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The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have allegedly handed over the Tabiyah oil field and its nearby facilities to the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance following a visit of Syrian and Russian representatives to the SDF-held city of Hasakah.
According to reports, units of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) with some unidentified “Russians” have already entered the oil field area. However, no photos or videos confirming these claims are available online. The situation remains unclear.
At the same time, reports are circulating that SDF representatives are set to attend a meeting at Russia’s Khmeimim airbase in the province of Latakia on November 10. The sides will allegedly discuss a number of issues, including a de-escalation of tensions between the SAA and the SDF.
These tensions have been growing since the SDF launched an advance north of Deir Ezzor in September. Many experts described the move as an attempt to seize key oil and gas infrastructure on the eastern bank of the Euphrates while the SAA faces the main ISIS forces near Deir Ezzor and Myadin on the western bank.
On October 19, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) destroyed a 130mm artillery piece of the SAA with Spike NLOS missile in Qaus al-Sindiyana base south of Harfa village near the Golan Heights.
The IDF said it was a response to a projectile that hit the Israeli-held territory. The IDF added it “holds the Syrian regime responsible for any aggression from its territory & won’t tolerate attacks threating Israeli sovereignty.”
On the same day, the SAA recaptured Bard’ayyah Hill near Mughr al-meer village east of Beit Jinn town in Western Ghouta from militants. According to pro-government sources, the Israeli strike was a widely expected response to the recent SAA advances in the Damascus countryside.
Tel Aviv believes that if the SAA and its allies clear an area near the Syrian-Israeli contact line from terrorists, it will allow Hezbollah and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to operate there and to pose an additional threat to Israel.
Israel is really scared of Hezbollah obviously.
Not scared… Wary, and not wary of Hezbollah, but of Iran stationing troops and operatives on its borders. Same would happen if Israel and Iraq would somehow ally and Israeli troops would be stationed next to the Iranian oilfields near the gulf or something
But there are ISraeli troops all around Iraq!
They are called american army…
Exactly . Jewmericans.
And as such the Iranians are themselves wary, or as Joe likes to put it: “scared”.
Iran is not afraid of israel.
I didn’t say afraid, I said wary.
And ISIS thanks America.
No scared of Hezbalah? In 2006 that those shaking boys that they call IDF looked scared. Something changed with their morale?
Nothing, but maybe better.
That’s a gross misinterpretation… Israel signed a ceasefire in 2006 because it was pressured by the entire world to do so after several weeks of fighting that left the Hezbollah HQ in Beirut in ruins and Hassan Nasrallah in a bunker (which he resides in ever since since he’s scared Israel will knock him off).
You seem to know very little about that “little victorious” war.
I didn’t say Israel was victorious, I say that this was no resounding Israeli defeat/Decisive Hezbollah victory, it was not.
The operatives only can be Hezbollah and some units of other shia groups. Is that forbidden? If Syria invites them to come? Guests should have free ways. Israel is nothing without the world criminal Nr. 1 called USA. But ironically that big fat criminal (US) is the lapdog of Israelis. The land is called Palastine. Where are the residents by law of Palastine? Did you ever heard something about that item in your western (french) school? If the invaders of Palastine need a buffer zone they have to take the surroundings of New York City or Hollywood.
“The operatives only can be Hezbollah and some units of other shia groups. Is that forbidden? ” That’s bullshit, Iranian operatives are already on the border with the heights.
“If Syria invites them to come? Guests should have free ways”
Their motives are quite clear though.
” Israel is nothing without the world criminal Nr. 1 called USA.”
Same way Syria is nothing without Russia? Assad was losing the war until Russia intervened in 2015.
“But ironically that big fat criminal (US) is the lapdog of Israelis.”
No it ain’t, even the most pro Israeli Christians (the Evangelicals) don’t really love Israel, they simply believe that if the Jews build their 3rd temple then Jesus would come back.
“The land is called Palastine.”
The land between the river and the sea has many names, Palestine was simply the Roman name for it (should I also mention that the Romans were foreigners to the Land of Israel?)
“Where are the residents by law of Palastine?”
What? I don’t understand what you’re trying to explain here.
“Did you ever heard something about that item in your western (french) school?”
Lol what are you talking about?
“If the invaders of Palastine need a buffer zone they have to take the surroundings of New York City or Hollywood.”
Moronic comparison, also after all Jews already control New York and Hollywood no? So they don’t have to take what’s already under their control according to you.
The reason that Israel took over the Golan Heights in the first place was because Syria was unwilling to sign a ceasefire in 1967 after Israel already dealt with Egypt and Jordan (same thing applied to Jordan, with Egypt it was a preemptive strike). And since the Syrians who were at war with Israel, controlled the high ground with view over the Megiddo valley, thus Israel dislodged them from their strategic position. Since Syria was unwilling to trade the Golan for peace (the Khartoum accords which were signed by most members of the Arab league I believe), The heights remained and continue to remain Israeli, and prosper as a result.
Your twisted history is as comical as revolting. The land in Biblical times was called Philistine in Phoenician. Palestine is its latin name. Philistine was invaded by the nomadic Egyptian tribes called Israelites. Israel was never a land but it was the general name of the Israelites as a people. However the Israelis of today have no lineage to the Israelites of biblical times whatsoever. The overwhelming majority of Israelis are Khazarians, who converted to Judaism in the 7th century AD. (Read the Enciclopedia Judaica). They are not even a semitic race! Ironically, the true discendants of the Israelites are the Palestinias, most of whom were Jews who converted to Islam during the Abyssid Arab empire from around 700 to 1,200 AD.
