There is a growing confusion over the situation in the north-east of Syria – Turkey, a NATO member state, is de facto challenging other NATO member states by attacking a U.S proxy force occupying the region. The Kurdish contras and separtist factions that make up the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) are the apparent target.

I have compiled a list of articles and videos that may enable people to untangle the complex and extremely precarious conflict that is developing east of the Euphrates. I will add to them and update this article as and when I am able to.

Kevork Almassian of Syriana Analysis

2. Syrian Girl – Kurds did not protect Christians, they persecuted them.

3. Where White Helmets failed, will SDF succeed in securing a NATO “no fly zone” in the region which is translated into a NATO “free-for-all” and will escalate the conflict while ensuring greater bloodshed among the civilian population:

Report from South Front.

4. Sarah Abed – Turkey’s Safe-zone and Refugee Peace-corridor in Syria Is a Cover for a Violent Demographic Re-engineering

It’s worth noting that the Syrian government has been vocal in their opposition to the creation of a Turkish safe zone or peace corridors on its land as well as joint patrol operations. Damascus knows that Turkey’s true intentions are expansion and changing the demographics and forcing the return of millions of Syrian refugees to areas in northern Syria where they do not originate from.

[…]

.. if Turkey is truly worried about their national security they can establish a safe zone on Turkish land to protect themselves but they do not have a right to encroach on Syrian land.

[…]

Turkey has drawn out a detailed plan for resettling two million Syrian refugees in the safe zone and many are concerned that once these Turkish loyalists have resettled on Turkey’s border, Ankara will claim ownership on Syria’s northern region. Turkey’s plan would cost roughly $27 billion and Turkey is not planning on footing the entire bill and has asked for other nations to assist funds to carry out its plan.

Turkey’s plan includes establishing 140 villages, 10 towns, a Turkish university with three faculties including an Islamic Sciences faculty in Azaz, an Education Faculty in Afrin and an Economics and Administrative Sciences faculty in Al Bab. Each village would have 1,000 homes which would house 5,000 people. Each town would have 6,000 homes and house 30,000 people. The project would have a total of 200,000 homes to house an estimated 1 million people.

Turkey is attempting to repeat across northern Syria what they accomplished in Afrin during the Olive Branch operation. They drove out the Kurdish population and replaced them with Turkish aligned Syrian refugees, changing the demographics.

Published at AH Tribune.

5. Rojava data base – over 40 ISIS terrorists now part of Turkish-backed forces.

6. Laith Marouf – political commentator and analyst on the history of the Syrian Kurds

If you are really interested in the issues of Kurdish future, please begin by reading about history of the region. You have to understand the roots of Kurdish presence in the areas we are talking about in northern Syria and Assyria.



I will take a moment here to explain geographic names for you. Syria geographically, is the land bordered by the Taurus Mountains in the north, the Kurdish Mountains in the east, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and al-Hijaz and Najd in the south.

Syria can be further divided into four subculture zones: -Costal Syria stretching from Adana to Gaza – Syrian Desert and Nabatea in the Aqaba-Dead sea basin -Assyria the island between the two rivers, locally referred to as al-Jazeera. -Assyria ends at Baghdad, where the two rivers meet and Iraq starts. Syria, Assyria and Iraq, together are the Fertile Crescent and the lands of the Canaanite people, the people who birthed Aramaic, and through marriage with the Qahtaanites of Yemen birthed Arabic.



At the end of the 1800s, the Fertile Crescent was still occupied by the Ottomans. As the empire was collapsing, and fearing an Arab revolt, Turkish nationalists within the empire began a program of ethnic cleansing and population transfers across all of the area. Part of the plan included building a chain of villages populated by transferred Turkic peoples, stretching from the Anatolian Plato to Aleppo, Mosul, Damascus and Jerusalem.

This is where you get all the Turkmen villages and militias you heard about in the last few years in Iraq and Syria. This is how Erdogan can talk about protecting Turks in Iraq and Syria. The plan to transfer Turkic populations was not successful, not many wanted to move from their far away Turkic territories, and Arabs and Assyrians resisted violently.



