The Turkish government continued its crackdown on criticism of “Operation Olive Branch,” Turkey’s invasion of Syria to attack Kurdish positions, by arresting 474 people for “promoting” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party of Turkey (PKK) and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) of Syria.
Contents: Israel’s F-16 warplane shot down in aftermath of downing Iranian drone; Turkish helicopter shot down in Afrin, days after Russian warplane downed in Idlib; With defeat of ISIS, war escalates, and Syria becomes more fragmented and chaotic
Jerusalem – Israel issued stark warnings on Sunday over Iran’s presence in neighbouring Syria after a confrontation threatened to open a new and unpredictable period in the country’s seven-year civil war.
Saturday morning’s violent clashes along the Israeli-Syria border between Israel on the one hand and Iran and Syrian regime forces on the other occurred against the backdrop of multiplying acts of war and violence between a seemingly endless roster of combatants.
U.S. Lt. Gen. Paul E. Funk assured reporters on a visit to Manbij, Syria, that American forces would not leave the northern city even if Turkish forces attack it. Asked about concerns that Turkey would come into direct conflict with U.S. troops, Funk said, “it’s not in my job description to worry, my job is to fight.”
One of the stranger aspects of the Super Bowl LII broadcast was the Turkish Airlines sign on the NBC Sports desk during the pre-game show.
Syrian Kurds have demanded the Turkish government be held responsible for a video surfacing showing Turkish-allied Free Syrian Army (FSA) combatants mutilating the body of a female Kurdish anti-jihadist fighter, stepping on her breasts, and taking selfies with her.
Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” military incursion into Syria has been conducted in concert with the Free Syrian Army, which has helped Turkish forces take control of several villages in the Afrin region.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called upon Turkey to end its military incursion into Syria as soon as possible because Turks, Kurds, and Syrians alike are being killed. He also chastised Turkey for failing to seek permission from the Syrian government before launching the operation.
WASHINGTON, DC — Russia urged Syrian Kurds to “hand over” the Afrin region to Moscow-backed dictator Bashar al-Assad “one day” before the ongoing Turkish assault on the territory, confirmed an official of the self-declared autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Syria.
The Middle Eastern outlet Kurdistan 24 interviewed Kurdish civilians in Afrin, northern Syria, who had taken to hiding in local caves from what the outlet called “heavy bombardment” of civilian areas by the Turkish military.
On Monday morning, Pope Francis received the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for a 50-minute meeting in the Vatican, in the midst of heightened security, with thousands of extra police officers in evidence throughout Rome.
A Russian pilot who ejected from his fighter jet after it was shot down in northwestern Syria on Saturday was killed by militants after he landed alive on the ground and resisted capture by an Al Qaeda-linked group, Syrian monitors and a Syrian militant said.
The Turkish government has a thin skin at the best of times, and it has been especially quick to silence critics since its invasion of Kurdish territory in Syria began, but a flamboyant televangelist named Adnan Oktar apparently feels comfortable waging a vigorous war of words with the Directorate of Religious Affairs, otherwise known as the Diyanet.
Syrian and Kurdish authorities have reportedly blamed Turkey’s Afrin offensive for blowing to bits 3,000-year-old lion sculptures that were part of the temple of Ain Dara in northern Syria.
Resistance at the hands of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has allegedly prevented Turkish troops from advancing into northern Syria’s Afrin region, reports Kurdistan 24.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs revealed on Tuesday that an estimated 15,000 civilians have fled Afrin, northern Syria, after the Turkish government launched an invasion of that city against the U.S.-allied Kurdish forces there.
President Donald Trump emphasized the importance of eradicating the Islamic State from the face of the earth during his first State of the Union address Tuesday night, taking credit for the group losing nearly 100 percent of its territory in Iraq and Syria.
Shocking footage released by the Pentagon shows a Russian fighter jet buzzing past a U.S. Navy spy plane flying through international airspace.
Turkey has attempted to secretly communicate with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG)-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to retrieve hundreds of killed Turkish soldiers as clashes between the Turks and Kurds continue in northern Syria’s Afrin region, reports the Kurdish outlet Bas News.
