Conflicts in the Middle East & Northern Africa

[Big Bad Sven]

The Turkish government is resentful towards Assad because he is accused of assisting Kurdish separatists in Turkey, hence the reason why they're putting forth this precondition before they join the fight against ISIS.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syrian-president-bashar-alassad-accused-of-arming-kurdish-separatists-for-attacks-against-turkish-government-8026990.html

If ISIS were able to accomplish that, there is no doubt the Turkish government would be pleased. But then what is to stop ISIS from spreading their influence into Turkey? Is their common Sunni branch of Islam enough to keep relations between them calm, despite the fact that ISIS considers the Turkish president (and perhaps by extension, both his government and population) an apostate? The Kurds are Sunnis but that hasn't proved to be a very effective bond with either Turks or Arabs.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/orig...nappings.html#

If its true the Syrian government supported the kurds in turkey then i would assume it would be 'payback' to the turks for supporting/creating/financing and training ISIS fighters in Syria.

I have no issue with Turkey doing nothing now and letting the Kurds get hammered. But its a bit off that the Turks block Kurds from going into Syria to help their kurdish brothers while at the same time allowing ISIS to retreat into Turkey to be healed or re-armored.

But either way the new leader of Turkey has had a strong belief of removing the Assad government before this stuff started happening. Im assuming they were orders from Saudi Arabia.

I dont see a scenario of ISIS attacking Turkey as the president of Turkey is a supporter of ISIS and in bed with the house of Saud. They are essentially the creators and supporters of ISIS.
Sure 50% of turks are more nationalist then islamic, but the country is changing, more people are becoming more fanatical. This has been planned by the new leader of Turkey and by Saudi Arabia in the background. Its no surprise that ever since the new leader of Turkey has come in that Turkey has changed from being secular.

And as for why ISIS dont like the Kurds. Personally i think its a plot made by arabs and turks to remove the kurds. Arabs hate kurds and want the middle east to be arab or turkish. Kurds are more secular then turks as Kurds are either Sunni or Shiite. And like i said Turkey is now changing and its leaders are very islamic.

Sightly off topic just because some one is Sunni doesnt mean he will get the same respect from other Sunni's. I have spoken to many indonesians, filipino's and pakistani's (who are sunni) that have traveled or went to pray in Saudi Arabia and they tell me they are all treated like garbage because of their race. Im guessing the elite in the middle east see fellow 'muslim brothers' like the kurds and palestinians like sub-humans.
Seems the same how are 'orthodox' brothers the greeks treat us and want our country wiped off the map.

[Soldier of Macedon]

And as for why ISIS dont like the Kurds. Personally i think its a plot made by arabs and turks to remove the kurds. Arabs hate kurds and want the middle east to be arab or turkish. Kurds are more secular then turks as Kurds are either Sunni or Shiite.

Animosity also exists between Turks and Arabs, but not to the same extent against the Kurds. Most Kurds are Sunni, yet that doesn't seem to have been a point of resentment for the Shia Iraqis who accepted a level of autonomy for Kurdistan after the demise of Saddam.

[Big Bad Sven]

Kurdish aid stuck in northeast Syria as Turkey launches airstrikes on PKK

A "symbolic" amount of military aid sent from Iraq's Kurdish region to Syrian Kurds is stuck in northeastern Syria as Turkey refuses to open an aid corridor, Syrian Kurdish official Alan Othman said on Tuesday.

The aid was sent from the Kurdish region in Iraq with the intention of helping Kurdish fighters in Kobani fight against the "Islamic State" (IS) terrorist group who are advancing into the heart of the city on the Turkish border.

"It is a symbolic shipment that has remained in the Jazeera canton," Othman said, using the Kurdish name for northeastern Syria.

Hamid Darbandi, Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) official, responsible for Syrian Kurdish affairs in Iraq, said, "We helped them in roughly every arena. We sent them aid, including military."

Turkish airstrikes

A Turkish media report also said on Tuesday that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets had been attacked by Turkish war planes in the Hakkari province in southeastern Turkey late on Sunday. This was the first significant air operation against the Kurdish militants since the launch of a peace protest in 2012.

Turkish newspaper website Hurriyet reported that the airstrikes were launched in response to suspected PKK shelling of a military outpost in the area.

