Kurds - Page 7

The change in U.S. policy in Syria that triggered a media storm on Monday involves the redeployment of fewer than 25 troops from the Turkish border to elsewhere in Syria, a State Department official was quoted as saying.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Monday praised President Donald Trump for his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, stating the move shows the president continues to fulfill his “promises” to end “endless wars.” “I stand with @realDonaldTrump today

On Monday’s broadcast of ABC’s ‘The View” co-host Meghan McCain criticized Republicans who were silent after President Donald Trump’s announcement U.S. troops will withdraw from northern Syria where they have been fighting with Kurdish forces.

President Donald Trump on Monday defended his administration’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops out of northern Syria and warned Turkey that he will “totally destroy and obliterate” if it engages in activities deemed “off limits” in the war-torn country.

“The endless and ridiculous wars are ENDING!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “We will be focused on the big picture, knowing we can always go back & BLAST!”

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) on Monday condemned President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops in northern Syria, stating the move is a “betrayal” of the Kurds.

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed President Donald Trump on Monday over an agreement with Turkey Sunday to withdraw from Kurdish-held portions of Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused French President Emmanuel Macron of “defaming Turkey” in a speech this week in which he reportedly defended a free media in Turkey and urged Ankara to take in more migrants.

Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday to either impose global nuclear disarmament or establish laws that allow any nation to develop nuclear weapons, as the status quo breeds “inequality.”

The United States will not allow NATO member Turkey to attack U.S.-allied Kurds in Syria, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper declared this week.

Turkey has renewed plans to launch a military operation against the U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters who helped the United States defeat the Islamic State’s (ISIS/ISIL) territorial caliphate, the Turkish president announced over the weekend.

Authorities in Iraq unearthed four mass graves in a desert in the southern part of their country with dozens of bodies believed to be Kurds massacred by forces loyal to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Voice of America (VOA) reported this week.

Syrian Kurdish authorities said on Wednesday they have repatriated two women who married Islamic State fighters and six children to the United States at the request of the U.S. government.

Turkish warplanes reportedly bombed a mosque in the Duhok province of the Kurdistan Region on Monday, even as Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was in the Kurdish capital of Erbil to discuss security issues and economic relations.

A community of Muslims who converted to Christianity over the brutality displayed by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) during its reign of terror is reportedly growing in the once-besieged border town of Kobani, Syria, where the terrorist group suffered its first major defeat, Reuters learned this week.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Moscow on Monday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss the increasingly close economic and strategic partnership between their countries.

The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday that Turkey and Iran carried out a joint operation against Kurdish separatist militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with full results yet to be announced. The operation was apparently conducted in the Qandil mountains of Iraq’s Irbil province, about 25 miles from the Turkish border.

Shanahan had a rocky meeting with U.S. senators at a security conference in Munich, Germany, that could jeopardize his chance to become permanent defense secretary.

A Canadian jihadi captured by U.S.-backed Syrian fighters in recent months after he traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS/ISI) in 2014 is now urging his government to repatriate him, complaining to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency on Sunday that the terrorist group has left him “hung out to dry.”

Leyla Guven, a Turkish parliamentarian from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), has been imprisoned for over a year and engaged in a hunger strike for the past 77 days.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Friday in what Graham described as an effort to defuse tensions between Turkey and the United States regarding the Syrian Kurds.

President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday to “devastate Turkey economically” if Turkish forces attack the Kurds in Syria after the United States withdraws.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said in a statement on Syria published Friday that he “looks forward” to soon meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia on Wednesday reported the capture of eight more foreigners fighting for the Islamic State, including a 16-year-old American identified as Soulay Noah Su.

“What’s he done for me? How has he done in Afghanistan? Not too good, not too good,” Trump said. “I’m not happy with what he’s done in Afghanistan, and I shouldn’t be happy.”

Kurdish news agencies report on Friday that a map of greater Kurdistan – featuring territory belonging to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria – no longer appears on Google Earth, replaced by a message stating that the map violated “our Terms of Service and/or policies.”

Erdogan’s empowerment in the framework of the U.S. withdrawal from Syria is by far the largest negative consequence of the move.

Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority [BTK], an agency overseeing mass media, confronted Google about the presence of a map detailing the borders of “Kurdistan” including Turkish territory, reports revealed on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump’s announcement he will withdraw U.S. forces from Syria because the Islamic State (ISIS) has largely been defeated accomplishes two things — neither of which is positive.

An “expert” quoted in Chinese state media Friday suggested that the U.S. presence in Syria was the only thing keeping the war from ending and that the distinct possibility now exists for the Syrian Civil War to become history.

Iran has intensified efforts to boost trade with northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to bypass crippling U.S. sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic this year, Rudaw reported Friday.

Time will tell whether Trump’s decision to remove U.S. forces from Syria was a prelude to disaster for U.S. allies and a boon for America’s enemies, or whether the opposite is the case. But what is clear enough is that move is not entirely negative.

The U.S. special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, used a speech at the Atlantic Council on Tuesday to describe American support for armed Kurdish groups in Syria as “transactional” and temporary.

The Pentagon on Wednesday urged Turkey to suspend its planned operation into territory in northeastern Syria controlled by Kurdish militias fighting the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) with the support of the United States.

The United States, in an effort to repair ties with NATO ally Turkey, offered up to $12 million in rewards this week for information on three senior members of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) terrorist group, a prime target of the current Turkish administration.

Turkey is “ready” to “trample” U.S.-backed Kurds in northern Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Tuesday.