“Your twisted history is as comical as revolting. The land in Biblical times was called Philistine in Phoenician.”
No, the land in Biblical times was called either Canaan or the Land of Israel. Second of all the name Philistine doesn’t come from Phoenician, it comes from Hebrew, the name means Plishtim in Hebrew, from the root of Peleshet, which according to scholars comes either from a place in Anatolia that the Philistines came from, or from the Hebrew word “Polshim”, or “Invaders”, signalling that the Philistines were as they’re described in the Bible and by the Egyptians, foreign sea people who also by the way don’t have any proven relation with the modern Palestinian Arabs who descend mostly from Saudis and Egyptian Arabs.
“Philistine was invaded by the nomadic Egyptian tribes called Israelis.”
And you say I twist history. First of all if you want to go with the biblical story then the Israelites/Hebrews weren’t Egyptians but foreign slaves in Egypt who were led back to the land of Abraham Issac and Jacob, their patriarchal forefathers. However according to modern Historians and Archaeology the Exodus never happened, because the Israelites themselves were indigenous Canaanites (Hebrew is a Canaanite language, a sister language to Phoenician for example), who slowly but surely eventually developed their own distinct identity from the rest of the Canaanites, culminating during the Babylonian exile.
” Israel was never a land but it was the general name of the Israelites as a people.”
Load of crap, the Land of Canaan saw at least 4 Jewish entities throughout the Late Bronze and Iron age all the way to the Hellenistic period.
First the United Kingdom of Israel Then the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel The Persian province of Yahud (which means Jew in several languages) And the Jewish Hasmonean kingdom.
All of those entities were Jewish/Israelite, please name one independent “Palestinian” Arab entity that existed in the Land of Israel in the past 3,000 years.
” However the Israelis of today have no lineage to the Israelites of biblical times whatsoever. The overwhelming majority of Israelis are Khazarians, who converted to Judaism in the 7th century AD. (Read the Enciclopedia Judaica).”
The Khazarian hypothesis has been debunked several times with the use of genetics, Ashkenazi Jews are East Mediterranean genetically and also share genetic ties with the rest of the Jewish people going back to the Levant at least 2,500 years ago. But besides, most Israeli Jews today aren’t Ashkenazi but Mizrahi and Sephardi.
“the true discendants of the Israelites are the Palestinias, most of whom were Jews who converted to Islam during the Abyssid Arab empire from around 700 to 1,200 AD.”
Genetics do seem to show that some Palestinians have ancestry from the ancient Jews, but most of their ancestry derives from Arab invaders and Egyptians (Arafat for example was of Egyptian descent) and Africans who were transported through the Levant during the Arab slave trade. The Palestinian identity is relatively new, not predating the second half of the 20th century. In fact, during most of the early Zionist movement in the late 19th century and the early 20th century the Jews were referred to by their Arab neighbors in Ottoman South Syria (Israel of today) as “Palestinians”, and indeed throughout the past 2,500 years at least foreigners referred to the Jews as Palestinians (Herodotus called the auxiliaries in the Persian Army who came from the Levant “the Circumcised ones”, and the German philosopher Immanuel Kant called the Jews “Palestinians living among us”.
Your bogged re-writing of hostorical facts is disgusting. Israel’s invasion of the Golan heights occurred during the Zionists unprovoked so called ‘pre-Umptive war’ aka expansionist war against the Arab world in 1969. It was a war of aggression, invasion and occupation. Israel had to strike deals with both Egypt and Jordan only after the 1973 Yum Kippur war which Israel lost. Syria refused to sign any deals with the Zionist entity of Israel UNTIL the Zionists relinquish their illegal occupation of the Syrian Golan and restitutes the occupied Syrian Golan lands to Syria, its rightful owner. The Israli occupied Syrian Golan is only prosperous for the foreign Zionist invaders and settlers of the invaded and occupied Syrian sovereign land. The indigenous Syrian inhabitants of the Golan, like their breathren in Palestine, live under a constant state of terror, brutality and repression by the illegal Zionist occupiers of their sacred land.
“our bogged re-writing of hostorical facts is disgusting. Israel’s invasion of the Golan heights occurred during the Zionists unprovoked so called ‘pre-Umptive war’ aka expansionist war against the Arab world in 1969.”
1967*, and I didn’t say that the Israeli advance on the Golan Heights was preemptive (I believe I made it rather clear when I was saying that the attack on Egypt was preemptive, seeing as Nasser closed off the straits of Tiran and kicked out the UN peace keeping force, thus justifying an Israeli preemptive strike, after which Egypt was joined by Syria and later Jordan in the war, even though Israel said it would not attack unless attacked).
“Israel had to strike deals with both Egypt and Jordan only after the 1973 Yum Kippur war which Israel lost.”
Israel was already in secret negotiations with Egypt concerning the idea of peace for land (specifically peace with Egypt for the Sinai peninsula) already before the 1973 war. Also Israel didn’t lose that war, when the ceasefire was signed Israel’s army crossed the Suez canal and captured the city of Suez and was 100 km from Cairo, as well as 40 km from Damascus.
“Syria refused to sogn any deals with the Zionist entity of Israel UNTIL the Zionists relinquish their illegal occupation of the Syrian Golan.”
That is not true, after the 1967 war Syria was among the nations who signed the Khartoum accords, of which the key words from that accord were: No recognition of Israel No negotiation with Israel
This accord was signed by all the Arab neighbors of Israel.
