Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the crisis in Syria touched off by Turkey’s incursion against US-allied Kurdish forces, saying the conflict was between Turkey and Syria and that it was okay for Russia to help Damascus. The US president, speaking to reporters at the White House, said the Kurds were ‘no angels’
Continue reading...Category Archives: Kurds
Andrzej Krauze on the EU’s failings over Syria – cartoon
Turkey’s onslaught on the Kurdish areas of north-eastern Syria have exposed the geopolitical impotence of European governments
Continue reading...Erdoğan’s calamitous Syrian blunder has finally broken his spell over Turkey | Simon Tisdall
The belligerent president has forgotten that his country is a democracy, not a dictatorship. It is time for him to go
If Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s belligerent president, were a true patriot with his country’s security and wellbeing at heart, he would resign immediately. He has made an appalling hash of things. His Syrian misadventure, while unusually calamitous, is but the latest in a long line of foreign blunders. Erdoğan abuses his position. He harms his country. He is still in office not because he is popular but because of the fear he instils and the power he crudely wields. It’s time for him to go.
Getting rid of Erdoğan is a matter for the Turks. And it wouldn’t be quite as difficult as it might sound
Continue reading...Russian shadow falls over Syria as Kurds open door for Assad
With the US gone, the implications of their departure is beginning to sink in across the Middle East
The moment that changed the Middle East arrived with a sudden silence. Just before 7pm on Sunday, the internet was cut across north-eastern Syria where, for half an hour, the Kurds of the region had been digesting a news flash. The Syrian government was returning to two towns, Manbij and Kobane. The implication quickly sunk in.
The regional capital, Qamishli, soon emptied; streets that had bustled with minibuses and shoppers became eerie and still. With the internet down phones were no help and nor were officials who had vanished along with the traffic. Air seemed to be suddenly vacuumed from the city, and the few people still around knew exactly what it meant: this was the moment power changed hands. It was a time to be scared.
Continue reading...Orphans thought to be British rescued from Isis camp after Turkish attacks
Children taken to safety in Raqqa after hundreds of people fled camp holding Islamic State affiliates in northern Syria
Three orphans believed to be British citizens have been evacuated from an area in northern Syria that was the focus of recent attacks by Turkish troops and their allies.
The Guardian understands that the three children, Amira, 10, her sister, Hiba, eight, and their brother, Hamza, were evacuated from a camp for people associated with Islamic State in Ain Issa on Sunday. They were part of a group of 24 children taken to safety by the UN refugee organisation.
Continue reading...Former top aide to testify that she opposed Trump calling Zelenskiy – live
Fiona Hill, the former top adviser on Russia who resigned shortly before Ukraine call, is to appear behind closed doors in Congress today
In a rare moment of agreement, senator Lindsey Graham said he is working with the Democratic speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to pass sanctions on Turkey for their military operation in Syria.
I will be working across party lines in a bicameral fashion to draft sanctions and move quickly, appreciating President Trump’s willingness to work with the Congress. The Speaker indicated to me that time was of the essence.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, said that he would meet with Trump this afternoon to discuss the president’s Syria policy.
Lindsey Graham says on Fox he’s meeting with Trump this afternoon to discuss Syria and sanctions on Turkey
Continue reading...Syrian troops enter Kurdish fight against Turkish forces
Deal to support Kurds in exchange for key cities set to open new front in civil war
Syrian troops have begun sweeping into Kurdish-held territory on a collision course with Turkish forces and their allies, a day after the beleaguered Kurds agreed to hand over key cities to Damascus in exchange for protection.
The deal, which Kurdish leaders emphasised they had made reluctantly after four days of bombardment by Turkish artillery and jets, threatens to open a new front in Syria’s nearly nine-year civil war, and signals the likely end of US and European military deployments in the country’s north-east.
Continue reading...Trump and Syria: the worst week for US foreign policy since the Iraq invasion?
A close ally is abandoned, and Isis is regrouping. The speed of the unravelling is breathtaking
In the week since Donald Trump’s fateful phone conversation with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the US has entirely abandoned the Kurds, its most effective allies in the Middle East, and with them a Syria strategy that was five years in the making.
The Islamic State flag has been raised once more and the last vestige of US credibility as a reliable partner lies crushed under Turkish tank tracks. It has arguably been the worst seven days for US foreign policy since the invasion of Iraq.
Continue reading...Kurds reach deal with Damascus in face of Turkish offensive
Agreement to hand over border towns comes after more than 700 Isis affiliates escape camp
More than 700 people with links to Islamic State have escaped from a detention camp in north-east Syria, as the Kurdish-led forces in control of the area reached a deal with the Assad regime to stave off a bloody five-day-old Turkish assault.
Kurdish fighters controlling the region would surrender the border towns of Manbij and Kobane to Damascus in a deal brokered by Russia, officials said on Sunday night.
Continue reading...Female Kurdish politician among nine civilians killed by pro-Turkey forces in Syria, observers say
Rebels shot at least nine civilians in execution-style killings in Syria, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
Pro-Ankara fighters taking part in a Turkish offensive on Kurdish-held border towns in north-eastern Syria have killed at least nine civilians including a female politician, a human rights monitor has said.
“The nine civilians were executed at different moments south of the town of Tal Abyad,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Continue reading...James Mattis says Trump’s troop pullout has led to ‘disarray’ in Syria
- Ex-defense secretary calls resurgence of Isis ‘a given’
- Withdrawal will ‘have an impact’ on Kurds’ ability to fight Isis
The former defense secretary James Mattis has said Donald Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of US troops from the Syria-Turkey border has led to “disarray” in the war-torn territory, increasing the chances of a resurgence of Islamic State militants.