Contents: Russia’s Syria peace talks in Sochi dissolve into farce as Lavrov gets heckled; Russia sidelines the failed United Nations Syria peace process; War continues in full force, with Syria and Turkey killing ‘terrorists’
The latest round of Russia-sponsored talks to end the Syrian civil war got off to a bad start on Tuesday as some opposition groups boycotted the meeting entirely, others refused to get off their airplanes, and some of the delegates who actually made it to the meeting heckled Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his speech.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authoritarian crackdown on dissent from his war in Syria continued on Tuesday with the arrest of eleven members of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), who dared to issue a public denunciation of the ironically-named “Operation Olive Branch.”
Ismail Kahraman, Speaker for Turkey’s National Assembly, described his country’s military incursion against the Syrian Kurds as a “jihad” over the weekend. Meanwhile, the Turkish government’s crackdown on criticism of the operation continued with over 300 new arrests.
U.S. Central Command chief General Joseph Votel confirmed on Sunday that America has no intention of withdrawing from Manbij, northern Syria, despite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing an invasion of the city following an attack on Afrin, to Manbij’s west.
A Pentagon spokesperson deemed “Operation Olive Branch,” Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria to combat the U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish militia there, a “distraction” but ultimately “not a crisis” between the two NATO member countries in comments Thursday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his forces are prepared to push all the way across Syria to the Iraqi border in their campaign against Syrian Kurdish forces, fueling fears that Turkey’s incursion will trigger a new refugee wave, and could end in a confrontation with the U.S. military.
A spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), an U.S.-allied militia currently under attack by the Turkish military, claimed on Friday that the group’s fighters had successfully thwarted all attacks against them in “Operation Olive Branch.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Sunday speech on the Turkish offensive against Kurdish forces in Afrin, Syria has gotten plenty of international attention, but a curiously underreported passage found the Islamist president railing against the Kurds as “collaborators in a postmodern crusade that our region is exposed to.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in no mood to hear criticism of his military incursion against Syrian Kurds in the Afrin region from the public, media, or opposition lawmakers. Kurdistan24 notes that he promised to “pulverize” dissidents, and his government is doing exactly that with a wave of investigations and arrests.
Turkey was long renowned for its secular government, a modern state guided by the vision of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk when he built the Republic of Turkey from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in the early years of the last century.
The reality that the United States has so far “abandoned” the Kurds in Iraq and Syria now that their help is no longer vital to toppling the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has reportedly scarcely caught the minority group by surprise due to its historic relationship with abandonment, Kurdish community representatives say.
Turkish government sources told the newspaper Hurriyet on Thursday that the White House readout of a call between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan “does not accurately reflect” the conversation and that its contents were “not true.”
President Donald Trump held a telephone conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Wednesday afternoon in which he urged caution for Turkey’s military incursion into Syria and called for Turkey to “avoid any actions that might risk conflict between Turkish and American forces.” However, Trump appears to have stopped well short of demanding Erdogan halt the operation against Syrian Kurds.
Contents: Egypt’s presidential election becomes a farce as opposition candidates are forced out; Tensions rise between Egypt and Ethiopia over Nile River dam
Turkey’s military General Staff claimed on Tuesday that its “Operation Olive Branch,” an invasion of Afrin in northern Syria, killed “at least 260” Kurdish and Islamic State terrorists. The United States and its Syrian Kurdish allies have both denied there being a significant ISIS presence in that area.
Turkish media have confirmed that Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Paris on Tuesday as U.S. envoys arrive in Ankara to discuss the “struggle against terrorism,” a salient topic as Turkey continues its military invasion of Syrian Kurdish territories on its border.
Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria called for a mass military mobilization on Monday as the Turkish incursion into Afrin continued, with artillery strikes expanding to other nearby cities.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Sunday afternoon the beginning of a major military offensive, bizarrely dubbed “Operation Olive Branch,” against America’s battlefield allies in Syria, the Kurdish YPG militia.
Christians and Yazidis in the Syrian city of Afrin are asking for international assistance as Turkish warplanes and artillery hammer Kurdish positions around the city and Turkish ground forces roll across the border.