” The Isralimoccupied Syrian Golan is only prosperous for the foreign Zionist invaders and settlers of the invaded and occupied Syrian sovereign land. The indigenous Syrian inhabitants of the Golan , like their breathren in Palestine, live under a constant state of terror, ”
A big load of crap, the Druze who live in the Golan heights were given Israeli blue IDs and the right to vote in municipal elections, the Golan Druze are the ones who prefer to reject the opportunity of Israeli citizenship because they remain loyal to Syria.
Also, the Arabs of Israel aren’t living under a constant state of terror, they have citizenship, a right to vote and be elected (Israel has a big Arab party in its parliament and has had several Arab supreme judges).
You seem to be quite ignorant on the subject.
How many arab Pms and ministers had the zionist-occupied Palestine?
It’s called the State of Israel, and your question is irrelevant. The Israeli Arab citizens have equal opportunity to vote and be elected to state and public positions including that of Prime Minister. As for how many Arab ministers there are currently 15 Arab MPs in the current Israeli parliament, there have been plenty more ever since the 1st parliament convened 70 years ago.
So, there never was an arab in a high place, right?
Supreme judges and members of parliament count as high places mate.
I don’t think so. De facto apartheid. This is a de-facto situation of apartheid. 20% of population and no arab minister? No arab chief of army? No arab Mossad director? No arab PM? Come on…. Even Saddam’s Iraq was more tolerant toward christians..
“I don’t think so. De facto apartheid. This is a de-facto situation of apartheid. 20% of population and no arab minister?”
There’s no Arab minister because basically all Arab MPs are in the Arab union party, which is in the opposition, being in the opposition means not being a part of the government therefore not getting any ministerial positions. In contrast Israeli Druze who become politicians in many of the parties, including parties in the current government such as the Likud party, and they receive ministerial positions (take Ayoob Kara for example).
“No arab chief of army?”
Arabs (not including Bedouins, Circassians and Druze) are by law exempted from mandatory service in the military (the reason should be obvious, it’s out of respect for their position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), they are however free to volunteer if they so choose. And as for command roles in the army, again I shall give the example of the Druze who are drafted into the IDF like Israeli Jews and have had several members of their community reach command positions in the army (for example Ghassan Alian, current Chief Paratroopers Officer who also commanded the Golani Brigade.).
“No arab Mossad director? No arab Mossad director?” So? Iran has had no Jewish President or director of its secret service. Many countries didn’t have minorities as leaders of state, that doesn’t make them racist by definition, especially if by law nothing prevents them from striving to said positions.
“Even Saddam’s Iraq was more tolerant toward christians..”
Can’t say the same about the Kurds though can it?
So arabs are always at opposition. De facto they don’t have any power. What does opposition control in governments? Nothing. And the only possibility they could have to become important is to become “dhimmi” and join likud or something like that. About the Kurds, we are seeing in these days, Iraqis had all the reason to put them in their place. They’re trying to grab land in Iraq (Kirkuk) and Syria (DeZ) and oppressing minorities in territories they control. They won’t succeed of course, they have no possibilities and there is no room for a American-puppet state in Iraq and Syria. But they are trying and surprise!: Israel is behind thm. SO, Saddam was right if we see the thing from a geopolitical point of view.
ABORTION RIGHTS FOR OMAR!!!!!!
And one more: Next the Hizbollah organisation will hurt USrahell more than in 2006. Believe me.
Tough words, wonder if there’s any real teeth to them. Meanwhile it’s obvious that while total war between Hezbollah and Israel will take its toll on Israel, it would be Hezbollah that fight a losing war in the end, that would leave all of Lebanon a pile of ruins, might also lead to a regional war that would cost the lives of millions. If Hezbollah is interested in the deaths of millions of their kin, then they are indeed psychotic and irrational warmongers.
You mean like NATO stationing troops and operatives on Russian borders and building up forces size and strength while probing its defenses. A nation of laws in which all abide by and are applied across the board fairly is a just and trusted nation. Internationally the same applies to nation states in a multi lateral win-win.
Uni lateral (Empire in pillage and burn conquering mode) can not be trusted and vassal states are cowed into submission and are doomed as all Empires crash and burn.
“A nation of laws in which all abide by and are applied across the board fairly is a just and trusted nation. ”
Are you talking about Russia?
To begin with the Israeli invaded and occupied Syrian Golan is Syrian so Iran would be stationing its troops on the Syrian borders. Second, there is a one mile demilitarized zone between the Israeli invaded and occupied Syrian Golan and the actual Syrian Golan which has been invaded and occupied by the Israeli terrorosts of al-Nusra aka HTS. Finally Iran is already surrounded by US/Zionist bases right on its borders. That would counter balance such existential threat for Iran’s existance.
“To begin with the Israeli invaded and occupied Syrian Golan is Syrian so Iran would be stationing its troops on the Syrian borders.”
Please spare me the play of words, Iran has a goal in stationing those troops next to the border with the heights, same way Hezbollah stations troops with Iranian weaponry next to Israel’s legit 1948 borders with Lebanon.
“Second, there is a one mile demilitarized zone between the Israeli invaded and occupied Syrian Golan and the actual Syrian Golan which has been invaded and occupied by the Israeli terrorosts of al-Nusra aka HTS.”
Assad has already taken half the border back though.
“Finally Iran is already surrounded by US/Zionist bases right on its borders. That would counter balance such existential threat for Iran’s existance.”
Not exactly surrounded, the Americans have bases in Kuwait and Afghanistan and the ones in the latter aren’t even near the Iranian border.
