IMAGE: Sergei Novikov/TASS
Russia is working to form a large local force in northeast Syria that would operate in the region from which the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) withdrew, the Step News Agency and many other outlets reported on December 15.
“Russian forces have begun to form military militia affiliated with them in the countryside of al-Hasakah, within the areas of Amuda, al-Darbasiyah and Tell Tamr, in northeast Syria … The mission of these militias will be to deploy in the positions evacuated by the SDF on the Syrian-Turkish border,” Abdulrahman al-Ahmad, the Step News Agency’s reporter in northeast Syria, said.
The SDF withdrew at least 30 km away from the border with Turkey last month in the framework of a Russian-Turkish agreement. The Russian Military Police facilitated the withdrawal process.
According to the Step News Agency, the new local force will be under the direct command of Russia, which will also provide training, arming and logistics.
While these reports remain unconfirmed for the time being, Russia established similar local forces before in Aleppo, Homs, Daraa and around the Syrian capital Damascus. Moscow also helped to establish the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) 5th Corps in 2015.
If this is real, it is a big move. It would lock down the area and lock out the US coalition. If it is successful, other areas could want to participate. Then Russia has 24/7, realtime intel on everything. So, if this is carried through with, it would be another step in pouring the concrete in the area.
I hope that when problem in the NE is solved, the SAA will finally launch the large scale offensive on Idlib.
I am thinking that Idlib is right on schedule.
the urgent matter is idlib and once that is sorted it will be a final push to kick the kurds into submission and back as tenants in the borderland. it will happen and there will nothing much for the unhinged states of A, or israel for that matter, to do to prevent it.
They should have done this everywhere long ago instead of relying on the SAA.. ISIS hunters and such were like SAA but volunteers and not the same as local militias which the US uses to enforce their occupation.
No, they should not.
The SDFs were doing fine there compared to almost anywhere else in Syria. That included Afrin.
Kurdish National Council (ENKS) supported by Barzani & Erdogan is expected to replace ruling communist guerilla (PKK/YPG) who is now wearing fake SAA uniforms for photo news & trolling at the Turkish border.
Typical from below the belt. This time its unwashed feet.
Ae you sure, I just checked a few kurdish news sources and there’s no conformation yet, if you’re right I think it’ll create problems with the YPG and some of the Arab factions, not to mention how badly the Christians and other minorities will take the news, I forsee huge problem if you’re right, a pro Turkish Kurdish military force protecting the Syrian border from Turkish proxies is a recipe for disaster.
So you think Christians living under Barzani rule in Northern Iraq living an hell life. Sounds logic. Good propaganda.
It’s not propaganda, it just stating the reality of events, that’s if what you asserted is correct. Google search for Syriac, Yazidi relations with Turkey and the opposition forces they control, fear, hatred, loathing are what you’ll find, they don’t have a good relationship at all. And as to the KNC, just a while ago they were condemning Turkey for continuing the invasion, so as much as they and the Iraqi KRG get along well with Turkey, both groups have recently asked Erdogan to halt the invasion, so I’m not even sure the KNC would like to volunteer for the position of border guards, they’d end up piggy in the middle and hated by both sides in the end. We’ll see what happens if what you say is correct, I predict huge problems for both Turkey and Syria, but I may be wrong, maybe a pro Turkish Kurdish militia in control of the Syrian/Turkish border would do the exact opposite of what I think it would, we’ll see.
I could find propaganda news for pro-Erdogan, too. As a Kurd I’m not obliged to believe Erdogan, either.
Keyword to search on Google “The construction of a new Syriac Orthodox Church in the metropolis of Istanbul will add “new richness” to the city, Turkey’s president said on Saturday.” https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/syriac-orthodox-church-gives-istanbul-new-richness/1548812
Keyword to search on YouTube “The recently liberated Syrian town of Ras al Ayn is home to several Christian communities. Since Turkish forces drove the YPG terror group from the town as part of Operation Peace Spring, churches have begun to reopen. TRT World’s Obida Hitto visited an Armenian Orthodox Church in town and has this report. ” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB478ka7-zg
It’s up to you, to believe. You’d also consider entire media industry is an huge fakery…
I’m afraid any news from a Turkish news source is totally unreliable, I read Turkish news all the time and it’s a total mess, truth is the last thing you’ll ever see read or hear on Turkish media. I suspect the new Syriac Orthodox Church in Istanbul will be a showpiece that’s all. And I could nearly imagine the TV crew and some thugs holding the man’s wife hostage in the next room while they did the interview, that’s how bad I think the Turkish media is now. If you were in the position the local population is in now, Kurdish, Arab, or one of minority groups, would you feel safe with the so called moderate opposition in control of the area, would you feel safer with them than you would with the US controlled SDF. And as I said the local KNC has asked the Turks to stop the invasion, and so did Barzani a few weeks ago [I think when he visited Turkey], so even the two pro Turkish Kurdish political groups are objecting to the Turkish invasion and occupation of Syria. But no group of people are all the same, the Kurds are a diverse group, the Arabs are a diverse group, and each of the minorities are diverse groups too, so it’s not one size fits all, but I suspect the overwhelming majority of all these groups would be opposed to the Turkish occupation, the Turkmen population would perhaps feel differently.
“You’d also consider entire media industry is an huge fakery”
That’s something we can both agree on.
But who will make up the ranks if this new force, will it be a coalition of different ethnic and political groups, or just drawn from the ranks of just one ethnic or political group, favouring just one group is hopefully not what the Russians have in mind, I don’t think that would be a very good solution, but a coalition of all the different political and ethnic groups certainly would be. They get a salary of 150,000 Syrian pounds [US 297 dollars], if that’s per week they’re on very good money, if it’s per month they’re not, which means they’re either going to be very well trained and equipped with high morale, making them crack troops and very reliable, or otherwise underpaid, undertrained, underequipped, and unresponsive, so hopefully the Russians are paying their salaries, there’s more chance they’ll be getting the 150k per week that way and be crack troops.
blinkers on as usual and oblivious to the obvious. do it again and do it right, your analysis that is.
Analyzing everything you’ve said up until now I come to the conclusion, you’re a paid for Turkish troll.
not really but an acute analytical mind and obviously that is something a number of parties here don’t have, like Azriel Herskowitz for example.
You and your mate Ariel both work for Erdogan, that’s obvious. The good cop bad cop routine does work well but not on everyone, it’s like a Jedi mind trick, it only really works on the weak willed. Eventually we’re going to blow up every one of those Turkish OB posts in Syria, and if the Turks don’t move out before we do, we’ll blow them up with the Turks in them, no matter what Putin has to say about it.