Turkey Warns U.S., Russia Against Backing Kurdish Militia In Syria

[Purveyor]

Source: Reuters

Turkey has warned the United States and Russia it will not tolerate Kurdish territorial gains by Kurdish militia close to its frontiers in north-western Syria, two senior officials said.

"This is clear cut for us and there is no joking about it," one official said of the possibility of Syrian Kurdish militia crossing the Euphrates to extend control along Turkish borders from Iraq's Kurdistan region towards the Mediterranean coast.

Turkey fears advances by Kurdish YPG militia, backed by its PYD political wing, on the Syrian side of its 900 km (560-mile) border will fuel separatist ambitions among Kurds in its own southeastern territories. But Washington has supported YPG fighters as an effective force in combating Islamic State.

"The PYD has been getting closer with both the United States and Russia of late. We view the PYD as a terrorist group and we want all countries to consider the consequences of their cooperation," one of the Turkish officials said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/13/us-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey-idUSKCN0S71BF20151013

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. Why are large countries so fixated on keeping parts manifestly

occupied for a long time by others. They could be just good neighbours, and everybody would be happy.

Maybe that's simplistic, but I don't think multiculturalism works; although a shared religious culture should be a big positive. Colour ought not be a problem, either, though it evidently isn't here.

[uawchild]

2. oh?

but but the Kurds are the only secular sunnis willing and able to fight ISIS !?! Why is Turkey, our NATO ally, telling us who we can help in SYRIA?

We are running out of moderate rebels, at this rate we'll have to start backing the mujahideen like we did in Afghanistan. Oh, wait, ISIS are the mujahideen.

[daleo]

3. One country's moderate rebel

Is another country's immoderate terrorist. It was ever thus. Pretty soon, we will be drawing straws, figuring out which is which. The main thing is that you get to sell a lot of weapons and keep a hornet's nest stirred up. That seems to be the goal for a lot of the outside parties.

[FairWinds]

4. Isis could not persist without . .

supply lines through our "ally" Turkey's territory.

They are apparently using isis to fight the Kurds.

Something is very wrong here.

[Jesus Malverde]

5. I mean if there is one case of moderate rebels the Kurds are it.

Screw turkey. Destroy the jihadists and their supporters.

[roamer65]

6. Erdogan is a Neo-Ottoman.

He believes that Turkey's borders should again resemble the Ottoman Empire. That means they see large chunks of Syria and Iraq as theirs.

The coming war will involve regional powers Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and eventually Israel. il also think Jordan will fall prey to the conflict as well.

To stay out of it, we may have to kick Turkey out of NATO. But I doubt we will and we will get sucked in to a role similar to Russia's.

[bemildred]

7. It certainly would be "interesting" if Turkey went after those Iranian forces in Syria.

Which they might, if it looks like Assad's forces were going to take Aleppo.
Erdogan has plans for Aleppo.
I assume NATO would allow them to proceed on their own, if they did.

[King_Klonopin]

8. It seems more and more that this entire region is beyond repair.

it has more twists than a barrel of pretzels (attribute to J.J. Hunsecker)

Russia vs U.S., ISIS, Kurds, Syrian rebels, Ukraine, Israel
ISIS vs anyone not in agreement with their insane theocracy
Turkey vs ISIS and Kurds
Syria vs the rebels, Israel and the U.S.,
Iran vs U.S., Israel, Iraq and rebels,
Iraq (a total mess) Sunni vs Shia vs Kurd vs the U.S. vs Iran
Lebanon and Palestine (Hamas, Hezbollah) vs Israel and/or the U.S.
Israel vs everybody, except the U.S. (most of the time)
Saudi Arabia vs anyone's guess
The United States vs Russia, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Yemen
Sunnis vs Shiites
Kurds vs the Sunnis and Shiites

The Wild Cards:
Afghanistan and the Taliban
Pakistan
Libya
Egypt

What could possibly fix this friggin nightmare?

WW III, coming to a theater near you.