This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: NATO

  • Turkey and the Kurds and US

    An Israeli Kurdish woman holds a Kurdish flag as she takes part in a rally outside the US embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel (26 October 2017)

    I’m still not understanding what the angst is between the Turks and the Kurds, who are successfully doing their job in northeastern Syria, with backing from the U.S. government. Since both Turkey and the USA are allies in NATO, this issue needs to be resolved, and soon, too, since the Taliban have returned like a stomach ache.

    Part I:

    Turkey’s Erdogan threatens new push against US-backed Syrian Kurds

    By: Suzan Fraser, The Associated Press 31 OCT 22018

    ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s president said Tuesday his country has finalized plans for a “comprehensive and effective” operation that would target a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in Syria east of the Euphrates River, a move that could further increase tension in the area where U.S.-led coalition forces are based.

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks came days after the Turkish military shelled Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, militia positions and following repeated warnings to expand Ankara’s operations to northeastern Syria.

    Turkish forces have already forced the Syrian Kurdish forces from west of the Euphrates in two cross-border operations, in 2016 and 2018. Ankara considers the militia a terror threat and an extension of Kurdish rebels waging an insurgency within Turkey.

    “Soon, we will descend on them with more comprehensive and effective” force, said Erdogan, who has long vowed to clear all of northern Syria of the militia. He spoke to ruling party legislators.

    Full story is here: https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2018/10/31/turkeys-erdogan-threatens-new-push-against-us-backed-syrian-kurds/

    Part II:

    US, Turkey begin joint patrols around northern Syrian town of Manbij

    By: Suzan Fraser, AP and Bassem Mroue, AP  1 NOV 2018

    ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish and U.S. troops on Thursday began jointly patrolling areas around the northern Syrian town of Manbij, part of a roadmap for easing tensions between the two NATO allies, Turkey’s defense minister announced.

    Responding to questions by legislators in Parliament, Hulusi Akar said the patrols began at 3:53 p.m. (1253 GMT) but did not provide further details.

    Sharfan Darwish, spokesman of the Manbij Military Council, told The Associated Press earlier that the patrols have started and are taking place on the front lines between his group and those of Turkey-backed rebels in the operation called Euphrates Shield.

    Ankara and Washington agreed on a roadmap in June amid Turkish demands for the withdrawal of the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia that freed Manbij from the Islamic State group in 2016.

    The U.S. and the Turks have been conducting independent patrols along the front line and joint patrols are considered a way to tamp down potential violence between the various groups in the region. The sides have conducted 68 independent patrols before the combined patrols started.

    The Manbij Military Council that administers the town says the Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which Turkey views as a terrorist group, left Manbij in July.

    Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group because of its links to the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey. It had threatened to storm Manbij to oust the group from the region. (Okay, I get that part, but the Kurds have been there for some time, since before Saddam Hussein was born, and it is nothing new.)

    The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, also said the patrols would follow days of Turkish shelling of positions of the main Kurdish militia.

    The Observatory and Kurdish spokesman Mustafa Bali said Turkish troops opened fire on the border village of Tal Fandar killing an 11-year-old girl.

    So, are the Kurds the terrorists that Erdogan thinks they are?

    Originally, back in The Long Ago, they were nomads in that area, just as the Mongols were and still are in Mongolia. They make up the 4th largest indigenous ethnic group in the Middle East, but never obtained a status as a permanent state. At the end of World War I, with the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres provided status for a Kurdish sovereign state. However, when the boundaries of modern-day Turkey were set by the Treaty of Lausanne, no such provision was included for the creation of an independent and autonomous Kurdish state. This BBC article provides near-complete information about this history. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29702440

    Perhaps it’s time, or even past time, to address this issue head-on, and end the conflict between Erdogan and the Kurds. They have been, after all, successful at chasing out ISISers in Iraq when the Peshmerga had to withdraw, and Turkey refused to attack ISIS positions, resulting in the deaths of many, many Yazidis.

    I think the real problem is “turf”. It’s an amorphous thing, but Erdogan sees all of the Lausanne-based boundaries of modern Turkey, including the parts occupied by Kurds, as his “turf” and he’s unwilling to bend even an inch on that.

  • 24th Marine Expeditionary Heading to Norway for NATO

    https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/09/06/24th-marine-expeditionary-unit-will-head-to-norway-to-join-40000-troops-strong-nato-exercise/

    Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, are slated to participate in one of the largest NATO exercises later this fall hosted by Norway, according to Marine officials.

    The exercise, dubbed Trident Juncture, is one of the largest for NATO in more than a decade and will feature nearly 40,000 troops, over one hundred aircraft and dozens of allied ships — all in close proximity to the Russian border.

    But the extent of the 24th MEU’s participation is currently unknown. Marine officials cited operational security concerns and would not provide any further details. – Article.

    Per the article’s author, the presence of several thousands of US Jarheads appearing in Norway for a joint NATO MEU exercise is likely to upset the digestive systems of the Russian people who occupy the highest seats in the Kremlin. That would be Vlad Putin, and whoever his upper level military officers may be at this time.

    I’m sure they will be watching closely with the best binocs they can get from China. Doesn’t China also make long distance visual equipment for US troops and sailors and GIRines? Maybe we should move manufacture of that stuff home now. I can’t tell, for example, if my glasses are made in Beijing or in the back of the Lenscrafters shop, but I’m sure there is an Oriental connection there somewhere, because plastics!!!

    Just glad to know that they announced it so that we know that they know that we know that they know that we know that they know!!!

  • Turkish lawyers want to raid Incirlik Air Base and arrest U.S. Air Force officers

    A-10s

    The Air Force Times reports a group of Turkish pro-government lawyers have filed charges against U.S. Air Force officers associated with Incirlik Air Base, based on allegations that they are connected to a movement that attempted a coup d’état against Turkey’s government in July 2016.

    The lawyers seek a temporary halt to all flights leaving Incirlik Air Base — an important staging point for combat operations against the Islamic State group — and access to the base via a search warrant, according to court documents unearthed by the Stockholm Center for Freedom, a group of exiled Turkish journalists.

    Depicted in the graphic above are three reasons why this is a very bad idea.

    The papers were filed at the chief public prosecutor’s office in Adana, where Incirlik is located. The lawyers who submitted the request are from the Association for Social Justice and Aid, which the exiled Turkish journalists described as a non-governmental organization fronting for senior Turkish officials.

    The lawyers also asked in their petition for the “arrest of the commanders of the U.S. Air Force who are the superiors of the soldiers based at ?ncirlik and took a role in the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016,” according to the documents.

    U.S. officials did not provide comment on what, if any, actions were planned to deal with the charges, but did deny that the U.S. government was involved in the attempted coup.

    “Any reports that U.S. government or military personnel had any previous knowledge or involvement in a Turkey coup attempt are baseless and completely false,” Mark Mackowiak, a U.S. European Command spokesman, told Air Force Times.

    “We value the strong, mil-to-mil relationship and partnerships we have with our Turkish counterparts and continue to carry out our important mission at Incirlik,” he added.

    The last statement is code for, if these bastards didn’t live at an extremely important choke point, we wouldn’t give them the time of day.

    In 1992’s Sea Sparrow Incident, the Turks demanded the executions of American sailors who mistakenly fired two missiles at TCG Muavenet DM-357 (previously USS Gwin) during a NATO exercise. The incident was the result of both human and systemic failures. The sailors who actually fired the missiles were not punished, but the ship’s commanding officer, four other officers and three enlisted men received admiral’s non-judicial punishment, an action which effectively ended their US Navy careers. No one was executed, and the Turks settled for blood money, instead.