So the Turkish elite figured out a better solution, use the Kurdish peoples that inhabit the close by, infertile Kurdistan Mountains, and entice them with the fertile lands of Arminians, Arabs and Assyrians. The results are the Arminian genocide, followed by the genocide of Assyrians and Arabs. All the scenes that played out at the hands of ISIS in north Syria and Iraq in the past 7 years; they are nothing in comparison to what Kurdish militias did to the local inhabitants, men, women and children, at the time. This is where all the local resentments to Kurdish people in Iraq and Syria comes from. No one excepts their claim to oppression, it rings hollow to the ears of survivors of their ethnic cleansing campaigns. Resentment is even more exasperated when Kurdish refugees on our land, claim the land, and demand a state.



By the end of WW1, the newly relocated Kurdish populations, emerged as a very important tool in imperial pressures on the defeated Turks. Iran, at the time a British vassal state, started to maneuver for a piece of Turkey. Here I will take a moment to point out that Kurdish people and their language are actually a subcultural isolate of Persian language and culture.

The majority of the indigenous lands of the Kurdish peoples, the Kurdistan Mountains is actually in Iran and not Turkey. The negotiations, through the use of the Kurdish card, resulted in Turkey accepting most of the conditions for the end of the war. In return, France allowed Turkey to complete the ethnic cleansing of northern Syria and Assyria, and in the late 1920s and early 30’s, Turkey expelled all the Arab, Assyrian and Greek inhabitants of all the major cities stretching from Adana in the west to Mardin in the east.



It should be noted that while Syria had Kurdish citizens prior to the partition of Sykes-Picot; they were a very small minority concentrated in the cities as migrants within the former Ottoman Empire. In the 40s when the new Turkish State was done with ethnically cleansing the Armenians, Arabs, Greeks and Assyrians; it turned against its former henchmen, and began ethnically cleansing the Kurds.

Many moved out of the cities they ethnically cleansed in upper Syria/Assyria, now in Turkey, and took refuge in Syria which gave them citizenship. A larger wave of Kurdish refugees arrived in Syria in the 60s when they started an armed struggle against Turkey. That batch was not given citizenship in Syria, but instead the state armed them and hosted the PKK to help in their liberation struggle; receiving the same rights as Palestinians in Syria that include all public services except the right to vote.

Since that day, almost all regional and international powers used the transferred Kurdish populations as tools in the war for territorial control.

Israel using them against Iraq, Iraq using them against Iran, Syria using them against Turkey, the US using them against Iraq, the US using them against Syria, the US using them against Turkey, and probably soon, the US using them against Iran.



Syria was almost invaded by Turkey at the beginning of 2000; Turkey even cut off all water from the Euphrates river to force Syria to give up the Kurdish liberation movement. In 2013, when the Syrian Army had to retreat from the margins and the country sides to defend the cities and major population centres; Syria naturalized all Kurdish inhabitants, opened all weapon storages in the north, and armed them to the teeth to fight against the Wahhabi Contra invasion. Unfortunately the Kurdish Contras repaid all the Syrian people hospitality with treason, by joining the Empire and attempting to steal our land for a fabricated state with a freshly minted name; Rojava.



In any case, if you are still a supporter of Kurdish separatism in Syria, one based on conquest by genocide, I offer one last point: Kurdish transferees and refugees in Syria represent less than 10% of the population of the country. And when looking at North Syria alone, Kurdish people represent only 30% of the population! So are Arabs and Assyrians to live as a majority ruled by a minority! Wouldn’t that be Apartheid? Are Kurds to be given the same uber-rights that Zionists have?



I am all for equality and internationalism, but please understand that I will never accept your versions of equality and internationalism; for they seem always paved with Arab blood and under the feet of colonial armies. Go ahead, read more history, before you pontificate, these are events that are fresh on peoples mind in my homelands.

7. Stephen Gowans – The myth of the Kurdish YPG moral excellence

Conclusion

Representing an ethnic community that comprises less than 10 percent of the Syrian population, the PKK, a Kurdish anarchist guerrilla group which operates in both Turkey and Syria, is using the United States, its Air Force, Marine Corps, Army Rangers and Special Forces troops, as a force multiplier in an effort to impose a partition of Syria in which the numerically insignificant Kurd population controls a significant part of Syria’s territory, including areas inhabited by Arabs in the majority and in which Kurds have never been in the majority.

