Syria Shifts Stance Toward Kurds The WSJ wants you to believe.. Syria has shifted it's stance towards the Kurds- It hasn't.WSJ wants you to know that Syria and Turkey are in alignment on the Kurdish issue and this cannot be tolerated- victim/kurd meme and all.wsj in red.
"After years of tacitly allowing the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria, President Bashar al-Assad’s regime is treating the ethnic minority’s growing power as a threat"
Did Bashar al Assad's government tacitly allow the creation of a Kurdish region? Not from anything I've ever read!-
"Syria is now describing the Kurds in terms similar to those used by Turkey, which has been a staunch supporter of Syrian rebels fighting against Mr. Assad.Forces loyal to the regime have been clashing with Kurds in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah for more than a week. The fighting continued on Monday, with Kurds advancing amid failed attempts to broker a cease-fire"
Bear in mind that NATO's ISIS shock troops moved into vast swathes of territory in both Iraq and Syria. Territory, that suspiciously coincided with the NATO/Israel desired Kurdistan.. The US/NATO global terror army then 'fought' ISIS with their besties PKK/YPG who claimed the land as their own- I've discussed this for years now. Tacit approval? I must have missed it? Claims that SAA and Kurds didn't fight one another? False. They sure did. Digression---Quotes from Assad regarding the kurds and their annexation. From here and here
However, he stressed the Kurds “are not allies at this stage, as some suggest."
He then expands on the Kurdish issue at greater length, but, most importantly:
There are things which would relate to the entire population, to the constitution, and the people should endorse these demands before a decision can be taken by the state. In any case, anything proposed should be in the national framework.
Assad knows what the demands are, yet he states, the entire population/constitution should endorse these demands before a decision can be taken by the state.
Assad again :Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says Kurdish demands in Syria can be discussed after uniting to defeat Islamic extremists, promising he is open to any proposal as long as the country’s territorial integrity remains intact. “We should unite in order to fight IS,
Did the Kurds and SAA unite to fight IS? No they did not! The Kurds united with NATO.Digression over, back to WSJ
"Syrian airstrikes on Kurdish areas were rare ( "rare" Says WSJ, no quantification of 'rare' Once a week? 10 times a month? No explantion of "rare" However, the use of rare informs us that airstrikes have taken place previously!) before last week. But on Thursday, regime warplanes bombed an area of Hasakah near American special operations forces and fighters from the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who have been fighting Islamic State. The airstrikes prompted the U.S. to scramble jets and issue an unusual warning to the regime.
The regime’s shift comes amid a warming of relations between Turkey and Mr. Assad’s allies Russia and Iran. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this month followed by a visit by Turkey’s foreign minister to Iran"
There is no shift? The media wants you to believe there was a shift. Assad was not on board with the Kurdish terrorism and had in fact bombed the terrorists on previous occasions.
"Kurdish leaders see the regime’s new aggression toward their forces as a sign of a rapprochement between Syria and Turkey in a conflict with constantly shifting alliances"
This is what you are supposed to believe- this sudden 'shift' is because Syria & Turkey are suddenly on the same page. Syria was never on board with the creation of a Kurdish state annexed out of Syria- so the bombing in Hasakah had nothing to do with Syria/Turkey rapprochement
"A Syrian army statement that followed the Hasakah airstrikes used rhetoric that was similar to Turkey’s. It referred to the police force of the Kurdish autonomous region as “the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party”—the separatist group that Turkey has been fighting for more than two decades"
Oh dear, Syria is just like Turkey. Bad, bad, bad!!.... And we all know, 'cause the media and it's liars have informed us Turkey broke the ceasefire with the Kurdish militias- Except they didn't.
Turkey has long accused the main Syrian Kurdish militia, YPG, of being one and the same as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
That's because they are- PKK = YPG
The Syrian army statement said it was determined “to protect the unity of Syria’s lands,” according to state media, an apparent reference to Kurdish aspirations for their own state.Turkey views any regional Kurdish ambitions as emboldening the PKK, which both Ankara and Washington classify as a terrorist group.
“The regime has evidently come to the understanding that a Kurdish [autonomous zone] will form a threat to the regime,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in an interview this past weekend, referring to the clashes in Hasakah.
President Erdogan has previously called repeatedly for Mr. Assad to step down and said the Syrian leader should be tried for state terrorism at the International Criminal Court. But Turkey has softened its tone lately, with Mr. Yildirim saying on Saturday that his government must accept that Mr. Assad remains a person of influence in Syria and that he might continue to play a role during a transitional stabilization period.
WSJ admits YPG/PKK connections:
"Many senior YPG commanders have in fact trained and fought alongside the PKK for years. But the U.S., which relies on the YPG as the most effective fighting force against Islamic State in Syria, has sought to distinguish between the two militias.The YPG along with its political arm have used the war against Islamic State to expand the territories in Syria under Kurdish control, including leading battles in predominantly Arab areas to link up two separate Kurdish cantons"
The establishment of an autonomous Kurdish region was only made possible by Syrian regime forces withdrawing earlier in the war from predominantly Kurdish areas and allowing Kurdish political groups and militias to take over government institutions. The withdrawal was strategic, as the Syrian regime was stretched thin fighting rebels and later Islamic State militants on multiple fronts.
In Hasakah Syria maintained control of government institutions and territory- contrary to WSJ claims. Though the major withdrawal, was unavoidable due to the multi front attack the US/Israel/NATO brought onto Syria
“The regime’s policy previously was to avoid clashes [with Kurds], since the priority was fighting the [rebel] forces supported by Turkey,” said Ahmad Hisso Araj, a Kurdish spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces.
So the Kurdish spokesperson can be expected to tell us the truth? Or the version of events the Kurds want you and I to have in our minds? Notice the narrative includes the 'bad turkey' meme? We already know Assad stated explicitly no annexed version of Kurdistan. We know that the SAA had bombed the Kurds on previous occasions- We know the SAA had fought against the Kurds on previous occasions. We know the Kurds have an agenda of their own, alongside their buddies in Israel, should we expect them to tell us the unvarnished truth?UPDATE: Carnegie Middle East
"Mansour argued that Turkey has been attacking Kurdish groups in northern Syria, such as the YPG, as it perceives them as a bigger existential threat than the Islamic State. According to Mansour, Turkey's actions in Syria are meant to stop any Kurdish advancements. He also believes that Turkey could reach out to former foes like Russia or the Assad regime to stop the Kurds from gaining territory. Mansour explained that it is doubtful that President Erdogan of Turkey will change course in Syria as he no longer needs Kurds as electoral allies and that even before the Syrian conflict, Turkey and the Syrian government were in agreement over the Kurdish issue"
Even before the Syrian conflict Turkey and the Syrian government were in agreement over the Kurdish issue...