[Philby]

^Awesome, worthy of the satire thread there pikachu.

[Just to note I will be assisting Gletkin as the new Middle East Moderator!]

Glad you're volunteering to do that Typhoon!

[demima]

The Sanliurfa Governor was asked a series of questions by ejournalists in Akcakale (border town adjacent to Tal Abyad) and he didnt like it one bit. The video is in Turkish.

The interview is as follows (not word for word, but concise version):
Journalist: Governor, we understand that there were 5 ISIS fighters who crossed the border into Turkey. What is their situation?
Governor: No, there were two unarmed ISIS fighters and they handed themselves in.
Journalist: Whats going to happen to them, where are they?
Governor: They are detained and are being questioned by our security forces.
Journalist: Why did these people (refugees from Tel Abyad) begin crossing into Turkey?
Governor: They were running away from PKK/PYD and American bombing.
Journalist: We spoke to some of the people who were crossing the border and they told us that they were running away from ISIS.

From here you can see the facial expression of the governor change and he abruptly ends the interview.

The two journalists are then detained "to check their IDs".

[youtube]GhsMmQb21k8[/youtube]

Thanks AA

[Azure Angel]

Did it for you.
[youtube]GhsMmQb21k8[/youtube]

Rei explains it here
viewtopic.php?f=41&t=161602

[abu_rashid]

Sounds like a bit of a beatup to me. Turkish media reports five IS fighters were detained.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkis ... sCatID=509

[pikachu]

The overstretched Syrian military, fighting battles across multiple front lines, is relying here on a key ally: members of the Druze sect, an offshoot of Islam that has adherents in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Thousands of men from the province are said to have signed up to protect Suwayda, the Druze heartland. Syria is believed to be home to about half of the estimated 1.5 million Druze worldwide.

"We, the sons of Suwayda, will be martyred on our front doors before we let them pass," vowed Maj. William Abu Fakher, a pro-government militiaman who stood guard with other Druze volunteers, several in their 50s, at a checkpoint in the sun-scorched terrain.

Opposition officials have accused Damascus of rousing sectarian fears among the Druze to bolster support for the government.

"The regime began to incite sectarian divisions with the Druze," said Bashar Zoubi, head of the Yarmouk Army, a faction of the Southern Front, a Western-backed rebel coalition with supply lines to nearby Jordan.

The large mobilization of Druze fighters helped stall the opposition assault on the air base, Zoubi conceded in a telephone interview. He called the rebel forces moderate and nonsectarian.

But interviews with Druze civilians and fighters here confirm that many regard the rebel advance as a threat to the Druze's existence. Sunni Islamist groups like Al Nusra Front, the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, and Islamic State, an Al Qaeda offshoot, view the Druze as heretics.

[...]

"Our only choice is to repel and refuse the entry of any terrorist group into the area of Suwayda," Sheikh Yusef Jarboo, a top Druze cleric in Syria, told Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen in an interview this month. "We shall resist with all the power we have."

About 27,000 Druze fighters, the cleric said, were being incorporated "under the umbrella" of the Syrian military, which numbers perhaps 200,000 plus tens of thousands of pro-government militiamen and allies from Lebanon and beyond.

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-south-20150621-story.html#page=2

Another way to think about the Druze choice perhaps is in terms of ethnic identity - are they Arab, or not? AFAIK, the Druze are divided on the issue. Some Druze, like those in Israel and perhaps in Lebanon consider themselves a separate ethnic group, while others, mainly in Syria, consider themselves Arab. The distinction may seem trivial but it matters, since most Syrians still remember the Ba'ath as an Arab nationalist regime. That image is well deserved too, since in the decades of Ba'ath leadership Syria has made great strides in "Arabizing" or otherwise suppressing it's non-Arab minorities. They say, that's how Tell Abyad became majority Arab in the first place. So if the Druze are not Arab, then there is no place for them in the Syrian Arab Army. They may have as much to fear from it as they do from the Islamists. But if they are Arab, on the other hand, then they should have considerably less to worry about in cooperating with Assad. This is the same reason as why, for example, the Turkish Alevis are such big fans of Ataturk, but the Kurdish Alevis... not so much.

[abu_rashid]

Christian foreign fighters deserting Kurdish YPG in Syria because they're 'damn Reds'

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/chris ... 1976493133

[demima]

Christian foreign fighters deserting Kurdish YPG in Syria because they're 'damn Reds'

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/chris ... 1976493133

This report is over 4 months old and I haven't heard of anything regarding desertion. Do you have any other links, more recent? In any case, I would rather be with "reds" than filthy jihadists.

[Decky]

Christian foreign fighters deserting Kurdish YPG in Syria because they're 'damn Reds'

Lol good. Who the fuck wants the Jesus brigade involved in building the Kurdish workers paradise anyway?

[demima]

It's bullshit. I just checked the Facebook page of the foreign YPG fighters and one of the sources has not been with the YPG since December 2014 for theft. They kicked him out.

[GandalfTheGrey]

Surprised no one has mentioned the Kurds overrunning that 93 brigade base with heaps of weaponry and just 30 miles from Raqqa...

[Ornate Placebo]

Surprised no one has mentioned the Kurds overrunning that 93 brigade base with heaps of weaponry and just 30 miles from Raqqa...

Here is a battle map of the area:

Kurdish fighters inch closer to ISIS’ Raqqa
Syrian Kurdish fighters, known as (YPG), gained on Monday more ground from the ISIS-held territories in northern Syria, posing a real threat to the group’s de facto capital of Al-Raqqa.

