The Shiite-led Iraqi government is trying to force a demographic change in 500 Kurdish villages across northern Iraq’s disputed Kirkuk province, arming and resettling thousands of Shiite Arabs in the region, a Kurdish mayor reportedly claimed this week.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) killed the head of a village and three farmers in the most recent attacks in northern Iraq’s Kirkuk province, a testament to the menace posed by the jihadist organization six months after Baghdad declared final victory over it, Kurdistan 24 learned from an anonymous source this week.
The government of Turkey issued a blanket decree Sunday firing 18,632 state employees for unspecified “links with terror groups” and has increased the number of arrests for “insulting the president” ahead of the inauguration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Monday.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in a speech Monday marking his victory in a landmark election that granted him sweeping new executive powers, pledged to continue Ankara’s military offensive to remove the U.S.-allied Kurds from power in northern Syria.
The major opposition candidates in Turkey’s presidential election, scheduled for June 24, have launched campaigns against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and have strategically avoided targeting each other, instead spending much of the week condemning Erdogan’s moves towards an Islamist dictatorship.
The second-in-command for Turkey’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) told Kurdish news outlet Rudaw on Tuesday that the group would likely offer the country’s deputy presidency to a Kurd.
The Turkish military announced Monday that Turkish soldiers, accompanied by American counterparts, began “independent patrols” in Manbij, Syrian Kurdistan, where Ankara spent months threatening an invasion against local Kurdish forces.
Presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) gave a remarkable campaign speech to Turkish voters on Sunday. His supporters say Demirtas is the only real challenger to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, even though Demirtas is running with a rather large handicap: he is in jail.
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) confirmed on Tuesday that it reached an agreement with Turkey to pull the American-allied Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), deemed “terrorists’ by Ankara, from the northern Syrian city of Manbij, arguing that the move will “reduce tensions.”
The Trump administration this week refuted news reports claiming the U.S. had reached an agreement with Turkey on a plan for the withdrawal of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from Syria’s Manbij.
Syrian dictator Bashar Assad gave an interview to Russia’s RT television on Thursday in which he said the United States is “losing its cards” on the civil war battlefield and must withdraw all forces from his country or risk a conflict with the Syrian military and Russian forces.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said on Tuesday that it is “completely inconceivable to return Afrin back to the control of the Syrian regime” after Turkey invaded the northern border region in January.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed over the weekend to launch new military operations in Syria similar to its previous offensives that targeted U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters he considers to be terrorists.
Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish officials met with Iranian counterparts this week as Tehran makes a bid to convince the Kurds to abandon their relationship with the United States.
Turkey is expected to give an al-Qaeda-affiliated group known as the al-Rahman Corps the police command of the Afrin region in Syria along with authority to impose Sharia, or strict Islamic laws, on the residents, which include members of the persecuted Yazidi and Christian minorities, a monitor group revealed over the weekend.
The pro-Kurdish, anti-Islamist People’s Democratic Party (HDP) may run its imprisoned former co-chair, Selahattin Demirtaş, as a candidate against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in elections scheduled for June.
A Turkish court ordered the continued detention of American Pastor Andrew Brunson on Monday, deeming him a flight risk and placing him in what advocates call an “extremely grim” prison on charges of having used his Christian sermons to promote Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Andrew Brunson, a Protestant pastor who has led a mission and church in western Turkey for more than two decades, appeared in Turkish court on Monday facing terror-related charges.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson challenged anyone supporting American military action in Syria to define what U.S. interests there might be. The answer is fairly simple.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refuted remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the world expects Turkey to hand northern Afrin, Syria, to the Assad regime as soon as possible, replying Tuesday that the affairs of the Turkish military are “up to us, not to Mr. Lavrov.”
Turkey is reportedly expected to enhance financial and medical support to factions from one of its top allies, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), as the rebel group continues to participate in Ankara’s offensive against U.S.-allied Kurds in northern Syria.
The Iraqi security troops rekindled their relationship with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces this week as Iraq faces an Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) resurgence.
The United States is contemplating boosting its military footprint in northern Syria where America’s NATO partner Turkey is on the brink of seizing more territory from U.S.-allied Kurds.
President Donald Trump may about to throw the Kurds under the bus – and with them, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and American interests in the Middle East.
Tensions between Turkey and France over French support for Syrian Kurds turned profoundly ugly on Friday, as Turkish officials including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened France with terrorist warfare as a consequence of its actions.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Iraq that his military would “do what it necessary” and attack Sinjar, site of the Islamic State’s Yazidi genocide, if Baghdad did not occupy the area and forcibly expel Kurdish forces there.
Turkey insists it has reached an agreement to work with the United States to bring the fight to Manbij, Syria, as part of its post-Afrin efforts to expand its aggressive military operation to other Kurdish-held areas further east and into Iraq if necessary.
Turkish President Reccip Erdogan has revealed that he will instruct his forces to invade the Iraqi province of Sinjar if it remains a Kurdish stronghold.
Turkey-linked jihadists from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and al-Qaeda are taking advantage of the Ankara offensive in the besieged Afrin region in northwestern Syria to slaughter Christians and Yazidis, caution several activists.
The Turkish government entered Afrin city this week, the main population center of the eponymous Syrian Kurdish province, fueling fears of artificially imposed “demographic change” meant to displace local Kurds and replace them with Arabs and Turkmen.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu claimed on Wednesday that Turkey wants its military operation against Syrian Kurds to end as soon as possible, preferably before May, so that the Afrin region can “quickly embrace stability and civilians can return.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu confirmed on Thursday that Ankara is preparing for a new military operation in Iraq, backed by the government in Baghdad, against the Marxist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group.
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily to talk about the legal battle over California’s “sanctuary cities” for illegal aliens, a possible trade war with China, chaos in Syria, and North Korea’s offer to discuss denuclearization.
Kurdish and Arab fighters have abandoned the U.S.-backed fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) to help their friends and families repel a Turkish offensive reportedly assisted by Syrian rebels seeking to take revenge on the Kurds.
Contents: US-backed Kurds stop fighting ISIS in order to fight Turkey in Afrin; Reports of Free Syrian Army atrocities on Kurds in Afrin; Mahmoud Abbas may step down as Palestinian Authority president
