Most likely Germany with Chancellor Angela Merkel will accept the invitation to join the fight against ISIS in Syria. Brit David Cameron is glued to the US policy in the Middle East, but will urge parliament for permission to bomb IS in the sovereign state of Syria.
○ Putin ready to work with France against ‘mutual enemy’ IS group
○ France appeals directly for Britain to join war against Isis in Syria
As the Obama administration has it’s Syria policy tied hands and feet to Erdogan of Turkey, the coalition partners of the US are bolting away from the fools of NATO. The Gulf States already had pulled away from bombing runs on IS in Syria as soon as the US upped its air strikes from NATO base Incirlik in Southern Turkey. The Gulf coalition are bombing Houthis in Yemen which leads to a resurgence of Al Qaeda (AQAP). Turkey of course is NOT bombing IS at all but has used the agreement with Obama to start a revenge bombing campaign across the Kurds (Kurdistan) in Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
Erdogan pulled off another rabbit out of the AKP hat to win sufficient seats in the rerun election in November. He now sees fit to prosecute newspaper editors/reporters with long prison sentences who dare to write MIT trucks are moving arms and munitions to the anti-Assad rebels in Syria. Never mind most end up with the jihadists of the brutal Islamic State.
○ Two journalists arrested for story on intelligence trucks bound for Syria
○ Turkish newspaper editor in court for ‘espionage’ after revealing weapon convoy to Syrian militants
Obama is upending European nations by sticking to his policy of regime change by any means, even if it destructs a whole nation with a quart million lives lost of which a third are Assad’s armed forces.
The propaganda coming from the White House and from the spokespersons at State and Pentagon are not only sad but way over the top beyond reality. Are the Democrats in a contest with the GOP tp present a fantasy world to the American people?
The relations between Moscow and Ankara are chilled down to absolute zero. Turkey failed to get full support during last week’s NATO ambasssadors’ meeting in Brussels.
Turkmen regions continue to come under heavy attack | Hürriyet Daily News |
Turkmen regions in Syria’s northwest are continuing to come under heavy attack by Russian-backed Syrian forces as government forces have taken back the Kızıldağ area that is home to Turkmens.
At the same time, four missiles hit the Sarmada village in Syria, around 10 kilometers from Turkey’s southern Cilvegözü border gate, causing multiple casualties, Doğan News Agency reported Nov. 26.
Syrian forces, with the support of Russian airstrikes and missiles launched from the sea, retook the Kızıldağ region, leading to the withdrawal of Turkmen forces further to the north toward the Syrian border with Turkey.
A representative of the Sultan Abdülhamid Brigade of the Turkmens, Tahsin Koşkar, told Doğan News Agency that when Kızıldağ fell due to heavy strikes, the Turkmens had to go to Yamadi village, which is a village close to the Turkish border. Relief material is being sent to Yamadi, where there is a tent city.
Daily Hürriyet reported on Nov. 25 that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces had intensified the shelling of Kızıldağ, a strategic point in northwestern Syria controlled by Turkmen forces.
Four villages in the Bayırbucak region, which is inhabited by Turkmens, were being evacuated on Nov. 26 with people being relocated to camps in Yamadi, daily Hürriyet reported from the southern Turkish province of Hatay, which is close to the regions where Turkmens live in Syria.
Jabal al-Turkmen, a mountain in the region that lies south of the mainly Christian town of Kasab, has been coming under bombardment since early Nov. 26, and a big proportion of the mountain has been taken by government forces.
Terrorists in Su-24 search operation area killed – Russian Defense Ministry
Erdoğan: No apology to Russia, they need to apologize to us | Hürriyet Daily News |
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appeared set to increase tension with Russia in the wake of his country’s downing of a Russian jet on Nov. 24, vowing that his country would offer no apology for the incident.
“I think if there is a party that needs to apologize, it is not us,” Erdoğan said in an exclusive interview with France24 on Nov. 26. “Those who violated our airspace are the ones who need to apologize. Our pilots and our armed forces, they simply fulfilled their duties, which consisted of responding to … violations of the rules of engagement. I think this is the essence.”
Earlier the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Turkey still had not apologized for the downing of the Russian warplane or given assurances that “the culprits of this crime” would be punished. Speaking at the Kremlin, Putin complained that he had not received an apology from Turkey or an offer “to make up for the damages.” Russia previously insisted that its plane never violated Turkish airspace as Turkey claimed.
Putin also said he regretted the fact that relations between Turkey and Russia had been driven into a stalemate.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to the Turkish Cypriot capital of Nicosia on Nov. 26, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also said Ankara would not apologize to Moscow.
“We don’t need to apologize on an occasion in which we are right,” Çavuşoğlu said. “But we said on the phone [Nov. 25] that we are sorry,” he said, referring to a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
Turkey suspends Syria flights after crisis with Russia
Putin: Turkey deliberately leading relations with Russia ‘into a gridlock’ | RT |
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Turkey of intentionally bringing relations with Russia into a `gridlock’ following the incident with the downed Russian bomber in Syria.
The Turkish government has made no steps towards clearing up the situation with Russia after the Tuesday incident at the Syrian-Turkish border. The country has neither offered any compensation nor expressed any apologies over the death of the Russian pilot, thus apparently deliberately dampening relations with Moscow, Putin stressed in his speech at the presentation of foreign ambassadors’ letters of credence in the Kremlin.
“We have still not heard any comprehensible apologies from the Turkish political leaders or any offers to compensate for the damage caused or promises to punish the criminals for their crime,” Russian president said.
“One gets the impression that the Turkish leaders are deliberately leading Russian-Turkish relations into a gridlock – and we are sorry to see this.”
US-backed forces have right to self-defense, but others do not – State Department | RT |
Turkey and the rebels it backs northern Syria had the right to defend themselves against Russian airstrikes, State Department spokesman told reporters. The rebels reportedly killed one Russian pilot who ejected from the jet hit by a Turkish missile.
During the regular press briefing, Mark Toner said the Syrian government did not have such a right, though.
When asked by RT’s Gayane Chichakyan if the State Department considered the rebels who reportedly killed the Russian pilots “moderates,” Toner replied:
“We’ve seen conflicting reports. One pilot may not have been killed. If these `Turkomen’ were actually being attacked by Russian strikes, they have every right to defend themselves.”
AP’s diplomatic correspondent Matt Lee asked a follow up question.
What the Assad regime was doing “is not self-defense,” Toner countered, arguing that the government in Damascus responded to “peaceful protests with four years of terror.”
When other reporters questioned his description of the Syrian conflict as a “peaceful protest,” Toner brushed them off by saying that “everyone in this room knows what happened.”
Toner repeated several times that Washington stood by Turkey as a NATO ally, and its “right to protect its sovereign airspace”, while refusing to comment on the specifics of this morning’s downing of a Russian jet because, by his admission, he had no details yet.
The State Department spokesman confirmed the US was supplying TOW missiles – seen in a video purportedly showing the rebels destroying a Russian search-and-rescue helicopter – to the “moderates” in northern Syria who were supposedly battling Islamic State forces.
