Log in

View Full Version : U.S. Security Advisor Warns Turkey Against Attacking Kurdish Fighters After U.S. Pull



Gunny
01-06-2019, 01:40 PM
January 6, 2019
By Steve Holland
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – White House national security advisor John Bolton added a new condition on Sunday to the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, saying Turkey must agree to protect the United States’ Kurdish allies.
President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to announce a U.S. pull-out from Syria left many questions open, chiefly whether Kurdish fighters who had been operating in northern Syria alongside U.S. forces would now be targeted by their long-time enemy Turkey.January 6, 2019
By Steve Holland
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – White House national security advisor John Bolton added a new condition on Sunday to the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, saying Turkey must agree to protect the United States’ Kurdish allies.
President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to announce a U.S. pull-out from Syria left many questions open, chiefly whether Kurdish fighters who had been operating in northern Syria alongside U.S. forces would now be targeted by their long-time enemy Turkey.January 6, 2019
By Steve Holland
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – White House national security advisor John Bolton added a new condition on Sunday to the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, saying Turkey must agree to protect the United States’ Kurdish allies.
President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to announce a U.S. pull-out from Syria left many questions open, chiefly whether Kurdish fighters who had been operating in northern Syria alongside U.S. forces would now be targeted by their long-time enemy Turkey.Bolton, on a trip to Israel and Turkey, said he would stress in talks with Turkish officials, including President Tayyip Erdogan, that Kurdish forces must be safeguarded.
“We don’t think the Turks ought to undertake military action that’s not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States at a minimum so they don’t endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president’s requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered,” Bolton told reporters ahead of talks with Israeli officials.
Asked whether a U.S. withdrawal would not take place in Syria until Turkey guaranteed the Kurdish fighters would be safe, Bolton said, “Basically, that’s right.”
The Syrian YPG militia has been highly effective in the war against Islamic State, a part of the wider Syrian conflict pitting a range of insurgent groups against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and sometimes against each other.
But Turkey has long castigated Washington for its military relationship with the Syrian YPG militia. Ankara regards the YPG an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish group which has waged a 34-year-old insurgency in Turkey.
The YPG has indicated that it might seek a deal with Damascus after the U.S. forces have gone.
Bolton, who will travel to Turkey on Monday, said the United States will talk to Ankara to find out what its objectives and capabilities were.
Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey’s targets were the YPG, the PKK and Islamic State.
“One aim of Turkey’s fight against the PKK and its Syrian extensions is to rescue the Kurds from the cruelty and oppression of this terrorist group,” state-owned Anadolu news agency quoted Kalin as saying, in comments that emerged after Bolton made his remarks.
“Turkey will continue decisively its efforts to end the war, provide security, and implement the process of political transition without discriminating between our Syrian brothers on the basis of religion, ethnicity or sect,” Kalin said.
DECIMATING
In Washington on Sunday, Trump reiterated that the United States would be pulling its troops out of Syria but suggested the move might not happen soon.
“I never said we are doing it that quickly. But we are decimating ISIS,” Trump told reporters.
Bolton was due to hold talks later on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the discussions would focus on Iran’s role in the region and the situation in Syria.
“We will continue to act against the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria…and we will act against any element that undermines, or attempts to undermine the security of Israel,” Netanyahu said in public remarks to his cabinet.
Israel has often voiced alarm at the clout of Iran, an ally of Assad, in the Syrian civil war. The Israeli air force has struck scores of targets it describes as Iranian deployments or arms transfers to the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which also backs Assad.
(Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
https://www.oann.com/u-s-links-syria-withdrawal-to-isis-defeat-turkish-treatment-of-kurds/

Oh well. Looks like all the premature ejaculation in Turkey was just a hand job. I doubt it will slow Erdogan down. He's a Turk. He'll lie through his teeth and agree to anything and turn right around and do what he wants anyway after we're gone. He knows as well as everyone else that it's a lot easier for us to withdraw than it is to commit and engage. THAT is what all these knuckleheads bank on.

Black Diamond
01-06-2019, 02:40 PM
https://www.oann.com/u-s-links-syria-withdrawal-to-isis-defeat-turkish-treatment-of-kurds/

Oh well. Looks like all the premature ejaculation in Turkey was just a hand job. I doubt it will slow Erdogan down. He's a Turk. He'll lie through his teeth and agree to anything and turn right around and do what he wants anyway after we're gone. He knows as well as everyone else that it's a lot easier for us to withdraw than it is to commit and engage. THAT is what all these knuckleheads bank on.

How much are turkeys guarantees worth?

Gunny
01-06-2019, 02:48 PM
How much are turkeys guarantees worth?This is a nation that sat out WWII as neutral; yet, the base we were stationed at in Turkey was a former Luftwaffe fighter base.

This is a nation that hid behind the US's skirt for the entire Cold War because we were all that kept the USSR at bay. It was in their best interest. Now suddenly, they're getting cozy with Russia and Syria because they see it in their best interest and we no longer serve a purpose.

Turks think it is okay to play the "smiling in your face" game holding a knife out of view waiting on you to turn your back so long as it works for Turkey. Good for them but let's quit the political pretense Turkey is our ally. It is not and never has been. We were just a means to an end.

We on the other hand, not being Turks, owe the people who have fought alongside us without question since 91 some semblance of loyalty.

STTAB
06-27-2019, 12:03 PM
This is a nation that sat out WWII as neutral; yet, the base we were stationed at in Turkey was a former Luftwaffe fighter base.

This is a nation that hid behind the US's skirt for the entire Cold War because we were all that kept the USSR at bay. It was in their best interest. Now suddenly, they're getting cozy with Russia and Syria because they see it in their best interest and we no longer serve a purpose.

Turks think it is okay to play the "smiling in your face" game holding a knife out of view waiting on you to turn your back so long as it works for Turkey. Good for them but let's quit the political pretense Turkey is our ally. It is not and never has been. We were just a means to an end.

We on the other hand, not being Turks, owe the people who have fought alongside us without question since 91 some semblance of loyalty.

Turkey , Pakistan, Mexico yeah all allies of ours when it suits them. Turkey should be told in no uncertain terms "you cross the border into Syria and do ANYTHING to the Kurds, we utterly and completely destroy whatever military installation that attack originated in plus one other"