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From United Press International
Intelligence community raises alarm on Turkey
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Bolstered by a 2019 yearly threat assessment from the director of national intelligence that warned of the risk posed by Turkey's fraying relationship with the United States, senators have urged action to prevent a deeper strain with the NATO ally.
Yet Congress and President Donald Trump are largely split on how to approach U.S. support for Kurdish militias in northern Syria, a point of contention between the United States and Turkey in light of Trump's December announcement that he planned to withdraw U.S. forces from the country.
It is uncertain how Trump will approach Turkey, a historic ally that has grown friendlier with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years.
The relationship between the Russia and Turkey is an important backdrop to the DNI's statements on the state of U.S.-Turkish relations, according to Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
COMMENT:-
I can't see what the problem is, either the Turks do what they are told or they get "liberated" - right?
Who knew that running the whole world could be so complicated?
Meanwhile, China sits back, getting ever more wealthy and powerful, and watches the show.
Erdogan is the leader with whom Putin has had most official telephone conversations.
Wouldn't you have liked to be a fly on the wall when the President's Daily Briefing got to the "And China is going to be launching nuclear ..." point?
From United Press International
Intelligence community raises alarm on Turkey
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Bolstered by a 2019 yearly threat assessment from the director of national intelligence that warned of the risk posed by Turkey's fraying relationship with the United States, senators have urged action to prevent a deeper strain with the NATO ally.
Yet Congress and President Donald Trump are largely split on how to approach U.S. support for Kurdish militias in northern Syria, a point of contention between the United States and Turkey in light of Trump's December announcement that he planned to withdraw U.S. forces from the country.
It is uncertain how Trump will approach Turkey, a historic ally that has grown friendlier with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years.
The relationship between the Russia and Turkey is an important backdrop to the DNI's statements on the state of U.S.-Turkish relations, according to Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
COMMENT:-
I can't see what the problem is, either the Turks do what they are told or they get "liberated" - right?
Who knew that running the whole world could be so complicated?
If the US wants to keep Turkey as an ally, then there can be no support for the Kurds in any way shape or form.
Turkey's government is **** and a threat in itself. We shouldn't have to play nicey-nicey with them to keep them from committing genocide against the Kurds. They should be immediate removed from NATO.
The Turks are quite content to stop fighting Kurdish terrorism as soon as the Kurds stop using terrorist tactics.
If the US wants to keep Turkey as an ally, then there can be no support for the Kurds in any way shape or form.
Rofl...Turks have no issue with terrorism. They support it.
They also prefer genocide, and really want to commit genocide on the Kurds.
Interesting you feel the need to defend such actions.
We need to leverage our alliance with Turkey or whatever is left of it to give the Kurds a fighting chance in their struggle to live a peaceful and prosperous life.
Not to say that Kurdish separatists have been blameless in their tactics. But two wrongs do not make a right.
So, if an (let's say) "American White Christian" terrorist group started attacking the US government and was demanding their own "homeland" be carved out of the territory of the United States of America, your position would be that - since two wrongs don't make a right - the US government should give them their "homeland" (despite the fact that they never had one before).
Or would that be a case of "That's DIFFERENT!!!"?
The Kurds can live a peaceful and prosperous life WITHIN Turkey simply by admitting that they are citizens of Turkey and stopping their attempts to dismember the country. The Kurds can live a peaceful and prosperous life WITHIN Iraq simply by admitting that they are citizens of Iraq and stopping their attempts to dismember the country. The Kurds can live a peaceful and prosperous life WITHIN Syria simply by admitting that they are citizens of Syria and stopping their attempts to dismember the country.
In fact "The __[fill in the blank 1]__ can live a peaceful life WITHIN __[fill in the blank 2]__ simply by admitting that they are citizens of __[fill in the blank 2]__ and stopping their attempts to dismember the country." is of universal application.
Your counterposition is fair.
I feel that the default position should be that separatist movements should be frowned upon, and if one turns to widespread violence against innocent civilians, even put down. But there can be exceptions. The United States, for one. Was not the United States born as a separatist movement?
Your position of "NO ONE should be allowed to use violence in a 'separatist' movement - except us, of course." is noted.
PS - Actually the "separatist" bit of the American Revolution was a necessary adjunct to the struggle between the "England based financial elite" and the "Colony based financial elite" over who got to have the biggest share of the spoils arising out of taking land away from the people who already occupied it.
Don't assume that I believe that the American Revolution was a good idea.
In March of 2018, Erdogan and the Turkish military (with the Islamist Ahrar al-Sharqiya militia) invaded (Operation Olive Branch) the far western Kurdish canton of Efrîn (Afrin) in the Syrian Kurd homeland of Rojava. It is unknown how many Kurds were killed, but ~250,000 either fled for their lives or were forcibly expelled. These displaced Efrîn Kurds were then replaced by Sunni Arabs from the (Assad/Putin) destroyed Syrian city of Eastern Ghouta. What we have here is Erdogan engaging in the ethnic-cleansing of the Kurd population in northern Syria. At the moment there is a US military blocking force located at Minbic (Manbij), but this is due to be removed any day now by Trumps orders which will open the way for Turkish forces to invade and cleanse the remainder of Rojava.
These are the Syrian Kurds that have been fighting on the ground against ISIS in Syria for the US since late 2014.
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