All non sense. You need to learn history. Hezbollah has been created in the 70’s not in the late 40’s. When Hezbollah was created, Iran was still under US/Zionist rule, namely the tyrant Sha Palevi. The Islamic revolution of Iran was in 1979. Second, the Syrian government only occupies 1/5 of the Golan. The rest is divided between the Zionist terrorists of al-Nusra aka HTS and ISIS. The Israeli Zionist junta is preventing the Syrian government forces from reclaiming their own territory from the Zionist terrorists. Finally, The border is not only land, but sea. On land Iran is surrounded by the US military bases in Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan. At sea, by the US 5th fleet stationed in Qatar and all other bases within striking reach of all of Iran’s territory.
First you say this: “All non sense. You need to learn history.”
Then you say this: “Hezbollah has been created in the 70’s not in the late 40’s.”
First of all please name where I wrote that Hezbollah was created in the 1940’s. Second of all Hezbollah was created officially in 1985 under the influence of the Iranian revolutionary guard.
“When Hezbollah was created, Iran was still under US/Zionist rule, namely the tyrant Sha Palevi.”
Nope
“Second, the Syrian government only occupies 1/5 of the Golan. The rest is divided between the Zionist terrorists of al-Nusra aka HTS and ISIS.”
True, because it’s against Israel’s geopolitical interest that Iran would be stationed on the Israeli border, same way Russia supports Assad, because it’s within its interests that the Pro Russian Assad remains in power, since the port of Latakia is the last Russian influenced Naval base in the Mediterranean after the fall of Libya. That is why it’s so crucial for Russia that Assad stays. Russia isn’t helping Assad out of some sort of Benign Altruism.
Not in Turkey though, you’re free to look it up (Google US military bases near Iran). The ones in Pakistan aren’t close either.
The are pissing in their pants before the start shot.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article198369.html
RECONQUERING FORMER TERRITORY
The Military Strategy of the New Turkey
by Thierry Meyssan
The Turkish army imagined a military strategy like a Russian doll. The official purpose of the operations that have just begun is to fight the jihadists. In actual fact, the real purpose of leading these operations is to prevent the creation of new States, the Rojava and Kurdistan. The operations are masking the possible implementation of the national oath of 1920 with the conquest of North East Greece, the entire Island of Cyprus, Northern Syria and Northern Iraq; the conquering of former territories publicly demanded by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Breaking with the Davutoğlu doctrine (“zero problems with your neighbours”), which he had already abandoned in practice leading his dismissing his Prime Minister, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defined his country’s new objectives during a speech on 15 October 2016, given at a university named after him.
Operation of 8 October 2017
Following an agreement concluded between Russia and Turkey during the most recent Astana negotiations, the Turkish army entered the governorate of Idleb, violating Syrian sovereignty, in order to combat the jihadists there.
The Turkish army distinguishes between the following groups:
– the Syrian Turkmen which it had gathered under the flag of the former Free Syrian Army (FSL) and which it intends to use as a support in the region.
– the Jihadists that accept to continue their fight in South East Asia and which should be transferred there by Turkish Secret Services (MIT).
– all the others, which should be eliminated.
Furthermore, the Turkish army already occupies Al-Bab, also violating Syrian sovereignty.
The Turkish presence at Idleb cuts the Rojava’s access to the Mediterranean Sea. Its presence at Al-Bab offers it the possibility of cutting the Rojava into two and wiping out this pseudo State.
The Joint Operation of 12 October 2017
Turkey, Iran and Iraq had met to deaden the vague hopes of an independent pseudo Kurdistan. The Barzani family and Israel have gradually swallowed up territories thanks to local conflicts and war. In 15 years, the territory administered by the Barzanis and Israel under the name “Iraqi Kurdistan” has multiplied its areas by fivefold to the detriment of the native, Arab and Christian populations. On 25 September 2017, the Barzani family and Israel organized a referendum on independence. Following a vote that was largely rigged, especially in the Christian areas, the yes vote reached 92 %. During a popular festival, the Barzani family, brandishing Kurdish and Israeli flags, announced that the process for independence was irreversible. The journal Kurds-Israel revealed that an agreement had been concluded between Tel-Aviv and Erbil providing for 200,000 citizens to be transferred to the “Kurdistan”, once independence had been declared. The Israeli army intends to promptly station missiles there to threaten both Syria and Iran.
The pipeline linking the pseudo Kurdistan to the port of Ceyhan (Turkey) will be closed by BOTAŞ, the Turkish public operator which owns it. Accordingly, the Barzanis’ oil revenues would be cut. Currently, Kurdish oil is chiefly exploited by the French company Total. It is sold in the European Union, Ukraine and Israel where it represents almost the entire domestic consumption.
The Turkish and Iranian air space will be closed with the pseudo-Kurdistan. Taking account of the war, Syrian air space is not practicable for civil flights. Flights from and to Erbil will necessarily have to pass through Bagdad.
The border-posts between Turkey and Iran on the one side and the pseudo Kurdistan on the other, will all be closed, thereby cutting custom revenues of a potentially new State. So as to maintain Turkish-Iraqi trade relations, a new route will be open along the Syrian-Iraqi border permitting Ankara to be linked up to Bagdad. The Iraqi army will station 13,000 men to guarantee its security, whilst the construction works for a new pipeline along this route will begin at once.
This route will cut communications between the pseudo-Kurdistan and the Rojava.
