Kurds

The Syrian Army on Thursday told residents of Kurdish neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo to evacuate in the face of airstrikes.

Syrian security forces used gunfire on Tuesday to disperse feuding groups of protesters in Latakia, a coastal town in the area dominated by the once-influential, but now persecuted, Alawite religious minority.

Three Syrian security personnel and a Druze fighter were reportedly killed on Sunday in renewed clashes across the southern province of Sweida, while the Kurdish-led, U.S.-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it fought against government troops in the northern province of Aleppo.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani visited Moscow on Thursday, the first visit to Russia by a high-ranking official of the Syrian “interim government” since Russia-backed dictator Bashar Assad was overthrown in December.

The Iranian theocracy was utterly humiliated by Israel and the United States during what President Donald Trump christened the “12-Day War,” and reports indicated this week that the regime is unsurprisingly taking out its frustrations on its own people.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday brushed aside the demands of Syrian Kurds for partial autonomy under a decentralized Syrian government as “nothing more than a dream.” The junta currently in control of Damascus was also unreceptive to Kurdish ambitions for independence.

Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the jihadist terror organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), announced the installment of a formal, 23-person cabinet in which his close HTS allies took the top positions but Christians, Kurds, and Alawites obtained some minor representation. 

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the jihadist terror organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), signed into law a “constitutional declaration” that imposes an Islamist “temporary” constitution on the country intended to create a legal framework that allows it to function while its new rulers rebuild from the civil war.

Syria’s “interim president” Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday created a seven-member committee to draft a new national constitution.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist terror group that has been fighting a violent insurgency against the Turkish government since 1984, announced a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday.

Outlawed Kurdish terrorists on Saturday declared a ceasefire with Turkey following a landmark call by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan asking the group to disband and end more than four decades of armed struggle.

Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly a high-ranking al-Qaeda leader, said on Tuesday that the one-day “national dialogue summit” he presided over was a “historic” chance for Syria to rebuild after more than a decade of brutal civil war and terrorist insurgency.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al-Qaeda boss who became the “transitional” president of Syria after ousting dictator Bashar Assad, is reportedly looking for a joint defense pact with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The jihadi regime ruling Syria after overthrowing the Assad dynasty in December dispatched its foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday to seek foreign investment for their war-torn and terrorist-haunted land.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Kurdish militias in Syria on Wednesday to either lay down their arms or be “buried.” On the same day, the Turkish military said it killed 21 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq – including members of the People’s Defense Units (YPG), the leading Syrian Kurdish force allied with the United States against the Islamic State.

Syrian Kurds find themselves in a difficult position after the fall of dictator Bashar Assad, as Islamists seize power in Damascus and Turkey seeks to carve out a slice of Syrian territory along its border.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is urging governments to rescind their terrorist designations of Syrian insurgents Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Western powers, including the United States, are tentatively opening lines of communication to the new rulers of Syria — an alliance of Islamists led by an al-Qaeda splinter group whose boss is, inconveniently, a designated terrorist with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia allied with America, confirmed on Monday that a short-lived truce with Islamist Turkish proxies in the country had collapsed due to Turkey’s intransigence.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a brief visit to Turkey on Friday to meet with Islamist strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his counterpart Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, intended to discuss the collapse of the Assad dynasty in Syria and the ongoing war between Israel and the genocidal jihadists of Hamas.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will begin a brief trip to the Middle East on Wednesday with stops in Jordan and Turkey.

The Syrian National Army (SNA), a Turkish proxy force in the neighboring country, captured the Kurdish-held city of Manbij, the Kurdish outlet Rudaw confirmed on Tuesday, a day before Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) claimed to take the city of Deir ez-Zor.

Syrian rebels who overthrew the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday are reportedly executing their opponents, imposing Islamic sharia law, and threatening non-Muslim minorities, including the Kurdish population in the north.

Russia’s top Kremlin spokesman confirmed on Monday that strongman Vladimir Putin made the ultimate decision to grant political asylum to former Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad and his family.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday urged the al-Qaeda-linked jihadi rebels who toppled Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to consider teaming up with Turkish forces against the Kurds.

The foreign minister of Iran traveled to Baghdad on Friday for a meeting to discuss, alongside his Iraqi and Syrian counterparts, how to address the surging campaign by Sunni jihadists to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

oth Kurdish forces in Syria and humanitarian organizations on the ground warned this week that militias backed by Turkey are seizing territory in northern Syria and endangering Kurdish civilians, including potentially engaging in “ethnic cleansing.”

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed Syrian militia group led by Syrian Kurdish forces, said on Tuesday that its fighters clashed with Syrian government troops and took control of seven villages near Deir al-Zor, potentially opening a new front against the regime of dictator Bashar Assad.

The Syrian National Army (SNA), a militia formerly known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) with ties to Turkey, began attacking Kurdish forces in Aleppo province, Syria, this weekend after the jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) laid siege to the city of Aleppo, reportedly ousting the forces of dictator Bashar Assad.

British counter-terror officers arrested six people as part of an investigation into activity linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan on Thursday invited President-elect Donald Trump to visit his country and discuss various topics of mutual interest, including the war in Gaza, which Erdogan wants Trump to “stop” by applying more pressure against Israel.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spent over half of his very lengthy address to the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday criticizing Israel for its war against the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah. Erdogan accused the Israelis of genocide, compared them to Nazi Germany, and demanded the U.N. authorize “coercive measures against Israel” to halt the war in Gaza.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday he plans to invite Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to visit Ankara and mend relations that were strained by Turkey’s support for rebel groups during the long and bloody Syrian civil war.