To accomplish its aims, the PKK has not only struck a deal with a despotic regime in Washington which seeks to recolonize the Arab world, but is relying on ethnic cleansing and denial of repatriation of Arabs from regions from which they’ve fled or have been driven to establish Kurdish control of northern Syria, tactics which parallel those used by Zionist forces in 1948 to create a Jewish state in Arab-majority Palestine. Washington and Israel (the latter having long maintained a semi-clandestine relationship with the Kurds) value a confederal system for Syria as a means of weakening Arab nationalist influence in Arab Asia, undermining a pole of opposition to Zionism, colonialism, and the international dictatorship of the United States. Forces which resist dictatorship, including the most odious one of all, that of the United States over much of the world, are the real champions of democracy, a category to which the PKK, as evidenced by its actions in Syria, does not belong.

8. Sarah Abed – Kurds in north-eastern Syria turn to kidnapping, conscription, ISIS-like tactics

One of the most startling allegations made is that the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been arresting and kidnapping men aged 18 to 40 in the Al Hassakah governorate, which includes Al Qamishli and other towns under their control. They are taking these men against their will to Kurdish militia training camps, where they will stay for some time and receive training before being forced to fight in the so-called “New Syrian Army” or “North Syrian Army.” I was told that some of these men are being taken to the front lines to fight in Afrin as well.

9. Fares Shehabi – Aleppo MP.

“The only solution to the crisis in northeastern Syria is the Adana security agreement by which only the legitimate Syrian state controls its land and ensures the security of the border. This treaty had been very successful before Erdogan broke it in 2011 with his jihadis..”

Like in Afrin, the Turkish army is relying of its jihadi mercenaries in its recent invasion of northern Syria! Erdogan wants to destroy the social fabric of the region and replace it with his islamic radicals & their families.

10. Shabbir Hassnally – analyst

So Turkey has attacked Northern Syria with a view to destroying the Kurds. Well, this is not unexpected – Turkey has been for a long time “threatening” this – and was awaiting the appropriate time.

It is an illegal operation inside Sovereign Syrian territory. Not Sovereign “Kurdish” territory – but Syrian. And like all the others who have invaded and been driven out of Syria – Turkey, in this regard is also an invader into Syria. This is a fact and cannot be disputed.

The biggest fools and hapless idiots in this equation are the #Kurds – who for at the very least the second time have trusted Washington (remember 1991 anyone?), and somehow feel (since they have asked for a “No-Fly Zone” around ‘their area’ (yeah it’s not their Area – it’s Syria – plain and simple).

The #Kurds have one viable option in this regard. To reject their masters in Tel Aviv and Washington (yes there is a huge amount of Zionist influence within the ranks of the various Kurdish factions – such as SDF, YPG and many others – massive Israeli support – even for parts of so-called “Iraqi Kurdistan) are infested with Israelis who are attempting to create more separatist fervour.

The only option that the Kurdish groups in Occupied North-Eastern Syria have is to accept that they are an occupation force in Syria, to beg Syria for forgiveness and ask Syria to support them from being wiped out by Mr Erdogan.

Off course, there is another game that could be being played.

Consider; the US declares publically that it will not back the “Kurdish forces” – Mr Erdogan attacks Syria (under the guise of attacking the Kurds but as I’ve said it’s still an attack on Sovereign Syria); the Kurds scream and shout and beg Washington and Tel Aviv for help.

The West rejects the please of the Kurds, and so the Kurds, make a deal with Syria. Syria then works to cleanse its territory in the North East, and to repel the Turkish invasion.

At this point, Washington and Tel Aviv declare that Turkey – a NATO country – is under attack from Syria, and use that as a premise to perform a new attack on Syria.

I’m not saying this is what will happen, I’m not saying it is not either. All I’m saying is that the Kurdish groups of SDF and YPG and such are untrustworthy and opportunistic, and have made their proverbial bed; the problem in this equation is the more than 800,000 Syrian nationals who are caught in this crossfire in North Easter portion of Syria.

A real valid solution is as follows:

1/ Turkey immediately ceases fire. No discussion, an immediate cease-fire. And an immediate withdrawal from Syrian territory. No question or debate.

2/ The Syrian army (and it’s real allies) secure and make safe the North East of Syria that was previously occupied by the SDF and YPG

3/ The YPG and SDF immediately lay down their arms and agree to work with the LEGITIMATE government of Syria.