Since 2015, the Turkish army has been occupying Bachiqa (the pseudo-Kurdistan), thereby violating Iraqi sovereignty.
An ultimatum (by 1 November at the latest) will be addressed to the Barzani family preventing it from announcing independence. In case it refuses, the Turkish army is preparing to declare war against the pseudo-Kurdistan. It would make a two-pronged attack on Erbil, from the Turkish border on the one hand, and from the new route that has been secured by the Iraqi army, on the other hand.
In 1920, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, drafts a national oath challenging the winners of the First World War and claiming the annexation of new territories for the Muslim populations whether they are in the majority or minority.
Objectives of the New Turkey
Three months after the assassination attempt and the coup d’etat were aborted in July 2016, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered an inaugural address at the university which bears his name (RTEÜ). He then provided a glimpse into the ambitions of the Turkish Republic following its creation and those of the new regime. Making explicit reference to “the National Oath” (Misak-ı Millî), adopted by the Ottoman Parliament on 12 February 1920, he justified conquering former territories. This oath, which lays the basis for the passage of the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic, claims the territory of the North East of Greece (Western Thrace and the Dodecanese), the whole of Cyprus, Northern Syria (as well as Idleb, Alep and Hasakah), and Northern Iraq (including Mosul).
In 1939, France only granted Hatay (Syria) to Turkey. Paris was also hoping that Ankara gets rid of its orthodox Christians which have their patriarchal base in Antioch.
Having counted off these territories one by one, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is claiming them in his turn [1].
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the only Head of State of a developed country to challenge the international order and to publicly claim, where necessary by force, new territories.
Thierry Meyssan
Translation
Anoosha Boralessa
[1] “’We Are Present in the History of Mosul”, Presidency of the Republic of Turkey, October 15, 2016.
I am 100% pro Syria Government, but I do not like the Turks/Ottomans. I am European and we have here in my country turks and Kurds. To decide between I will be always on kurdish side because I am a supporter of the palastian freedom. But I do not support a division of Syria or Iraq. IMO both new Syria and reformed Iraq could help Kurds to help their brothers in eastern Turkey. There the stone of wisdom is to gain more benefit for creating self-administrated regions for kurds who never had a kurdistan which for sure never exists.
I like any people of good will, dislike colonialists ! Kurdistan is in Turkey/Iraq/Iran/, not in Syria where they were guests !
Some friends are Turks, some others Kurds… ================================== http://www.voltairenet.org/article197437.html
The Kurds: Washington’s Weapon Of Mass Destabilization In The Middle East
by Sarah Abed
Like the Palestinians, the Kurds aspire to dispose of their own state. However, since the dislocation of the Ottoman Empire, some of their leaders have favored alliances with some imperialist powers rather than those with their neighbors. These leaders – and the families attached to them – have turned into an imperialist joker to disturb the Middle East. They tried to establish puppet states, successively in Iran, Iraq and Syria, that is to say on the lands of those who had welcomed and protected them. Sarah Abed tells us their story.
In 1917, the creation of Kurdistan, Armenia and Israel was one of the war aims of US President Woodrow Wilson. After having sent the King-Craine Commission to verify the exact location of the populations, he proclaimed Kurdistan by the Sevres Conference (1920), here in pink on the map. The conference also recognized the possibility of the hatched area (currently in Iraq) voluntarily joining Kurdistan by referendum. However, this state never saw the light of day and was abrogated by the Lausanne Conference. Only this territory, and only this one, may be legitimately demanded by the Kurds.
Historical accounts of the Kurds have been a subject of mystery and perplexity for years, and have been seldom discussed by major Western media outlets until recently. Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the ongoing conflict in Syria, Kurds have been romanticized by mainstream media and U.S. politicians alike to justify a Western interventionist narrative in those countries. Ever since the U.S. invaded Syria, the U.S. and Israel have supported the semi-autonomous Kurdistan, with Israel purchasing $3.84 billion dollars worth of oil from them, a move that could have geopolitical and economic ramifications for both parties [1].
In 2015, the Financial Times reported that Israel had imported as much as 77 percent of its oil supply from “Kurdistan” in recent months, bringing in some 19 million barrels between the beginning of May and August 11. During that period, more than a third of all northern Iraqi exports, shipped through Turkey’s Ceyhan port, went to Israel, with transactions amounting to almost $1 billion, the report said, citing “shipping data, trading sources, and satellite tanker tracking.”
The sales are a sign of Iraqi Kurdistan’s growing assertiveness and the further fraying of ties between Erbil and Baghdad, which has long harbored fears that the Kurds’ ultimate objective is full independence from Iraq.
In 1966, Iraqi defense minister Abd al-Aziz al-Uqayli blamed the Kurds of Iraq for seeking to establish “a second Israel” in the Middle East. He also claimed that “the West and the East are supporting the rebels to create [khalq] a new Israeli state in the north of the homeland as they had done in 1948 when they created Israel [2]. Interestingly enough, history is repeating itself with their present-day relationship – the existence of which is only acknowledged in passing by either side for fear of retribution.
For much of the conflict in Syria, several Kurdish militias have become some of the U.S.-led coalition’s closest allies within the country, receiving massive amounts of arms and heavy weapon shipments, as well as training from coalition members [3]. Kurdish militias also dominate the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the U.S.-backed group best known for leading the coalition-supported offensive targeting the Daesh (ISIS) stronghold of Raqqa.The weapons that the United States has provided Kurdish and Arab fighters in the anti-Islamic State coalition include heavy machine guns, mortars, anti-tank weapons, armored cars and engineering equipment.
