PKK

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.

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.

An angry mob featuring a member of Turkey’s Islamist ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) attempted to beat and “lynch” secular opposition party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu during a soldier’s funeral Sunday.

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.

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.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to meet with U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton before he departed Ankara on Tuesday, claiming a scheduling conflict but assailing Bolton’s defense of Syrian Kurdish militias in remarks the same day.

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 European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday urged Turkey to release pro-Kurdish opposition party leader Selahattin Demirtas from detention.

A Turkish court ruled to free Pastor Andrew Brunson on Friday after two years of detention on Friday. He is reportedly on his way home to North Carolina.

A Turkish court on Friday ruled in favor of releasing American Pastor Andrew Brunson nearly two years after Turkish authorities arrested him on charges of terrorism.

A Turkish court on Tuesday ruled against American pastor Andrew Brunson’s appeal to be released from house arrest.

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.

Turkey denounced the embargo imposed by its NATO ally the United States on state sponsor of terror Iran as a “mistake,” arguing that America “does not have the right” to force other countries to implement its unilateral decision,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) on Friday.

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.”

Turkey has launched a major military surge against the terrorist Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, where Ankara has already set up 11 regional bases and doubled its military footprint, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim declared over the weekend.

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.

The resumption of the trail in a Turkish Court on Monday where an American pastor faces 35 years in prison for his alleged ties to terrorism ended after one day, with the judge dismissing all of the witness testimony in support of Andrew Brunson and left him behind bars until the next hearing in July.

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.

The alt-left extremist organisation Antifascist Action, or Antifa, has taken credit for the firebombing of a Turkish mosque in the German city of Kassel.

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.

ANKARA, Turkey — Six Turkish security forces were killed on Friday after an attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern province of Siirt in Turkey, local officials said.

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.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis asserted on Tuesday that the government of Turkey is correct to be concerned about Kurdish factions in Sinjar, Iraq, where they participated in eradicating the Islamic State amid an attempting suicide of the majority-Yazidi population there.

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.

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.

Contents: Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board overwhelmed by migrants crossing border from US; Turkey achieves victory in Afrin, Syria, but Kurds threaten guerilla war

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com Concerns grow of humanitarian disaster in Afrin, Syria, as Turkey’s forces enter Silence from North Korea puts Kim-Trump summit in doubt Concerns grow of humanitarian disaster in Afrin, Syria, as Turkey’s forces enter Syrians