4/ Any found to be working with the enemy – Israel, US, Saudi, etc – are imprisoned and brought to justice via the judicial system (if that means being executed, then so be it)

5/ All civilians are kept safe and ensured protection and guaranteed security by the Syrian Arab Army and its allies

6/ Reparations are paid by the countries that invaded and made terror in Syria and especially by those in power who were behind such an invasion – personally and nationally. This includes the regimes of:

6.1/ United Kingdom

6.2/ United States

6.3/ “Israel”

6.4/ “Saudi” Arabia

6.5/ Persian Gulf Sheikhdoms (aka OIl Fields and Shopping Malls with Flags)

6.6/ Turkey

6.7/ All involved in the conspiracy against Syria and anyone who even for a nana-second supported DAESH, FSA, and related terror outfits manufactured out of Washington, Riyadh, London and Tel Aviv.

7/ New United Nations is formed, without any veto-holding members – and in neutral territory; with the US, Saudi, Israel, the UK, and those implicated in points 6.1 to 6.7, being relegated to 5th class members, and completely disarmed as entities.

These are starting points – points 1-6 are non-negotiable; point 7 can be debated but is important due to the impotence and indeed complicity of the United Nations in the campaign against Syria.

Also, due to point 6, the entity that is known as “Israel” will cease to exist in its current manner, and there will be a country known as Palestine which will be a home for Jewish, Muslim and Christians but not in an apartheid manner that will be the product of the removal from power of the Zionist Occupiers of Palestine who are also directly instrumental in most of the instability in Syria – evidenced instrumentality.

This will be a solution that ensures peace in the Middle East and globally, as the warmongering countries will cease to be a threat to anyone due to complete disarmament, and a total loss of reputation and position in the global community.

11. Dr Marcus Papadopoulos – historian and political analyst.

The Kurds of Syria should have learnt the lesson from Afrin that Washington will always side with Ankara if the American-Turkish strategic relationship requires this. Now the Syrian Kurds will pay a horrific price unless they form an alliance with Damascus and Moscow.

12. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal Al Miqdad

Syrian Deputy FM Dr Faisal al-Miqdad to separatist Kurdish militias:

” Do not throw yourselves to perdition “

The Deputy Minister of Expatriates and Foreign Affairs Dr. Faisal al-Miqdad has reiterated that Syria will never ever accept the occupation of any inch of its territories, calling on the separatist Kurdish militias not to throw themselves to perdition.

“Once again, we say to those who lost everything: DO NOT LOSE YOURSELVES. The homeland welcomes all its citizens and we want to resolve all the Syrian problems in a positive way and far away from violence with preserving every inch of the country,” al-Miqdad said in a statement to the Damascus-based al-Watan.

He affirmed that the homeland’s fate cannot be manipulated. “The Syrian state won’t accept anything less than the liberation of its total area, 185.000 square kilometer . They have to understand that.”

“Anyone who is not loyal to his country and sells it at the lowest price, he/she will find themselves thrown out of the history. We have warned for many times of these conspiracies against the homeland and the Syrian people, and we said that those who throw themselves into the lap of the foreigner, the foreign will kick them out when the time is right,” al-Miqdad said.

He underscored that the US is being defeated all over the world and Syria will defend its territories.

Syria Times.

13. What does the US military draw down mean for Syria.

14. Why creating Kurdistan would be wrong

15. Aleksandr Kharchenko – ANNA News reporter and on-the-ground observer.

Erdogan’s cunning plan or about a new turn in the Syrian conflict

Syria resembles an expensive and endless serial. There was everything here: tragedies, exploits, and fantastic plot twists. Tell me honestly, did anyone believe in the summer of 2015 that most of the country would again be controlled by the legitimate government? Even those who fought at the forefront, in private conversations, admitted that they did not believe in the final victory. … And now in 2019, few doubt that in the foreseeable future Syria will again become a single state without terrorism and terrorists.

On October 7, Donald Trump turned over the chessboard of the Syrian conflict again, stated that American troops would leave the northern parts of Syria and actually would give the Turks green light on their operation to establish a “Security Zone” in the north of the country. We already heard something like that at the end of last year, but apart from loud statements, then no real actions followed. Has the situation really changed? And now what to expect from the Syrian conflict?

The beginning of the Turkish operation can be expected from day to day. Most likely, it will begin with the destruction of Kurdish fortifications. For it, aviation and artillery should work actively for several days. Then, from the Kobani side and somewhere near Al-Hasakah, the ground part of the operation will begin. The “pro-Turkish squads”, which the Turks have concentrated on their territory since July, will go into attack.

Today even the approximate number of Turkish proxies was announced – 15,000 people. The Turkish armed forces will go behind them, providing fire support and storming the most fortified places of Kurdish defense. Actually, we saw it near al-Bab and in Afrin.