The Kurds, backed by the US-coalition airstrikes and some minor rebel groups (namely Borkan Al-Furat “The Volcano of Euphrates”), took over Brigade 93, and later stormed the town of Ayn Issa located nearly 50 km to the north of Al-Raqqa.

The once Syrian Army stronghold fell to ISIS in August 2014 when the group’s wide-scale offensive swept the northern province of Al-Raqqa and seized large swathes including, Division 17 and Al-Tabqa airbase.

The rapid advance sparked disputes among ISIS’ high-ranking security officials and raised questions on the group’s true potentials compared to the propaganda it advertises.

The YPG has recently expelled ISIS from the bordering town of Tal Abyad; a victory that alarmed Turkish authorities on the Kurds’ recent sway along the borders.

Syria’s Kurds claim they are not seeking an independent state, but clings –at the same time- to regional autonomy. Kurds-populated areas in northern and northeastern Syria are currently run by the Kurdish administration.

Having taken over Tal Abyad, the Kurdish militia discovered a 400-meter long tunnel leading to Turkey, who has served as the main access point to
Islamic fighters willing to fight the Syrian government.

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/kurdish-fighters-inch-closer-to-isis-raqqa/

It appears that further south the regime is poised to try and retake Palmyra too.

[Azure Angel]

@demima

You are a Kurd, right?

Can you tell me how strong communist/socialist ideology is among Kurds or are your people having religious revival like the rest of Islamic world?

[demima]

@demima

You are a Kurd, right?

Can you tell me how strong communist/socialist ideology is among Kurds or are your people having religious revival like the rest of Islamic world?

Yes, I'm Kurdish from Turkey.

From my experiences there are two main form of Kurds in Turkey. The traditionally conservative section and the more open/socialist section. Left wing groups like the PKK draw their support from a broad range of Kurdish society, young and old, conservative or socialist.

The Kurds who are not left wing/socialists are not necessarily guided by their religious convictions, although it does play a part. It's mainly traditionalism or conservatism. For example, it is a shameful fact that honour killing of women are among the highest in the world, and its mainly due to the traditional family structures, not religion. The good thing is that attitudes are changing and Kurdish women are given a bigger voice in society and have among the highest admissions to universities.

There isn't really an "Islamic revival" like in Arab countries, but conservatism does need to be demolished so that Kurds can join the 21st century. This can only happen with investment and industry moving into the south east which will move people away from the agricultural economy to an industrial one. HDP got a considerable amount of votes from conservative Kurds, even while the leadership openly advocated gay rights.


Kurdish Hezbollah, (a Sunni paramilitary org., not like the Shia Hezbollah in Lebanon), was set up and supported by the Turkish state to counter the PKK and left wing ideologues within Kurdish society, but they never really found traction amongst the population and are essentially a non entity now.

In regards to communists, the PKK and HDP do have a lot of old time communists from the 1980s amongst their ranks. The younger generation of Kurds appear to be more socialist than the average Turk and are quite vocal about it. I would say their "ideology" is socialism with a mix of proud nationalism (not the chauvinist type of nationalism).

Hope it made sense. It's quite complicated really.

[abu_rashid]

They will either throw in a lot of resources to defend it, or they'll possibly hit the Kurds elsewhere to distract them.

I guess it's the latter...

ISIL re-enters Syrian Kurdish town Kobane:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/c ... 55793.html

[pikachu]

This, and a similar attempt in Hasakah... It appears to be what is essentially a very large scale suicide attack. They sure have a lot of resources to throw around on suicidal attacks like these.

[abu_rashid]

Its been quite clear from the outset that they place very little value on the lives of individuals. It is the collective victory they are after, which is a never-ending goal, and they have no shortage of dedicated recruits willing to pay the ultimate price.

[pikachu]

It appears to once again heavily implicate Turkey. ISIL just shows up in big numbers out of nowhere in Kobane, right in the middle of the Kurdish Canton, riding VBIEDS too. Turkey claims that they came from Jarabulus wearing FSA uniforms. But how could they have done it, given that the bridge over the Euphrates is destroyed, and Jarabulus is separated from Kobane by 30kms of heavily populated and policed Kurdish territory, and where movement is monitored by the coalition aircraft? Can these guys walk on water and go invisible at the same time or something?

It seems far more likely that they actually came from right across the border with Turkey, and no magical tricks were necessary. That wouldn't be unprecedented at all. Remember how in 2012 Nusra came in from Turkey while riding tanks to attack Serekaniye?

[abu_rashid]

People seem quite adamant that Turkey must be covertly supporting IS, yet there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever they have anything to do with them.
I think people just want to have a state actor they can lump this at the feet of. It's got little to do with actual facts and more to do with the need to have someone to blame.

It's about as believable as the dolts on the other side who claim the US are covertly supporting IS.

[pikachu]

In the context of the latest Deraa offensive, I have to wonder what the "Southern Front" leaders might have meant when they insisited that they "don't coordinate with Nusra". Do they not coordinate, as in, they don't coordinate their game nights? They don't coordinate their clothing purchases? I don't know, but as far as the war goes, it's clear that they're still not only on the same side in everything and help each other out, but they coordinate their offensives together - such as the latest Deraa offensive. I doubt that any of them sincerely wonder why, for instance, the Druze wouldn't trust them to do what it takes to protect them from Nusra and its allies.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

Is there any word on whether the Kurds have lost ground, or whether the latest attacks were suicide attacks and nothing more substantive?