seeking to alter the Constitution to gain more executive powers, an effort that analysts say will require the support of Kurdish parties.

Yet his position on Kobani is quickly costing him Kurdish backing, analysts say, while also helping to unify the Kurdish population around the world.

“Kobani became one battle for everybody,” said Hiwa Osman, a Kurdish political analyst who was an adviser to Jalal Talabani, the former Iraqi president. “This is a matter between good versus evil. For Turkey to be on the other side, by omission, positions all the Kurds in one camp. And this camp will not be friendly to Turkey.”

On Sunday, leaders of the two main political parties in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region said at a news conference that they had sent weapons and humanitarian aid to Kobani.

They did not say when the shipments were sent or whether they had arrived safely, but officials in Kobani said they never received weapons or ammunition from the Kurdistan authorities.

In late September, however, a convoy of at least 15 trucks with posters indicating that they had come from Kurdistan crossed the border from Suruc, Turkey, into Kobani. Kurdish activists from Kobani said at the time that the trucks contained aid for refugees in Turkey and Syria.

While Mr. Erdogan’s standing has plunged among Kurds, the Kurdish fighters’ reputation has soared. In the Kurdistan region, the P.K.K. has enjoyed remarkably broad public support in recent months in light of its battlefield successes against the Islamic State militants.

In the initial months of the Islamic State assault on northern Iraq, the P.K.K.’s performance stood in contrast to that of the Iraqi military, which wilted in the face of the Islamic State sweep, and of the pesh merga, Iraqi Kurdistan’s army, which suffered demoralizing setbacks before regaining its footing with the support of American airstrikes.

P.K.K. units are widely credited with engineering the rescue of thousands of Yazidis who were trapped on Mount Sinjar and facing annihilation. P.K.K. fighters established an evacuation corridor from the summit of the mountain, where the Yazidis had languished for days. The P.K.K. also rushed to the aid of the pesh merga after Islamic State fighters threatened the Kurdish capital, Erbil, by overrunning Makhmur, a nearby Kurdish town.

“Had we not intervened, there would’ve been a great massacre,” Mr. Bayik said. The Kurdish government, he said, “would’ve lost face.”

Many Kurds have called on the United States and the European Union to reassess their classification of the P.K.K. as a terrorist organization — a rebuke of Mr. Erdogan and Turkey.

“Officially they are on the terrorist list,” Brig. Gen. Helgurd Hikmet Mela Ali, a spokesman for the pesh merga, said in a recent interview. “But if you want my personal opinion, not official: It’s clear now and it’s very obvious who the terrorists are. ISIS or P.K.K.?”

After the counterattack that recaptured Makhmur, Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan regional government, whose political party has had a bitter relationship with the P.K.K., rewarded its fighters with a visit.

“We have the same destiny,” Mr. Barzani told the guerrillas.

Kirk Semple reported from Endza, and Tim Arango from Istanbul. Kareem Fahim contributed reporting from Caykara, Turkey, Ceylan Yeginsu from London, and Kamil Kakol from Sulaimaniya, Iraq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/world ... share&_r=0

[Anthea]

MERIA Special Report:
Did ISIS Use Chemical Weapons Against the Kurds in Kobani?

WARNING: This post contains images which some readers may disturbing.
Please follow link to view these images.
http://jonathanspyer.com/

The fate of Kobani city now hangs in the balance, as around 9000 fighters of the Islamic State organization close in on the Kurdish held area. The current IS assault on the Kobani enclave was not the first attempt by the jihadis to destroy the Kurdish-controlled area.

The Kobani enclave, most of which is now in the hands of the IS, at one time extended to Tel Abyad in the east, and Jarabulus in the west. It constituted a major hindrance to the desire of the jihadis to maintain free passage for their fighters from Raqqa city up to the Turkish border and westwards towards the front lines in Aleppo province. IS has therefore long sought to destroy it.