Such tactics will be extremely effective. The Turkish side has repeatedly stated that these territories will become a new home for the millions of Syrian refugees who now live in Turkey. If translated into simple language, then pro-Turkish groups will fight for their new homes. There is no doubt that Turkey will control these territories through militants who participated in the seizure of territories. The more groups capture, the more significant preferences they will receive in these territories in the future.

The Kurds will certainly provide fierce resistance. Few imagine the real size of the assistance that the United States has provided to its allies over the years. (every two weeks there were reports of hundreds of trucks entering the Syrian territory) From personal experience, I can say that Kurdish at the same level of personal small arms, like the regular Turkish army. During the few meetings with Kurdish militias I mentioned an abundance of modern night vision scopes and thermal vision scope. The M-4 and M-16 rifles were marked with stigmas about the belonging of this weapon to the US government …. In addition to small arms, anti-tank weapons were transferred to the Kurdish self-defense, it’s hard to say whether they have “Javelins”, but the abundance of TOW – 2 complexes in warehouses is practically beyond doubt, plus all this time the Kurds were actively purchasing weapons from other sides to the conflict, therefore hundreds of old Soviet ATGMs in addition to hundreds of American missiles – these are very real numbers ….

This operation for the Turks and their proxies will be extremely difficult, because it will take place on the plains, where a large number of armored vehicles will meet with an abundance of anti-tank missiles, and in addition, the Kurds have not leave the idea of building their own state, in Rojava they are now closest to their ideals, so they will fight till the end …. But do not underestimate the Turkish side. Ultimately, absolute dominance in the air will play a role, and the Kurds will be forced to move south, beyond the line that Trump and Erdogan have agreed on among themselves.



The big question for me personally will be the situation of the Syrian garrisons in Al-Hasakah and Al Qamishli. And if the Syrian government had neutral relations with the Kurds, and clashes occurred quite often, it’s hard to even imagine how the fate of the Syrian soldiers will turn out, when instead of neutral Kurds they will be surrounded by openly hostile militants of the “Free Syrian Army” who only recently suffered a crushing defeat near Khan Shaykhun… Perhaps the status of the Syrian garrisons will be about the same as the status of the Turkish observation post near Murek … scenarios could be different, in any case, the Syrians are certainly not going to leave their positions no matter what “security zone.”



The American soldiers have already begun to leave their bases in the north of the country, but the question remains of their presence in the south of Syria. Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to return all the soldiers to his homeland, but he constantly met with serious opposition to his intentions. And there are two main reasons: the first is in southern Syria in Deir ez-Zor and al-Tanf US soldiers are present mainly to stop Iranian influence in this region, because Iraq is nearby, and the border was taken under the control of Iranian proxies. Recently, an Al-Bukamal border crossing has even been officially opened, opening a direct road from Iran to Lebanon. And this is a direct threat to the security of Israel, and the Jewish state, of course, will turn on its full lobbying opportunities on Capitol Hill, cooling off another rush of the expressive president of the United States.

The second reason is the oil of Deir ez-Zor.

The possession of the largest oil field gives the American intelligence enormous opportunities. Controlling oil flows, they independently finance their programs in this region, without resorting to money from the United States, which largely unties their hands, since they do not have to answer for the extra dollars spent. Well, do not forget that another American goal to create a fuel crisis on the government side. At the beginning of this year, all oil supplies from the Kurdish territories were severely stopped, sometimes even vehicles carrying smuggled oil were even destroyed.

Together with the naval blockade of Syria, this had a serious effect and the cost of gasoline on the black market doubled…. And besides, in the cold months it became extremely difficult to get any kind of fuel, which undoubtedly strangles the already destroyed Syrian economy. Thus, the full exit of the Americans from Syria is not the immediate prospect. In my opinion the US base near the at-Tanf crossing is a litmus test. If in the near future the American troops will be withdrawn from there, then the remaining formations from the eastern coast of the Euphrates will also follow it …

New agreement between Trump and Erdogan is a trap for the Erdogan. Judge for yourselves, the Americans participated in an attempt to overthrow the Turkish president in 2016. Then this attempt failed. Now the Turkish leader has an extremely difficult domestic political situation, in order to maintain his status, he needs decisive action and a quick result. But what if formally, having agreed to Turkey’s operation in northern Syria, the Americans would withdraw their troops, but at the same time turn on the supply channels of Kurdish militia at full capacity? Then Turkey will have to get bogged down in Rojava’s adventure and opponents of Erdogan inside the country can take advantage of this ….