In May, U.S. President Donald Trump approved arming Kurdish militiamen in Syria with heavy weaponry, including mortars and machine guns [4]. Within one month of Trump’s approval, 348 trucks with military assistance had been passed to the group, Anadolu added. According to the news agency’s data, the Pentagon’s list of weapons to be delivered to the group includes 12,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 6,000 machine guns, 3,000 grenade launchers and around 1,000 anti-tank weapons of Russian or U.S. origin.
The United States’ shipments included 130 trucks, with 60 cars passing on June 5, and 20 vehicles on June 12, per Sputnik News [5].
On June 17, Sputnik News reported that the United States is still supplying the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria with ammunition to fight Daesh, delivering 50 truckloads in one day alone, according to Turkish media reports. Earlier in the day, the trucks reached the city of al-Hasakah in northwest Syria.
Both historical and modern day ties between Israel and the Kurds have brought benefits to both sides. In the past, Israel has obtained intelligence, as well as support, for a few thousand Jews fleeing Ba’athist Iraq. The Kurds have received security and humanitarian aid, as well as links to the outside world, especially the United States. The first official acknowledgment that Jerusalem had provided aid to the Kurds dates back to Sept. 29, 1980, when Prime Minister Menachem Begin disclosed that Israel had supported the Kurds “during their uprising against the Iraqis in 1965 to 1975” and that the United States was aware of this fact. Begin added that Israel had sent instructors and arms, but not military units.
Ethnic Kurdish Israelis protest outside the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 8, 2010.
The Kurds are the largest group of nomadic people in the world that have remained stateless since the beginning of time. This fact has allowed Western powers to use the “stateless” plight of the Kurdish people as a tool to divide, destabilize and conquer Iraq and Syria, where colonial oil and gas interests run deep.
The U.S.-led coalition of war criminals is using elements of Syria’s Kurdish population to achieve its goal of destroying the non-belligerent, democratic country of Syria, led by its popular, democratically-elected President Bashar al-Assad [6]. Washington seeks to create sectarianism and ethnic divides in a country that, prior to the Western-launched war, had neither.
However, Kurdologists reject this characterization because it does not fit into their account of historical events that attributes a state to them at one point in time. Their estimated population is 30 million, according to most demographic sources. They also reject the idea that they are being used as pawns [7].
Responding to a question about where the autonomous administration would “draw the line” on U.S. support and the support of other superpowers, the co-leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), Salih Muslim Muhammad, stated “Our guarantee is our mindset. It depends on how much we educate and organize our people. If we defend our morals and ideology, then bigger powers cannot use us as pawns.” [8]
Perhaps no other group of people in modern times has been as romanticized in the Western conscience as the Kurds. Consistently portrayed as “freedom fighters” who are eternally struggling for a land denied to them, the Kurds have been frequently utilized throughout history by other countries and empires as an arrow and have never themselves been the bow.
In today’s case, the Kurds are being used by NATO and Israel to fulfill the modern-day colonialist aim of breaking up large states like Iraq into statelets to ensure geopolitical goals. When nations are divided into smaller statelets, they are easier to conquer by foreign entities. This is a signature move that powerful imperialist nations use for the purpose of colonizing smaller and less influential nations. The Kurds have been utilized as pawns in this “divide and conquer” strategy throughout history and continue to allow themselves to be used by colonial powers.
Ultra-leftist opportunists or real revolutionaries?
In an article written in 2007, NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr stated that the Kurds of Iraq have a long history of being used as pawns in regional power struggles [9]. Now, they are finding themselves in the middle of a contest between the United States and Iran for dominance in the Middle East.
In 1973, President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had the CIA instigate a Kurdish uprising in northern Iraq against Saddam Hussein. The United States walked away from the rebellion when Saddam and the Shah of Iran settled their differences, leaving the Kurds to face their own fate. Interestingly, the Kurds seem to have developed amnesia by once again choosing to cooperate with Washington, which has repeatedly used them solely for its own benefit.
In the Gulf War over the Iraqi seizure of Kuwait in 1990, President George H.W. Bush appealed to the Kurds, as well as the Shiites in the south, to rise up in rebellion against Saddam.
Victorious in that war, the American military permitted Saddam to retain his helicopter gunships, which he used to retaliate against the Kurds, along with Shiites, by the hundreds. American public opinion eventually forced the administration to establish northern and southern no-fly zones to protect the two populations.
Kurdish loyalty to America has cost them quite a bit, and so it is with a certain narcissism that the Bush administration presumed to tell the allegedly autonomous Kurds what kind of relations they could entertain with other countries in the region, including American rival Iran [10]. But the Kurds appear to be finding themselves in a contest between the U.S. and Iran for dominance in the Middle East yet again.
Andrew Exum, a former top Pentagon Middle East policy official who served as an Army Ranger, stated ”… this decision — to arm a group closely associated with a foreign terrorist organization, and one that has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state — will likely reverberate through U.S. relations with Turkey for decades to come.” [11] The Turkish government has long insisted that the Kurdish militia is closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist group known as the PKK. That group is listed by Turkey, the United States and Europe as a terrorist organization.
A rough estimate found in the CIA Factbook sets the Kurdish population at 14.5 million in Turkey, 6 million in Iran, about 5 to 6 million in Iraq and less than 2 million in Syria, which adds up to close to 28 million Kurds in what they refer to as “Kurdistan” and adjacent regions.