A Turkish military statement said on Tuesday the armed forces had responded "in the strongest way" to shelling by the rebels, without saying whether airstrikes were launched.

http://www.dw.de/kurdish-aid-stuck-in-northeast-syria-as-turkey-launches-airstrikes-on-pkk/a-17995070

[Big Bad Sven]

Chechen-American IS militant explains how weapons from Turkey transferred to terror groups in Syria
'we were being aided by Turkey almost everyday'


‫كشÙ� مؤامرة جبهة النصرة‬‎ - YouTube

[Soldier of Macedon]

According to the below Turkey don't seem to view the Shia Arabs (or at least those in Iraq) in a negative way. So their actions, be they in relation to Assad, Kurds or ISIS appear to have more to do with ethnic / national politics as opposed to religious affiliation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muqtada_al-Sadr

On May 1, 2009, al-Sadr paid a surprise visit to Ankara where, in his first public appearance for two years, he met with Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for talks which focused on the "political process"[34] and requested Turkey play a greater role in establishing stability in the Middle East. Spokesman Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi confirmed the nature of the talks that had been requested by al-Sadr and stated, "Turkey is a good, old friend. Trusting that, we had no hesitation in travelling here."[35] After the meeting al-Sadr visited supporters in Istanbul, where al-Obeidi says they may open a representative office.

[Big Bad Sven]

Saudi court sentences iconic Shiite cleric to gruesome beheading with head put on public display in ‘crucifixion’

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/10/15/saudi-court-sentences-iconic-shiite-cleric-to-gruesome-beheading-with-head-put-on-public-display-in-crucifixion/

Just LOL at Saudi Arabia being a key ally for the USA. The USA has no problem with with Saudi Arabia being a backwards shit hole that funds terrorists, beheads people in public for simple crimes and has backwards rules like women not being allowed to drive cars.

How can you take america or the western world when they are in bed with Saudi Arabia, essentially the backers and creators of Al-Queada and ISIS? They even fund the Taliban and fanatical muslims in the balkans.

Interesting to note that Israel has no problems with Saudi Arabia or Al-Queada or ISIS. Its interesting also that we never even hear about the shia protests and uprisings in Sunni controlled Bahrain as well.

Just LOL at Sunni's who think they are doing the right thing for islam by following Saudi Arabia. At least with Iran and shia islam they tried to unit all sectors of islam, unlike in places like Saudi Arabia were they preach Shia;s are infidels and heretics.

How can you take what idiots like Tony Abbot are telling us about the conflict in the middle east when he says its simply goodies vs baddies? We are being lied to by our politicians and media into a war to help Saudi Arabia and Israel remove Shia;s and Kurdish influence in the region.

[Big Bad Sven]

German deputy speaker: NATO must stop Turkey support for ISIS

BERLIN, Germany – NATO must force Turkey to stop its undeclared support of the Islamic State (ISIS) and shift its policy toward the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the deputy speaker of the German parliament said.

Claudia Roth said in an interview with Rudaw that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is pursuing a “murky” policy in Syria because it wants the Kurds weakened and their fighters “annihilated.”

“What we have learned is that Mr Erdogan wouldn’t mind if Kurds were weakened and then annihilated,” said Roth, deputy speaker of the Bundestag and a Green Party MP.

Erdogan’s “dealings with the ISIS are unacceptable. I could not believe that Turkey harbors an ISIS militant camp in Istanbul,” Roth said. “Turkey has also allowed weapons to be transported into Syria through its borders. Also that the ISIS has been able to sell its oil via Turkey is extraordinary,” she added.

Turkey categorically denies any dealings with ISIS. But there are many reported accounts of foreign jihadi fighters crossing from Turkey to Syria, wounded militants treated in Turkish hospitals and Ankara turning a blind eye to ISIS selling smuggled oil.

Turkey has invited criticism for its Syria policy. Ankara has remained idle while in Kobane Kurdish fighters of the PKK-affiliated People’s Protection Units (YPG) are making a last stand to keep ISIS from overrunning the Syrian town just across the border.

“I really don’t understand either why would Mr Erdogan and his ministers regard the PKK the same way they view the Islamic State,” Roth said. “Yes, it’s true the PKK does not have a democratic foundation, but it is no ISIS and one should not regard it as such,” she added.

