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January 21st, 2018 
Awake Goy 
Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : After an initial areal attack, Turkey has launched its ground operation aimed to clear out the Syrian – Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and allied forces from Afrin, Manbij and areas west of the Euphrates river. The YPG as well as the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are denouncing Turkey’s attack amidst intense fighting. The SDF also stressed that it has no intention to pose any threat to Turkey or to the Syrian Arab Republic’s territorial integrity. One might argue that the new phase of the war will show that it becomes unavoidable for Kurds to aim for the creation of a sovereign Kurdistan on what is currently post-Ottoman Turkey, post-Sykes-Picot Syria and Iraq, and northwestern Iran.
The People’s Protection Units (YPG) stated that during the intense attack which started at 16:00 Saturday afternoon and is going on at this moment, at least 100 locations were targeted including civilian areas, positions of the YPG and its all female branch the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), as well as revolutionary forces in the area. The YPG reports that Turkey used 72 jets in their aerial attacks.
The YPG reports that Afrin city center, Rubar Internally Displaced Camp (IDP) and some of civil institutions in Afrin were also targeted. At least 13 civilians were injured. 1 YPG and 2 YPJ fighters and 6 civilians have reportedly been killed in these attacks. The YPG also reports that simultaneously, the Turkish army as well as Turkey-controlled “terrorists”, referring to the Free Syrian Armyas well as a number of other Islamist and Turkmen militia, attempted to cross border into Afrin in Kurdo and Balia villages of Bilbil district. YPG and YPJ rrports that their fighters repelled these attacks immediately and that the soldiers have withdrawn.
The YPG claims the occupying Turkish army and “terrorists”, after having failed to enter Afrin by attacking on the ground, try to scare the people of Afrin and displace them to Free Syrian Army (FSA) controlled areas.
YPG General Command calls out Global Forces and Russia for aiding Turkey
Referring to Russia’s role in the Syrian theater of war it stated:
“We know that, without the permission of global forces and mainly Russia, whose troops located in Afrin, Turkey cannot attack civilians using Afrin air space. Therefore we hold Russia as responsible as Turkey and stress that Russia is the crime partner of Turkey in massacring the civilians in the region. … We, as General Command of YPG in Afrin, state that Turkey cannot defeat our free will and resistance with its warplanes. It is seen that, till this moment, no one has fled from Afrin and abandoned their homeland. On this basis, we once again state our determination to protect our land and people. People’s Defense Units and Woman’s Defense Units will defend Afrin under any circumstances against Turkish fascism. We call on our people to join the ranks of defense.”
The YPG / YPJ have some 60,000 troops. The YPG / YPJ are the main constituents of the U.S. -backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Turkey designates the YPG / YPJ as well as the PYD as terrorist organization allied and on par with Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). Ironically, the PKK and in part the YPG have since the mid-1980s until Russia committed to a U-turn and aligned itself with Turkey to start the Astana talks on Syria, functioned as a Russian, Syrian and Iranian version of a stay-behind army that would be useful in the case of a war between Turkey and Syria, between Russia and Turkey, NATO and Turkey, or NATO and Iran.
Russia voices concerns but facilitates Turkey’s invasion
The Russian Foreign Ministry called for “restraint” and expressed “concerns” upon receiving news about Turkey’s military operation. However, Moscow also appears to have shown that it prioritizes its newfound and volatile alliance with Turkey more than “principles” or the fact that the PKK (by extension the YPG) have served as allies and proxies for the USSR, Russia, Syria and in part Iran since the mid-1980s. Russia has, among others, relocated some of its ground forces following latest developments. The Russian State news agency TASS quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as stating:
“The operations group of the center for reconciliation of warring sides and military police have been redeployed from the area of Afrin to the area of Tel Ajar in the Tel Rifaat de-escalation zone in order to avoid possible provocations and to ensure Russian servicemen’s lives and health are not exposed to risks.”
U.S. calls on parties to avoid escalating tensions and focus on fight against ISIL
The United States said the U.S.-led coalition against ISIL was not involved in any operation in Syria’s Afrin and that the U.S. is calling on parties to avoid escalating tensions and focus on the fight against ISIL. Pentagon spokesperson Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway in a written statement on January 20, said:
“We encourage all parties to avoid escalation and to focus on the most important task of defeating ISIS. … We recognize Turkey’s security concerns regarding the PKK, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. The U.S. does not provide any support to PKK. The US-led Coalition does not have operations ongoing in Afrin because it is focused on military operations against ISIS.”
Washington’s weasel words are failing its main ally in the fight against ISIL
SDF forces in Raqqa now let down by the US?