Prior to the current campaign, the most serious (but unsuccessful) attempt to conquer Kobani came in July 2014, shortly following the dramatic IS advance into Iraq. It was during this assault on Kobani that evidence emerged which appeared to point to the use by the Islamic State on at least one occasion of some kind of chemical agent against the Kurdish fighters of the YPG (Peoples’ Protection Units).

The July offensive commenced on July 2nd. According to Kurdish activists, the use of the chemical agent took place on July 12th, in the village of Avdiko, in the eastern part of the Kobani enclave (now in IS hands.)

Nisan Ahmed, health minister of the Kurdish authority in Kobani, established a medical team to examine the incident. According to Ahmed, the bodies of three Kurdish fighters showed no signs of damage from bullets. Rather “burns and white spots on the bodies of the dead indicated the use of chemicals, which led to death without any visible wounds or external bleeding.”

Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA Journal) has acquired exclusive access to photographs of the bodies of the bodies of these fighters, which appear below for the first time. According to expert Israeli sources who have seen the pictures, they appear to indicate the use of some form of chemical agent, probably mustard (blister agent), but it is not possible to conclusively confirm this without further investigation.

Where might IS have acquired these agents? According to a report in the Arabic language Al-Modon website on July 16th, eyewitnesses in Raqqa city assert the existence of a facility close to the city containing chemical agents. The reliability of the eyewitness quoted has been indicated to MERIA by third parties. It is possible that these were transferred to Raqqa from Iraq, following the capture of the Muthanna compound 35 miles north-west of Iraq, by IS in June.

Iraq’s ambassador Mohammed Ali Al-Hakim, speaking after the capture of Muthanna by IS, singled out two bunkers at the facility, 13 and 41, as being of particular concern. According to a UN report compiled after the departure of UN inspectors and quoted by Associated Press, bunker 41 contained “2,000 empty 155mm artillery shells contaminated with the chemical warfare agent mustard, 605 one-tonne mustard containers with residues, and heavily contaminated construction material.”

At the time, the US State Department’s Jen Psaki played down the importance of the capture of Muthanna. Psaki suggested that the facility contained “degraded chemical remnants” but that it would be “difficult, if not impossible, to safely use this for military purposes or, frankly, to move it.” A CIA report from 2007, however, offers evidence that might challenge Psaki’s apparent absence of concern.

The report notes that “The precursor and agent production area at Al Muthanna was not completely destroyed during Desert Storm. Portions of the mustard (blister agent) production and storage area survived. The VX and Tabun production (nerve agent) facilities were incapacitated.” [v]
The report further observes that “ISG is unable to unambiguously determine the complete fate of old munitions, materials, and chemicals produced and stored there. The matter is further complicated by the looting and razing done by the Iraqis.”

With regard to the state of al-Muthanna at the time that the report was composed (2007), it observes that Stockpiles of chemical munitions are still stored there. The most dangerous ones have been declared to the UN and are sealed in bunkers. Although declared, the bunkers contents have yet to be confirmed. Numerous bunkers, including eleven cruciform shaped bunkers were exploited. Some of the bunkers were empty. Some of the bunkers contained large quantities of unfilled chemical munitions.

So the CIA report confirms that al-Muthanna was used for the production of chemical weaponry including mustard agent. The report also confirms that investigations have been unable to ‘unambiguously determine’ the fate of munitions at the site, and that while stockpiles clearly are stored at the site, the precise nature of these stockpiles remains unconfirmed. There are no indications that this situation has changed in the period since the report.

The evidence appears to support the contention that on at least one occasion, Islamic State forces did employ some form of chemical agent, acquired from somewhere, against the YPG in Kobani. No further instances have been reported. The evidence also indicates that it is likely that as a result of the capture of the al-Muthanna compound, stockpiles of chemical munitions have come into the group’s possession.

The incident at Avdiko village on July 12th suggests that IS may well have succeeded in making some of this material available for use in combat.
The probable possession by the Islamic State of a CW capability is for obvious reasons a matter of the gravest concern, and should be the urgent subject of further attention and investigation.

Readers may find the following exclusive images on the link, which corroborate the suspicion of ISIS CW capability, disturbing.

http://jonathanspyer.com/