Related: Betrayal on the border: Kurds fear future as Turkish assault intensifies
Continue reading...Betrayal on the border: Kurds fear future as Turkish assault intensifies
In the Kurdish heartlands in Syria, the sense of abandonment at the withdrawal of US troops is palpable as Erdoğan’s forces claim early successes
The lone road out of Ras al-Ayn was empty, except for one overladen lorry that slowly made its way along a lethal mile from war zone to exile. Shells thudded into buildings in the distance as Kurdish forces in vans prepared to race jets and sniper fire, trying to get to a battle that almost everyone else had left.
Those who remained in the border town at the frontline of the war for north-eastern Syria were there to fight; the Kurds rallying to defend it and the Arabs preparing to seize it from them. Early on Saturday, the Arab force, trained by Turkey, made its move. By the day’s end, the proxies claimed to have recaptured part of Ras al-Ayn, making good on Ankara’s threats to push Kurdish forces from one of their main enclaves.
Continue reading...Erdoğan has managed the unthinkable: uniting all the other Middle East rivals
Turkey’s Syria invasion following US withdrawal of its troops means that all bets are now off in the Middle East
By invading northern Syria last week, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan achieved what many thought impossible – uniting all the regional countries and rival powers with a stake in the country in furious opposition to what they see as a reckless, destabilising move.
A truculent nationalist-populist with dictatorial tendencies, Erdoğan has often cast himself as one man against the world during 16 consecutive years as Turkey’s prime minister and president. Now he really is on his own.
Continue reading...Turkey’s ‘impulsive’ invasion of Syria will destabilize region, says US official
Mark Esper, US defense secretary, insisted ‘we are not abandoning’ Kurds and that Turkey wasn’t given a ‘green light’
An “impulsive” decision by Turkey to invade northern Syria will further destabilize a region already caught up in civil war, the US defense secretary said on Friday, arguing that the withdrawal of US troops from the border does not mean America has abandoned its Syrian Kurdish allies.
Donald Trump’s decision to pull back troops from the Syrian border region has been widely criticized as a tacit “green light” for a Turkish offensive that intensified on Friday, with air and artillery strikes on Kurdish militia.
Continue reading...Bloodied clothes and body bags: Kurds mourn dead in Syria
Martin Chulov reports from north-east Syria on the deadliest day yet of the Turkish offensive
In a wooden hut at the back of a hospital, a woman cradled the head of a dead man and dabbed away grime and blood with a sponge. A blanket covered the man’s mutilated lower half. His blood-soaked military fatigues were still wrapped around his chest.
On a table behind, another body lay zipped into a large blue bag – a young woman this time, also dressed in green and wearing the patches of Kurdish forces. The medical worker straightened her head and gently swept the dead woman’s hair from her face. “We have five martyrs now,” she said, pointing across the makeshift morgue. “Three military and two civilians. The fighters were trying to rescue the others.”
Continue reading...What does Turkey’s military action in northern Syria mean? – video explainer
Turkey has pressed ahead with its assault on US-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria, forcing thousands of civilians to flee airstrikes and shelling. The military action has deepened fears of a humanitarian and political crisis, as the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent, Bethan McKernan, explains
- Turkish president threatens to send 3.6m refugees to Europe
- ‘Now the war is coming to us’: Turkish towns in range of Kurdish shells
‘Betrayal leaves a bitter taste’: spurned Kurds flee Turkish onslaught
As they seek safety away from Turkish shells, Syrian Kurds burn with anger at Donald Trump’s betrayal
Waiting at a roadside depot, Hussein Rammo, a stooped elderly Kurd, his eyes wet with tears, had the look of a broken man. “Betrayal leaves the bitterest taste,” he said, his voice at a whisper as he discussed Donald Trump’s decision to abandon Syria’s Kurds.
“I am 63 years old and I have never seen anything like this. Before there was regime oppression and now we are getting betrayal. This is worse.”
Continue reading...‘Now the war is coming to us’: Turkish towns in range of Kurdish shells
Border residents feel the impact as fighting between Turkish and Kurdish forces escalates
On Wednesday, children in the Turkish town of Akçakale were happy to get a day off from school in honour of the launch of Operation Peace Spring aimed at Kurdish forces over the nearby border with Syria. They ran around the streets singing army songs and waving Turkish flags. “Get out of our way,” tabloid headlines read.
By Thursday the mood had changed drastically. Akçakale’s streets were dark with smoke from mortar and rocket fire after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a ferocious counter-attack from Tal Abyad, just over the border.
Continue reading...Erdoğan warns EU against calling Syria operation an ‘invasion’ – video
'We will open our borders and send 3.6 million refugees your way,' said the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in a stark warning to European countries if they criticise Turkey's military action in northern Syria.
Turkish troops advanced into north-eastern Syria following airstrikes aimed at Kurdish-led forces in the region
- Turkish troops advance into Syria as Trump washes hands of the Kurds
- Erdoğan's Syrian incursion could be his biggest gamble yet
- Syria: Erdoğan's eyes more likely to be on Putin than Trump
Donald Trump says Kurds ‘didn’t help us with Normandy’ – video
US president Donald Trump defends his decision to withdraw support for Kurdish allies in Syria by saying they did not help the US during the second world war, citing Normandy as an example. Kurdish forces did fight alongside the US against Isis for nearly five years before Trump's call to remove US troops from the region