But how will the Turkish campaign affect the Idlib zone? It is no secret that this region has become a cradle for pro-Turkish squads. Turkey send here green buses with one goal – to integrate FSA groups around itself, and force them to fulfill their orders. Just before the operation, the National Army was created. More than two dozen different “moderate” squads were included there, who elected a single command and proclaimed their goal to be a struggle for democracy…. Members of these groups will now be sent to northern Syria to do the dirtiest work, paving the way for Turkish interests in northern Syria, respectively, powerful reserves will be withdrawn from the Idlib zone. Does this mean that the Syrian army will take advantage of the situation and immediately hit its weakened enemy?



In my opinion, government troops will stand during the Turkish operation. This will be necessary so that the militants do not even allow the thought that while they are at war, their villages are captured by Syrian troops. This can be regarded as a stab in the back from their Turkish patrons. Well, after the seizure of the northern territories, the Turkish proxies will have new houses where they can transfer their families and the relevance of Idlib’s defense will decrease somewhat.



Do not forget that in September of last year, the leaders of Russia and Turkey agreed that the M-4 and M-5 highways passing through Idlib province would be open again for civilian vehicles. To date, this arrangement has not been put into practice. The recovery of the Syrian economy is directly dependent on the free movement of goods along these routes, and the main opponents of this deal were the radical groups. They have long fulfilled the main function. With their hands it was planned to demolish the Syrian regime, and then they were to be replaced by moderate oppositionists. As we see, the Syrian government still remains in place, and the presence of terrorists in Idlib actually untie the hands of Russia and Syria in conducting operations in Idlib, since all agreements reached do not apply to the terrorists groups.



In addition, dissatisfaction with terrorist groups is growing in opposition territories. Since September last year, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has been conducting a wide campaign, during which she convinced the residents of Idlib that only they can stop the government troops. The results of these arrogant statements are perfectly visible on the map of Syria. The militants during the summer campaign not only lost a huge piece of territory, but by the beginning of September, a united front simply ceased to exist … the Syrian army could easily march into Maarrat al-Nu’man… but it was stopped thanks to the titanic diplomatic efforts of western governments.

Therefore, people in Idlib already understand that religious radicals are a toxic asset that needs to be disposed of as soon as possible, since they are not able to protect these territories from the Syrian government, and it is precisely the radicals that are an indisputable pretext for launching a new offensive deeper into Idlib. Turkey understand it and now they are making considerable efforts to solve this problem.



The participation of various groups in the Turkish operation in northern Syria is an actual pass to the stage of political settlement of the conflict. Those who helped Turkey will subsequently be admitted to negotiations on the future of the Syrian state. Who denied this offer will be destroyed in the foreseeable future by the Syrian troops. After the end of the Turkish campaign, the Syrian war machine will move and it will finally be able to take control over the M-4 and M-5 highways. It is unlikely that the capital of the Idlib province will be freed. Idlib is not a large town, and besides, it locate far from the M-4 and M-5 highways. Control over the highways is much more important than owning a small town. The control of the “moderate opposition” over Idlib is even more preferable for the future political process than its liberation. It will be much easier for the «opposition leaders» to convince the militants that this is not surrender, it is peace negotiations, because the main stronghold of the “Syrian revolution” was never taken by Syrian forces.

In any case, the separation of groups according to the levels of moderation, which has been talked about for many years, can happen in the near future. And the one who cannot fit into the future political process must undoubtedly disappear from the face of the earth …. Everything happens according to the laws of evolution – you couldn’t adapt to the changing environment (didn’t change color, didn’t get rid of too long claws and old skin) and that’s all, you will certainly be destroyed by more perspicacious individuals. And that means only one thing. The battles in Syria will continue, and we will make new first-class materials for our viewers.

16. Whitney Webb for Mint Press News – New agreement between Kurds and Assad could spell end for US role in Syria. (July 2018)

For the U.S.-allied Kurds in the northeast of Syria, the Dara’a offensive is a strong indication that the U.S. is hardly a dependable ally. Particularly after the Kurds lost the city of Afrin after the U.S. failed to aid the YPG in repelling a Turkish offensive earlier this year, many Kurds felt “betrayed” by the U.S. and began to question the YPG-U.S. alliance outright. Now, with the U.S. failing to protect its allies elsewhere in Syria, the Kurds seem to have all the indications they need that the U.S. is unlikely to offer them military protection against the Turks or the Syrian government.

