Erdogan launched what Islamists are openly calling a jihad against the Kurdish YPG faction. Thousands of Turkish soldiers, along with tanks and artillery, have blasted their way across the Turkish border into Syria.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the model of a clever jihadist leader who employs a combination of stealth and violent means to attain his expansionist dreams of a revived Ottoman Empire.
After the fall of the Ottomans, and soon after the declaration of the Republic of Turkey, Ankara’s goal became to destroy all non-Turkish elements within the Republic, with a primary target being the Kurds and the Armenians. Now Erdogan has taken up that effort once again. As he aims to destroy the historic culture and identity of the Kurds, he has deceptively (and cruelly) called his jihad invading death squads “Operation Olive Branch.”
On January 20 and 21, 90,000 mosques prayed Qur’anic “conquest” prayers calling on Muslims to be “ruthless against unbelievers” and for victory against the Kurds, right before Erdogan’s thousands of soldiers were dispatched.
Yet despite Erdogan’s unsavoury record, he still manages to sell to Western leaders the idea that he is “moderate.” Earlier this week, Pope Francis rolled out the red carpet for him; Erdogan took opportunity to ask the Pope to help lead a “concerted and continuous international effort to fight Islamophobia.” He also deceitfully “discussed the plight” of Christians in the Middle East and “promised to mobilize Turkish support to help them in every possible way, just as the Ottomans did in their 600-year history.”
Erdogan has also declared that the European headscarf ban started a battle between the Cross and the Crescent. He continues to deny the atrocious Armenian genocide; has supported the Islamic State and the Muslim Brotherhood; and has long been on a global campaign to compel Western nations to criminalize “Islamophobia.”
All world leaders, especially the Pope, should be condemning Erdogan and his unrighteous persecution of the Kurds, particularly now that Erdogan has “dispatched his army into Syria to decimate them.”
“Turkey’s Erdogan Declares Jihad on Religious Minorities in Syria”, by Lela Gilbert, Newsmax, February 6, 2018:
Turkey’s irascible President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is once again infuriated with a Kurdish group and has dispatched his army into Syria to decimate them.
On January 20, Erdogan launched what Islamists are openly calling a jihad against the Kurdish YPG faction. Thousands of Turkish soldiers, along with tanks and artillery, have blasted their way across the Turkish border into Syria.
With a cynical choice of words, the Turks have code-named their invasion, “Operation Olive Branch.”
Under Erdogan’s leadership, Turkey’s military is believed by some to be a threat to Middle East peace. Perhaps more alarming is that Erdogan’s troops also comprise NATO’s second largest army.
Since Operation Olive Branch was launched, Turkish soldiers have been making their way toward Afrin City. But their progress has been slower than expected.
Egypt’s Al-Ahram reported on Feb. 4, “Ankara is heightening the pitch of its chauvinistic rhetoric on Kurdish militias and U.S. policies in northern Syria, but is making painfully meagre progress in its ground offensive….”
Afrin is a canton in Syria’s northwest, populated largely by Kurds. Many in Afrin’s population belong to the YPK, a Kurdish militia that has heroically fought alongside United States forces against the Islamic State/ISIS.
In the complicated Middle East, however, one man’s hero is another man’s terrorist. In Erdogan’s narrow-eyed view, the YPK (and several other Kurdish groups) are terrorists.
So the Kurdish communities in the Afrin region — many of them civilians alongside displaced minority families who fled the Syrian war — are once again literally under the gun.
Since the fighting began on Jan. 20, Turkish fighters have slaughtered over 900 soldiers and civilians, including Christians, Yazidis, and other unarmed civilians.
Many of the displaced people in the region were originally from Aleppo, a city that has historically had a Christian community of about 250,000. Aleppo used to be the largest city in Syria. But with the rise of sectarian violence beginning in 2010, many displaced Christian families were forced to flee to Afrin, Idlib, and other northern safe havens. There they were joined by Yazidis and other minorities.