However, other sources state that there are only about 1.2 million Kurds left in Syria due to the carefully calculated and planned imposed war by NATO and its Gulf Allies. Roughly the same number migrated to Germany during the past six years.
It’s important to differentiate between Kurdish people who have assimilated in the countries they now reside in and reject the idea of establishing a “Kurdistan” and those who are power hungry and are allowing themselves to team up with the West and Israel to assist in the destabilization of the region. Some Kurdish people in Syria, especially those that reside in areas that are not controlled by the Kurds, such as Damascus, are loyal to the Syrian government and have stated that they voted for Assad in 2014.
This free and democratic election saw Assad win 88.7 percent of the popular vote over the other two nominees [12]. In the beginning of the war in Syria, there were Kurds fighting in the Syrian Arab Army, who received arms and salaries just like their Syrian counterparts. There are a small number that are still in the Syrian Arab Army in the southern Syria.
But in northeastern Syria, many Kurds have defected to the U.S.-led SDF where arms, salaries, and training are provided by the U.S. Syrians consider the Kurds who have remained loyal to Syria as their fellow Syrian brothers and sisters and the descriptions of Kurdish treachery in this article do not apply to them. The loosely-knit coalition of Syrian rebel groups known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), are armed, trained and backed by the U.S. The group is currently engaged in the early stages of battle in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria.
The loosely-knit coalition of Syrian rebel groups, including Kurdish factions, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), are armed, trained and backed by the U.S.
Independence and disunity
An important thing to remember is that the ethnic marker “Kurd” refers to speakers of several different related, but distinct, languages. The two most important are Sorani in Iraq and Iran and Kurmanji in Syria, Turkey and smaller contiguous regions in Iraq and Iran. Sorani tends to use Arabic script, while Kurmanji uses Latin script, which shows how different they can be from one another.
Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is predominantly made up of Sorani speakers, while the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), PYD and other nationalist groups in Syria and Turkey speak Kurmanji. This division naturally maps these divergent political expressions. It is not as simple as superimposing the KRG’s borders over the PYD and PKK-controlled territory.
On the other hand, Turkey does not contest Sorani speakers’ aspirations to the same extent as it does Kurmanji speakers. Encouraging the autonomy of the Iraqi Kurds should not entail the same problems for the Turco-American alliance as encouraging Syro-Turkish Kurdish nationalism would.
The quest for independence is intrinsic to Kurdish identity. However, not all Kurds envision a unified Kurdistan that would span the Kurdish regions of four different sovereign countries. Most Kurdish movements and political parties are focused on the concerns and autonomy of Kurds within their respective countries. Within each country, there are Kurds who have assimilated and whose aspirations may be limited to greater cultural freedoms and political recognition.
Kurds throughout the Middle East have vigorously pursued their goals through a multitude of groups. While some Kurds established legitimate political parties and organizations in efforts to promote Kurdish rights and freedom, others have waged armed struggles. Some, like the Turkish PKK, have employed guerrilla tactics and terror attacks that have targeted civilians, including their fellow Kurds.
The wide array of Kurdish political parties and groups reflects the internal divisions among Kurds, which often follow tribal, linguistic and national fault lines, in addition to political disagreements and rivalries. Tensions between the two dominant Iraqi Kurdish political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) escalated to a civil war that killed more than 2,000 Kurds in the mid-1990s.
Political disunity stretches across borders as well, with Kurdish parties and organizations forming offshoots or forging alliances in neighboring countries. Today, disagreements over prospects for Kurdish autonomy in Syria or Iraqi Kurds’ relations with the Turkish government have fostered tensions that have pitted the Iraqi KDP and its Syrian sister organization, the KDP-S, against the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the PYD. Still, adversarial Kurdish groups have worked together when it has been expedient. The threat posed by Daesh has led the KDP-affiliated Peshmerga to fight alongside Syrian PYD forces.
Kurdish groups have, at times, bargained with not only their own governments but also neighboring ones – in some cases at the expense of their relations with their Kurdish brethren. The complex relationships among Kurdish groups and between the Kurds and the region’s governments have fluctuated, and alliances have formed and faltered as political conditions have changed. The Kurds’ disunity is cited by experts as one of the primary causes for their inability to form a state of their own.
The Kurds’ illegal, unjustified claims for autonomy
The West claims that the Kurds are one of the most moral and dignified forces in the Middle East fighting against Daesh. But if their focus is on defeating Daesh, as they claim, why are they committing genocide against Syrians in the process? [13] Taking this into consideration, it is hard to justify the West’s persistent claim that armed Kurdish terrorist groups are trying to help Syria. The reality on the ground contradicts these empty compliments, which the West uses to save face while supporting these terrorist organizations. This false narrative was in fact used to arm the Kurds in Syria in order to create instability and division.
It is strange that the Kurds would be so antagonistic towards Syrians, as the country has largely been welcoming for them. For example, reforms were made in Syria in 2012 to benefit the Kurds. “President Assad issued a decree granting Arab Syrian citizenship to people registered as foreigners in the (governorate of Hassake),” said the SANA news agency. The measure, which benefited about 300,000 Kurds, came a week after Assad tasked a committee with “resolving the problem of the 1962 census in the governorate of Hassake.”
In January 2015, SANA news reported that then-Syrian Prime Minister Dr. Wael al-Halqi said “the Kurds are a deeply-ingrained component of the Syrian society and Ayn al-Arab is part of Syria that is dear to the hearts of all Syrians.” [14] Al-Halqi’s affirmation came during his meeting with a Kurdish delegation which comprised Kurdish figures. He also urged all to discard violence and spread amity, reiterating that a solution to the Syrian crisis could be achieved “through national dialogue and consolidating national reconciliations,” indicating that dialogue will definitely be “under the homeland’s umbrella away from foreign dictates.”