“Germany must put pressure on Turkey to change course and reevaluate its policies. It should also ask NATO members to do the same. Germany must help the peace process to continue in Turkey.”

Regarding German help for Syrian Kurds, she said “Germany could have done so much more than just sending humanitarian help.”

She added that the world should also have helped the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq, where the autonomous government has taken in some 1.6 million refugees from Syria and other parts of Iraq.

“Why has the international community not helped Kurdistan and the refugees the way it should have?” Roth questioned. She said she had seen refugees first hand in Kurdistan and the Turkish Syrian border of Suruc.

“It was devastating to see how an entire population is being eradicated before our eyes in Kobane,” she said.

“There is a refugee crisis even there where people have been sheltered in temporary places and on the streets. I want to underline that the international community must act very fast and aid the refugees. I have also asked the German government to increase its humanitarian help,” she added.

She said that the peace process between the PKK and the Turkish government, which has largely lagged since it was initiated in March 2012, would succeed only if Ankara changed its treatment of the outlawed PKK.

If Turkey continues to regard the PKK as a terrorist organization like ISIS it “will destroy this process and boost extremism among Kurds,” she warned. “In actual fact Kurds are victims of the rotten Turkish policies. No country should accept this.”

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, said recently that the fall of Kobane could kill the Kurdish peace process in Turkey.

Roth blamed regional powers and selfish interests for Kurdish suffering. “Unfortunately some regional powers think only about their interests without thinking about the suffering of the Kurds,” she said. “There is no coordinated action or will against the ISIS in the region, for instance between Iran and Saudi Arabia. I hope the UN will put pressure on them to take a clearer stand.”

She made a call for ISIS to be “annihilated” and targeted economically as well as militarily.

“Lightly arming Kurds won’t solve the problem. There should be extensive and radical efforts,” she said, fearing that Kobane would fall to ISIS but calling on Kurds not to despair.

“They should know that they have many friends who support them in their battle against the Islamic State.”

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/12102014

[Big Bad Sven]

I really hope the secular military seize power from Erdogan, what a clown this guy is. He is turning Turkey into a mini Saudi Arabia. Turkey was at its peak when it was a secular modern country

[Big Bad Sven]

According to the below Turkey don't seem to view the Shia Arabs (or at least those in Iraq) in a negative way. So their actions, be they in relation to Assad, Kurds or ISIS appear to have more to do with ethnic / national politics as opposed to religious affiliation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muqtada_al-Sadr

Erdogan is a sunni islamist. He is in bed with the Saudi's. In fact he is trying to make Turkey the Sunni powerhouse and leader of Sunnis. Under him Turkey will be Saudi Arabia version 2.0.
The Turkish leader before him was just as bad, supporting islamists in the balkans.

Turkey is not the country it used to be....


Turkey’s Islamist PM Admits Syria is Sunni-Shiite Holy War

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/turkeys-islamist-pm-admits-syria-is-sunni-shiite-holy-war/

Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Turkey's elected sultan or an Islamic democrat?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/24/recep-tayyip-erdogan-turkey

[Soldier of Macedon]

I dont see a scenario of ISIS attacking Turkey as the president of Turkey is a supporter of ISIS and in bed with the house of Saud. They are essentially the creators and supporters of ISIS.

Turkey may not be overtly supporting ISIS, but they aren't doing much to stop them from a funding standpoint according to the below.

http://www.news.com.au/world/inside-isis-who-the-men-addicted-to-war-are-and-how-we-can-stop-them/story-fndir2ev-1227094353463

Incredibly, despite heavy fighting in both Syria and Iraq, ISIL has managed to fund itself by trucking oil — which literally pools on the ground in northern Iraq — out of the conflict zone and into Turkey, earning themselves up to $2m a day.

[Big Bad Sven]

ISIS Fighter Claims Turkey Funds the Jihadist Group

"Turkey paved the way for us. Had Turkey not shown such understanding for us, the Islamic State would not be in its current place. It [Turkey] showed us affection. Large [numbers] of our mujahedeen received medical treatment in Turkey,” said the man, who was not identified. “We do not have the support of Saudi Arabia, but many Saudi families who believe in jihad do assist us. But anyhow, we will no longer need it, soon,” he said.

