The independent convergence of American and Syrian interests against Turkey’s anti-terrorist campaign is coincidental and doesn’t imply a “conspiracy”, but it’s also instructive in the sense that it proves that it’s possible for the most unlikely pair of countries to tacitly agree on a subject of shared interest, despite this allegedly being impossible according to…
The complexities of the fighting in Afrin have – unsurprisingly – confounded most people, to the points where understanding of what is actually going on there is becoming very difficult and is causing much misunderstanding. Deciphering Russian policy with respect to the Afrin conflict between Turkey and the Kurds is causing special problems. The most…
In hoping to play the “lesser evil” of the “federalist” Kurds off against the “greater evil” of the invading Turks, Damascus might have inadvertently committed a grave mistake by opening the Afrin gates to the most radical members of the YPG who stand to reverse any “pragmatic” agreements that the government thought they had achieved…
Syria reportedly agreed to the Kurdish PYD-YPG “federalist” militia’s request to enter Afrin and stop the Turks’ military advance, though it still remains to be seen whether Damascus will actually carry through on this decision or not. There have been conflicting reports on this topic all across the past week, but the official “Syrian Arab…
The first Turkish attempt to set up a military base in Syria’s Islamist-held Idlib failed. January a large Turkish military convoy crossed the border on the way to a strategic town of al-Eis. Two days later it withdrew back into Turkey never having reached its destination and suffering 1 dead and 2 wounded to a…
Turkey is recruiting and retraining ISIS fighters to lead its invasion of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, according to an ex-ISIS source. “Most of those who are fighting in Afrin against the YPG [People’s Protection Units] are ISIS, though Turkey has trained them to change their assault tactics,” said Faraj, a former…