In 2014, The Civil Democratic Gathering of Syrian Kurds said that the steadfastness of the people of Ayn al-Arab in the face of terrorists was a form of expression of the Syrian Kurds’ commitment to their affiliation to their homeland of Syria [15]. The gathering’s Higher Council of Secretaries said that the steadfastness of Ayn al-Arab was cause for admiration, and that attempts to transgress against the territorial integrity of Syria were parts of a plot to cause chaos and division and undermine the resistance axis.
These are just a few examples of the Syrian government’s attempts to unify all of those who live within the country’s borders. But even with these actions of good faith, the SDF has chosen to side with Syria’s enemies rather than work with the Syrian army.
A recent agreement – initiated and brokered by the U.S. between a Free Syrian Army (FSA) faction and the Kurdish-led SDF lays out conditions whereby U.S.-initiated negotiations would allow the FSA faction al-Muatasim Brigade to peacefully take over 11 villages in northern Syria that are controlled by the SDF. The general outlines of this unprecedented agreement were announced on May 10, stating that the U.S.-led coalition had delegated to al-Muatasim the task of being in charge of and administering the designated villages.
Al-Muatasim is known to be a strong ally of the U.S., which is why it was chosen to be in charge of the designated villages. This further proves the point that the U.S., SDF and FSA are still working together. Their cooperation is part of an effort to counter the progress being made by the Syrian Arab Army and its allies.
(To be continued…)
Sarah Abed
[1] “Israel Is Challenging America to Support Kurdish Independence”, Dov Friedman & Gabriel Mitchell, New Republic, July 3, 2014
[2] “Surprising Ties between Israel and the Kurds”, Ofra Bengio, Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2014 (Middle East Forum).
[3] “U.S., allies rush heavy weapons to Kurds to fight militants in Iraq”, David S. Cloud & Brian Bennett, Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2014. “Trump to Arm Syrian Kurds, Even as Turkey Strongly Objects”, Michael R. Gordon & Eric Schmitt, The New York Times, May 9, 2017.
[4] “Trump Approves Plan to Arm Syrian Kurds”, Courtney Kube, NBC News, May 9, 2017.
[5] “Syria’s Kurdish Militias Get 50 Trucks With US Armored Vehicles, Munition”, Sputnik, June 17, 2017.
[6] “The Kurdistan projects”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 5 September 2016.
[7] “Syrian Kurdish PYD co-leader dismisses possibility of ‘being used as pawns’”, Kom News, April 16, 2017.
[8] “Middle-East – the Kurdish people used as a pawn by the Western powers”, Class Struggle 103, Winter 2014, (International Communist Union).
[9] “Kurds Often Used as Pawns in Power Struggles”, Daniel Schorr, NPR, January 15, 2007.
[10] “The Kurds as Charlie Brown”, Daniel Schorr, Christian Science Monitor, January 19, 2007.
[11] “Trump Moves To Defeat ISIS By Arming Syrian Kurds”, Jack Davis, Western Journalism, May 10, 2017.
[12] “The Syrian People Have Spoken”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Voltaire Network, 6 June 2014.
[13] “The United States and Israël begin the colonisation of Northern Syria”, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 2 November 2015. “U.S. Coalition Cleansing Raqqa Of Arabs To Expand Kurdish “Autonomous Region””, Mint Press, June 20, 2017.
[14] “Premier al-Halqi: Kurds are integral part of Syrian society”, Sana, January 29, 2015.
[15] “Civil Democratic Gathering of Syrian Kurds: Ayn al-Arab will continue to raise the Syrian flag”, Sana, October 31, 2014.
fucking sperm, who paste the whole article!
Fucking Zionist troll, Solomon never existed ! The Torah is just a bush shepherd 700BC bad copy of 3’000BC Babylon Sumerian religion
On the pretext of buffer zone actually Israeli refugees annexing land from surrounding countries. This is Israeli intelligent strategy and it works fantastically.
There is no race for Syrian oil. All oil and gas wells will end up under Syrian governmental control. Most likely by negotiations, if not, then by force.
I am not sure about that, remember that USA troops (soo called kurds SDF) are there to stay there.
That airstrike did more damage than reported. It allowed the Zionist backed al-Qaida, HTS to launch and counter offensive and take back the hill from Syrian government troops.
Not possible. There are Elite Units of the Syrian Army are operating. To catch means hold it.
As usual the claims that the Syrian government troops had captured the Omar oil fields were not true as it was not true that the Russians killed HTS leader Juliani. Russia has now joined the US in a bag of lies campaign hurled at the general public. We deserve respect and to be told the truth. We are wary of this propaganda lie campaign by the Americans and the Russians, while they make pacts and deals behind our backs. Fact is agreement has already been reached between the Americans and the Russians to keep Syria as the lame duck of the Middle East totally reliant on Western and Russian charity in order to appease the Zionist and American interests in not permitting Syria, (which rightly is an Iran ally because only Iran genuinly has Syria’s interests at heart) , to stand on its feet again on its own. This is disgusting, even the more so when one considers that the Syrian people will be feeding on the paper of the ‘paper factory’ while the fat corrupt Western corporate Mafia will be looting Syrials natural resources on the Eastern banks of the Euphrates river.
Israeli are really shameless. First or later they will pay, and they will pay for all.