The new agreement between the Kurds and the Syrian government is a major indication that U.S. influence in Syria is quickly waning and that its control over Northeastern Syria could soon be lost. Though the Trump administration seems to have accepted that it is only a matter of time until it is ousted from Syria, rumored efforts by the U.S. to deepen its involvement in the country — such as by using a false-flag chemical weapons attack as pretext — could throw a wrench into the Syrian government’s efforts to restore Syria’s territorial integrity and prevent the long-standing, U.S.-backed goal of partitioning Syria.

17. The Israeli support for the Kurdish cause – Iraq and Syria.

The Jewish Coalition for Kurdistan

The Brussels-based Jewish Coalition for Kurdistan (JCFK) counts Dershowitz and Cotler among its pro-Israel members. The JCFK website declares its mission to support independence for Iraqi Kurdistan:

The Jewish Coalition for Kurdistan is committed to deepening friendship between the Jewish and Kurdish people worldwide, and supporting the further development and consolidation of relations between Kurdistan and the State of Israel, the only two democratic and pro-Western societies in the Middle East.” (emphasis added)

This project brings Cotler and Dershowitz into alliance with Bernard Henri Levy, a French-Jewish philosopher with a deadly reputation for fomenting and supporting neocolonialist projects around the world, but perhaps most notoriously in Libya. Levy has been a long-time supporter of Kurdish “independence.”

While it would take a separate article to fully explore the neoconservative weaponization of Kurdish independence to weaken, destabilize and partition target states, including Syria, Iraq and Iran, the involvement of these three empire builders in the “cause” and the marketing of Kurdistan as the other “democratic and pro-Western society” in the Middle East must indicate the direction in which this campaign is heading: the balkanization of the Middle East.

Vanessa Beeley for Mint Press News

18. Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad, warns Kurds

What the so-called “SDF” don’t know, is that the U.S attempted to use them as a bargaining card with the Syrian government, and the Syrian government had warned them multiple times that no one will protect them but the Syrian Arab Army.

The refused all efforts of reconciliation with the Syrian Government, then called upon the Syrian Military to go to war to protect them all while they are openly attempting to annex regions of Syria.

The solution is simple and clear, all those who surrender their weapons will be protected by SAA. Let’s remember who stopped the Turks at al-Bab, who stopped the Turks from Khan Sheikhon, and who liberate its lands regardless of Turkish military presence or not.

Ultimately, every inch of Syria will be liberated, but Syria will not go to war to protect those who declared their open hostility toward SAA, and their plans to annex parts of Syria to create their so-called own state.

Syrian Arab Army page on Facebook

19. Sarah Abed – A History of Violence: Towards a US Sponsored Kurdistan in Syria

The Myth of the Moderate Kurdish Rebel

Kurdish complicity in Armenian genocide

The Armenian genocide was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacres and subjection of army conscripts to forced labor, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and the infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian desert. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre.

Other indigenous and Christian ethnic groups, such as the Assyrians and the Ottoman Greeks, were similarly targeted for extermination by the Ottoman government in the Assyrian genocide and the Greek genocide, and their treatment is considered by some historians to be part of the same genocidal policy that targeted the Armenians. Most Armenian diaspora communities around the world came into being as a direct result of the genocide.

In the eastern provinces, the Armenians were subject to the whims of their Turkish and Kurdish neighbors, who would regularly overtax them, subject them to brigandage and kidnapping, force them to convert to Islam, and otherwise exploit them without interference from central or local authorities.

Egged on by their Ottoman rulers, Kurdish tribal chieftains raped, murdered and pillaged their way through the southeastern provinces where for centuries they had co-existed, if uneasily, with the Armenians and other non-Muslims. Henry Morgenthau, who served as U.S. Ambassador in Constantinople at the height of the bloodshed, described the Kurds’ complicity in his chilling 1918 memoir Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story:

“The Kurds would sweep down from their mountain homes. Rushing up to the young girls, they would lift their veils and carry the pretty ones off to the hills. They would steal such children as pleased their fancy and mercilessly rob all the rest of the throng…While they were committing these depredations, the Kurds would freely massacre, and the screams of women and old men would add to the general horror.”

***