"We will build the Islamic state in the territories from Tigris to Jordan and Palestine and to Lebanon. Sunni Law will rule,” he continued.
The terrorists took over Azaz, a key town in Syria near the border of Turkey in September 2013. That is significant because Turkey “vocally supported the fight against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and allowed weapons to cross into Syria on its southern border.” The capture of Azaz allowed easier access to the jihadists. Two months later,
CNN featured Turkey’s secret jihadi route to Syria.

Now, ISIS is speaking with Turkey businesses and asking them to return to Iraq.

“Turkish companies have signed major contracts in Iraq, promising to keep their shelves stocked,” said Turkey’s Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci. “Our exports to Iraq are now down to 35%, but Iraq cannot easily substitute other sources. We think there will be a boom in demand soon. We also know that IS is contacting individual Turkish businessmen and telling them, ‘Come back, we won’t interfere.’ That is not easy, of course. But when in the future Iraq is rebuilt, it will be Turkey doing it.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/30/ISIS-Fighter-Claims-Turkey-Funds-the-Jihadist-Group

[Big Bad Sven]

Turkey-ISIL tie no longer hidden: Syria deputy FM

Syria’s deputy foreign minister says Turkey is responsible for the acts of terror that the ISIL Takfiri militants commit in Iraq and Syria.

“Turkey is not a part of the solution, but a basic part of the problem,” Faisal Miqdad was quoted as saying in an article published on Lebanon’s al-Binaa newspaper on Saturday.

“The relationship between the Turkish regime and the ISIS (ISIL) terrorists is no longer hidden,” he added.

Miqdad also commented on Turkey’s failure in a third round of run-off voting for the second of the two Western seats on the UN Security Council.

“Turkey’s failure to have support of UN states to gain a non-permanent seat on Security Council last Thursday is a clear expression of the world’s rejection of the Turkish policies against Syria and Iraq and its ally with the ISIS terrorist organization.”

Turkey has been accused of backing ISIL in Syria. The Turkish government continues to block the supply of military equipment and reinforcements for Kurdish fighters defending Syria’s strategic border town of Kobani against the terrorists.

Ankara prevents Turkish Kurds from crossing the border into Kobani to join the Kurds in the battle for the town.

“The friends of Turkey, particularly the US administration and its security bodies and the European and Arab colleagues of (Turkish President) Erdogan and (Prime Minister) Davutoglu became convinced that it is impossible to continue supporting the Turkish leadership’s involvement in backing terrorism, including the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization and other branches of al-Qaeda terrorist organization,” the Syrian official argued.

ISIL has added further reinforcements to its ranks in an effort to break the resistance of Kurdish fighters.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/19/382818/syria-official-slams-turkey-over-isil/

[Big Bad Sven]

The Foreign Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoğlu defended the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) from accusations of terrorism, blaming instead the governments of Iraq and Syria for the current violence in the region

The comments came in the wake of an ISIS offensive in Iraqi Kurdistan over the past five days which has displaced hundreds of thousands and amid widespread reports that ISIS fighters were committing atrocities again Yezidi, Christian and Shia civilians in the region.

The Foreign Minister made the comments on a television program in which he seemingly defended ISIS from the “terrorist” or “radical” label. Davutoğlu told viewers that “a structure such as ISIS can seem like a radical or terrorist structure but there are different groups involved. There are Sunni Arabs, there are a significant amount of Turkmens.” He went on to add that while many were quick to point the finger at ISIS the Syrian and Iraqi regimes were the real cause of the trouble, saying “If Sunni Arabs had not been excluded in Iraq, the provinces of Mosul and Anbar would not be in such a rage today. Like in Syria if there had not been a government of a group representing 12% of society then it would not have been like this and these things would not have happened. There is a community whose rage has built up to a considerable extent.

http://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/turkish-foreign-minister-defends-isis-against-accusations-of-terrorism/

#Turkey Pro ISIS Hudapar party leader openly declares "We dont call ISIS a terrorist organisation" via

[George S.]

i heard how turkey is involved again'st the kurds.They are aiding the terrorists.

[Momce Makedonce]

This kid went to school not even two minutes away from where I live. He is now one of the Australians fighting with ISIS. How are people influenced this easy ?

https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/25312205/australian-teenager-appears-in-islamic-state-propaganda-video/?cmp=fb