Conflicting interests and a realignment of alliances over Syria have left Turkey with tough choices to make as the US looks to confront another nuclear-armed power south of the Turkish border. Officials are adamant Ankara won't be forced into taking absolute sides as in the Cold War. There is currently no possibility of Turkey allowing …
Continue reading Russia’s Friend, Assad Foe, US Ally: Turkey Faces Tough Choices on Syria
France declared that it’s dispatching troop to northern Syria in support of the Kurds President Macron announced Paris’ unprecedented decision after meeting with Kurdish leaders in the French capital last week, a move that was summarily denounced by Ankara as “crossing the line” and amounting to the Western European country supporting terrorism through what Turkey …
Continue reading Macron Might Trap France in a Malian-Like Quagmire in Northern Syria
French President Emmanuel Macron entertained a Syrian Kurdish delegation last Thursday. He praised the Kurdish-dominated SDF militias for their role in fighting ISIS and promised continued support. After the meeting Kurdish and French media outlets reported Macron had also promised to move French troops to Kurdish-held Manbij in northern Syria, and block the advance of …
Continue reading Turkey Discloses French Troop Positions in Syria in Payback for Support of Kurds
Trump’s surprise announcement that the US will be “coming out” of Syria “very, very soon” probably won’t lead to the full-fledged retreat that some people are expecting, but this tactical downscaling would nevertheless be a response to the “Rojava Civil War” if it does indeed happen, and the influence of Turkey’s looming anti-terrorist intervention in …
Continue reading Is Trump “Retreating” from Syria Because of the “Rojava Civil War”?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening to follow up the capture of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin by launching an across-the-board military offensive against the remaining Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria and the main Yazidi population centre in the Sinjar region of Iraqi Kurdistan. He claimed that the next target of Turkish troops would …
Continue reading Turkey ‘To Launch Wider Offensive Against Kurds’ After Taking Afrin
“Will the war in Syria ever end?” After seven years of conflict, the same question is being asked by politicians, diplomats, fighters in the front line, and families cowering in unlit basements to escape devastating bombardments from Ghouta to Afrin. When I asked Aldar Khalil, a top Syrian Kurdish leader whose forces control a quarter …
Continue reading The Syrian War Could Still be Raging in Four Years’ Time
According to a wide range of Alt-Media outlets and pundits, Operation Olive Branch has been nothing but defeat followed by defeat for President Erdogan’s FSA proxy forces…until now. The FSA’s victory in Afrin exposed Alt-Media’s fake news about Syria in such a startlingly direct way that the outlets and individuals which previously peddled inaccurate narratives …
Continue reading The FSA’s Victory in Afrin Exposed Alt-Media’s Fake News about Syria
In a field beside an abandoned railway station close to the Turkish border in northern Syria, Kurdish fighters are retraining to withstand Turkish air strikes. “We acted like a regular army when we were fighting Daesh [Isis] with US air support,” says Rojva, a veteran Kurdish commander of the People’s Protection Units (YPG). “But now …
Continue reading Syria Braces for Dramatic Escalation Set to be ‘Bloodier Than Ghouta’
I’d like to begin with a disclaimer. This piece is one part thought exercise and one part speculative. It it is no way to be understood as an assertion of any single or group of claims, but rather it is a means of speculating on how recent and current events relate to the grand US …
