Morning Star.png Playing With Fire In Syria Editorial, The Morning Star, London, 15 February 2016 Turkey's shelling of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces at Menagh air base in Aleppo province marks a dramatic escalation of outside interference in the Syrian conflict. It may herald an even more dangerous twist with a substantial incursion into northern Syria by Turkey and its Saudi allies. Both countries, along with Qatar, have been up to their necks in the military campaign to drive out President Bashar al-Assad and replace Syria's secular regime with a theocratic dictatorship. They have recruited, funded, armed and trained thousands of jihadi zealots from dozens of countries, inserting them into north-west Syria through the Turkish border to attack Aleppo, Idlib and other targets. Ankara has had longstanding twin obsessions - Assad's removal and opposition to Kurdish self-determination. Assad regime weakness led to its acceptance that the country's Kurdish minority should have autonomy in areas where they predominate from Afrin in the west to the Iraq border. This was a red rag to a bull to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan whose armed forces have launched a brutal crackdown on Kurdish areas in south-east Turkey. Establishment of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria, known as Rojava (the West) and led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), with its own People's Protection Units armed forces (YPG) is a nightmare for Erdogan. The PYD is closely allied with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which sees Rojava as a step forward for its own struggle for autonomy within Turkey. When the Isis death cult laid siege to the Syrian Kurdish town Kobane, Erdogan closed the border to Turkish Kurds seeking to help the defenders, agreeing only, on insistence by Washington, to allow small specialist units of Iraqi Kurds, with whom Ankara has good relations, to cross into Syria. Erdogan is no longer willing to listen to what the US says publicly. He has delivered ultimatums to the YPG, which recently captured the Menagh air base from al-Qaida-linked forces with Russian air support and is advancing east towards the key town of Azaz, ordering it to abandon its gains. The government's Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is also pressing north towards Tal Rifaat, which is currently held by the al-Qaida ally Jabhat al-Nusra, Turkmen jihadists and various other Islamist groups. Whoever dominates the Azaz corridor controls access to the Turkish border, which, in the event of YPG and SAA advances, could deliver a body blow to the "rebel" forces sponsored by Ankara and Riyadh. They are also sustained by the CIA, which illustrates strategic incoherence in Washington since the Obama administration gives concrete backing for the PYD and its YPG fighters. PYD has acquired flavour-of-the-month status by being supported too by Moscow where a representative office for Syrian Kurds was opened on Thursday. Turkish shelling of areas taken by YPG has inflicted casualties, but it will not alone prevent action by Damascus and the Kurds to capture the Azaz corridor. Nor would it be the prime target should Turkey and Saudi Arabia make good on their threats to send land forces into Syria. More likely is a drive towards Raqqa, complete with anti-Isis rhetoric, to forestall an offensive by Damascus, which, having covered its back in the north west, would be better placed to defeat Isis. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond "demands" that Russia end military support for Assad, but this would give a free hand to jihadist-supporting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. Syria must not be condemned to the fate of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, where state institutions were destroyed by outside military intervention. Plans to destroy or balkanise the Syrian state must be frustrated even if it means egg on the faces of Western politicians who nailed their colours to the "Assad must go" mast. From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-5b19-Playing-with-fire-in-Syria#.VsFN2_ l9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