The U.S.-led coalition against the ISIL does not recognize Afrin as an operational area, Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Gen. Joseph Votel said. “We are not paying particular attention to that area with our military resources,” Votel told reporters during a flight in the Middle East. Adding that the fight against the ISIL still continues in Syria, Votel also claimed that Turkey’s operation in Afrin would distract efforts. Votel said Turkey had informed the coalition about its operation plan in Afrin but not a possible operation in Manbij.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stress their mission is consistent with Security Council mandate and does not threaten Turkey
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) also issued a statement late Saturday, stressing the SDF is a peaceful organization focused on fighting the Islamic State, not threatening Turkey, and respecting the Syrian Arab Republic’s Territorial Integrity. The SFF , largely mirroring what official U.S. sources told Turkey, stated:
We, as the Syrian Democratic Forces, are a peaceful movement focused on defeating ISIS and bringing stability to Syria consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2254. We seek a unified Syria, at peace with its neighbors. We harbor no hostility towards anyone other than ISIS, which, thanks to our heroic fighters, has one foot in the grave. … We are in the midst of operations in eastern Syria to defeat ISIS once and for all. We have lost a number of martyrs even in the last 24 hours in these battles against ISIS. These operations are in the decisive phase and we are prepared to complete them. … The sudden and unjustified threats of offensive operations from Turkey into Afrin, Syria, threatens to breathe new life into ISIS. These threats are wholly unjustified as we are determined to preserve the sovereign borders of Syria, and would not allow any hostile acts to launch against Turkey from Syrian soil, including from Afrin. Allegations that we have launched attacks across the border are false and a pretext for Turkey to bring its military forces and its extremist opposition groups onto Syrian soil. This would be an act of aggression against us, our people, and Syria.
If attacked, we will have no choice but to defend ourselves and our people, but we state in front of the world that we harbor no hostile intent towards Turkey and would only take measures in our own defense in the event of hostile operations against our people. … We call on Turkey to halt its unjustified threats and we call on the international community to ensure that all attention is paid to ISIS, which is not yet defeated, and to forging a lasting political solution in Syria to end the suffering of the Syrian people once and for all. … We, as Syrians, do not seek or need a new front after so many years of conflict and war. It is time, after the defeat of ISIS, to focus on political reconciliation and rebuilding our country.
Turkey stresses ground operations in progress
Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told journalists that Turkey has begun land operations against the YPG with troops entering Syrian soil at 11:05 a.m. on January 21. The operation was launched only hours after the air campaign on January 20 ended. Yildirim said the operation will consist of four phases to create a zone with a 30-kilometer depth. Yildirim claimed there are “around 8,000 to 10,000 terrorists in Afrin”. Yildirim also confirmed that Ankara is cooperating with the so-called Free Syrian Army saying: “Our units have entered Afrin from two branches at 11:05 a.m. with the Free Syrian Army. This means the land operation has begun.”
Yildirim also told reporters the operation would be carried out in four phases. The first phase, he said, would be aimed to form a secure zone on the Turkish borders between Azaz and Afrin. Following the first phase, Yıldırım said, the ‘cleaning’ would require an even more thorough work and that there was no need to rush.
The Turkish military reports that the operation, ironically dubbed “The Olive Branch Operation” began hitting cross-border targets at 5 p.m. local time (1400 GMT), aiming for both the YPG and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).
The establishment of a Kurdish State with breathing straw access to the Mediterranean. Map plottings by Major (r) Agha H. Amin. (2012)
Turkey will attempt to clear area west of the Euphrates from YPG/YPJ and PKK
Ankara has consistently, since the launch of the cooperation between the U.S.-led Coalition against the Islamic State based on UN Security Council Resolution 2254 (2015), the YPG/YPJ and the YPG-dominated SDF stressed that it will not tolerate the presence of “any” armed Kurdish groups in northern Syria west of the Euphrates.
Whereas NATO allies Ankara and Washington both were involved in launching the war against Syria in 2011, the two do not necessarily agree on the future of the predominantly Kurdish – Armenian and in part Turkmen north of Syria.
Plans to create a “Kurdish Corridor” have been known since at least since 2003. Former Turkish military intelligence chief Hakki Ismail Pekin and other Turkish sources repeatedly told nsnbc international that former Turkish President Gül as well as Erdogan had been involved in plans to create the Kurdish Corridor since 2003. It was not possible for nsnbc to access documents or other direct proof. However, the corridor has been created to some degree since 2011and especially since 2013.
It would also be important to note that Erdogan’s AKP government – or any other Turkish government – would commit political suicide by openly admitting to any even to a temporary support of such plans. From a journalistic perspective the most honest thing to do would be to say “we cannot possibly be sure but it would be extremely interesting to see what historians can dig up within the next 75 to 100 years.
However, if there is anything that has facilitated the establishment of the often-mentioned Kurdish Corridor, it is Turkey’s own participation in the destabilization of Syria and to some degree Iraq with Islamist terrorist organizations and militia. Had Turkey and its Gulf Arab and NATO allies not launched a de-facto war on Syria in 2011 nobody would, in 2018, be discussing a 60,000 strong YPG/YPJ in Rojava today.
It is a fact that this did happen and it will result in a bloodbath and yet another Turkish-led genocide if Turkey is allowed to get away with invading traditionally Syrian – Kurdish areas and to fill the void with Turkmen and Islamist proxies. If Turkey insists, it will have its nose as bloodied as Syria, and one might want to thank R. Tayyip Erdogan for that situation.
Ultimately, it might be safe to argue that the posturing and positioning of permanent UN Security Council members USA and Russia as well as powers like Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and not to forget Iran, will make it impossible to find a solution to the Kurdish problem within the current territorial borders. As the war enters a new phase and Kurds recognize the risk for being “let down and forgotten” by the main powers once again, will “have to” aim for the creation of a sovereign Kurdistan on what is currently post-Ottoman Turkey, post-Sykes-Picot Syria and Iraq, and northwestern Iran.
CH/L – nsnbc 21.01.2018
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2018/01/21/turkey-launched-ground-invasion-of-syrias-afrin-to-clear-ypg-and-pkk-from-area-west-of-the-euphrates/
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