Originally appeared at MoonOfAlabama
The three days of unilateral ceasefire Syrian and Russia had announced and kept for the besieged east-Aleppo expired today. No evacuations took place, no civilians or fighters left and no aid was delivered as “rebels” inside the besieged area shelled all possible crossings.
The U.S. supported al-Qaeda aligned Jihadis have used the pause to prepare for another attack on the government held parts of Aleppo city with the aim of opening a passage into the besieged eastern areas. They received enormous amounts of new weapons and munitions from the U.S. and their other supporters. The child beheaders of the U.S. supported radical Zinki group warnedcivilians in west-Aleppo city to stay away from military positions. That is impossible as the refugee filled, densely populated areas are in the immediate neighborhood of the front lines.
The renewed attack is expected in the south-west of government held west-Aleppo near the Ramoush-area and the Artillery Academy where the first attempted breach battle also took place. A second attack is expected in the north-west near the Castello road. It is possible that Turkish supported forces, who battle Kurdish troops to the north-east of Aleppo-city, will also try an attack on the city. The fight against the Kurds is a Turkish attempt to keep its logistic lines of communications to the Islamic State open. Turkey has supported, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the Islamic State for years. An attack on Aleppo by directly Turkish supported forces would be a serious breach of the Turkish-Russian agreements and lead to a further serious escalation and internationalization of the war. Turkey will not dare such a move without full U.S. support.
We have maintained here for some time that the Turkish President Erdogan has designs for Aleppo as well as Mosul. He wants to incorporate both cities and all areas north of and between them into Turkey. Erdogan now publicly announced these aims:
Speaking during an opening ceremony for an educational institution in Bursa on Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared the way that Syrians and Iraqis have been driven away from homes because of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS; ISIS/ISIL), to how Turkish people were once forced out from the same cities.Erdogan added that the cities of Mosul and Aleppo belong to the Turkish people.
This is a serious misinterpretation of teh areas population history and of Turkey’s international agreements and borders as delineated after the first world war.
Erdogan also lamented that Turkeys national leaders were born outside of Turkey’s current borders. Something he implied he will strive to correct. The Greek will not be happy to hear that. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, was born in Thessaloniki.
The U.S. and its machinations against Syria and Iraq have set fire to a combustive area. It created an Islamist “revolution” in Syriathat had no genuine base within the country. The Obama administration is now again fanning the flames. It supports Turkish moves on Mosul which the Iraqi government strongly rejects. Instead of calming down the war in Syria it again and again supports with new arms, money and propaganda the advances of al-Qaeda with its expansive designs in the area and beyond. An explosion, involving Russian forces and war with and within Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon is longer impossible. This is a very shortsighted playing of the great game. Serious consequences for countries of important U.S. interests, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, will then become inevitable.
But the U.S. induced pro-Jihad propaganda is endless. Consider this tweet by the president of the Eurasia Group, a “political risk consultancy”. Bremmer has 200,000 Twitter followers:
ian bremmer @ianbremmerStatue of Liberty made from bombed rubble of Aleppo, by Syrian artist Tammam Azzam. Devastating.
8:36 AM – 22 Oct 2016
When I saw it first it had some 1,200 retweets.
It took me two minutes to find out that this picture was photoshopped (which is obvious) and published first in February 2013 by an Italian news-site. The artist lives and works in Dubai, not Aleppo. I responded:
Moon of Alabama @MoonofAPic first published in February 2013 – http://www.italnews.info/2013/02/12/tammam-azzam-larte-per-ricostruire-la-siria/ …
Artist lives+works in Dubai not Aleppo
@ianbremmer is a propagandist9:57 AM – 22 Oct 2016
My tweet was retweeted some 90 times. But it found an echo in an Al Arabia interview with the artist and at the Independent’sIndy100 site:
[D]uring an interview with Al Arabiya.net, Azzam said he was ‘surprised’ by what he said was the ‘wrong interpretation’ the picture had recently received, compared to the more positive reactions it received in 2012.
…
The Syrian artist explained: “The Statue of Liberty in New York does not represent US politics and I used it only as the symbol of freedom.”“The piece at the time was carrying a message of optimism despite all of the destruction in Syria,” he added “but that was a long time ago.”
Meanwhile Bremmer’s propaganda has been retweeted some 13,000 times with just as many “likes”. He didn’t retract it despitebeing called out and the multiple proven lies it contains. Why should he? The propaganda effect, with its implied call for military U.S. war intervention, is obviously great and such propaganda is what he gets paid for. His group is consulting on “political risk” it seem to actively help to create.
My immediate interpretation when seeing that artwork was the USA is responsible for the destruction that has fallen upon Syria and that is what to expect when you hear the US government scream “freedom”.
“Consulting on “political risk” it seems to actively create” , shows how propaganda has no respect for the truth . So no acceptance of responsibility for creating death and destruction . Turkey is becoming the “new” ISIS . Erdogan has a very large army, and he wants Syrian and/or Iraqi oil fields , only Russia , or China could move him back to the border.