Tragically, those safe havens are now warzones.
According to UN figures, today 323,000 people are living in Afrin and nearby areas under Kurdish control. Of them, 192,000 are in need of humanitarian aid and 125,000 are what the UN terms “internally displaced persons,” or IDPs, from other parts of Syria.
As this latest fighting began to heat up, Twitter was alight with warnings from church groups in Afrin and nearby communities, pleading for help.
Some refugee parents posted online photos of their children living in tents, entirely unprotected as shells and shrapnel rained down on them. Others were photographed hiding in caves, cringing at the sound of incoming bombs and bullets.
Scores of appeals for help from trapped Christians have been tweeted and retweeted. One message from a local Pastor Hanan pleaded for international intervention and protection.
“As the Good Shepherd Church in Afrin city,” he wrote, “we demand urgent international protection for the believers in Afrin and the cease of this Turkish shelling….”
Pastor Hanan also pointed out the very real danger that the present upheaval may help ISIS or al-Qaida to make a regional comeback.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that foreign fighters are joining the battle against Turkey in support of the YPG.
One volunteer posted online, “We have fought Daesh [ISIS] before in Raqqa, in Deir ez-Zor, and now with the fascist Turkish state that we are fighting here in Afrin.”
Unrepentantly, Erdogan has threated to extend Operation Olive Branch further into Syria, and to remove all “terrorists,” so he can transport some three million refugees, presently sheltering in Turkey, back in to Syria for repatriation.
One Feb. 3 report quotes Erdogan saying that the fighting is about to end. At the same time, Hurriyet, a Turkish news source, reports that the Turkish army is getting close to the Afrin City Center. It also reports that Erdogan’s AKP party is seeking approval from Parliament, “for Turkey’s ongoing military operation into the Syrian district of Afrin.…”
Will Erdogan’s ever-expanding ambitions succeed? Will anyone — NATO, Russia, Iranian, Syrian, or any other force — stand in Erdogan’s way?
The Economist sums up the very volatile situation, and warns the conflict could spiral out of control…..
mortimer says
This is GENOCIDE. NATO must immediately tell Turkey that it may not DECIMATE anyone. President Trump needs to broker a deal before precious innocent lives are destroyed by the MADMAN OF TURKEY.
Can no one stop him? Erdogan is a virtual dictator. Turkey has virtually no freedom of expression. Anyone concerned about human rights needs our immediate support.
Long live independent Kurdistan.
Lydia Church says
Last thing he was talking to frankie about combating ‘islamophobia’ more, next thing he is on a genocidal spree! Not waiting a second to show his true colors I see! Is this a battle against ‘islamophobes’ because they have not embraced islam? According to their definitions, if one is not muslim, he is an ‘islamophobe.’ Truth: if one is not muslim, it is because he is smart!
mortimer says
Look where the APPEASEMENT of Pope Francis has led! Just as I thought, Erdogan considers the pope’s APPEASEMENT of Islamic supremacism as the WEAKNESS of the West and the SUBMISSION of the RCC to ISLAM!
The first DHIMMI POPE!
Bill says
You have that right Mr. Mortimer.
I have always maintained that Communist Jorge Mario Bergoglio would be one of those feckless but dangerous actors on the world stage who would cause the death of countless people across the globe. Initially I took that position believing him to be naive and blind to the evils before him: a useful tool self-indulgently thinking himself noble, holy and embracing peace for all. I recognized some time ago that he is not naive. He knows what he is doing and acts intentionally. Apart from the daily slaughter of Christians, which he tolerates while paying weak lip service in opposition to the slaughter, he will have now have the blood of the next Kurdish genocide on his hands. Destruction of Israel and the slaughter of Jews is part of his agenda. He will make his normal soft dissembling statements to the contrary, but in his actions and in what he refuses to say and do, he will pave the way for the death of millions. That is what Communists are good at and known for. He is one of them.
StellaSaidSo says
+1
Baucent says
Yes had all the look of Hitlers meeting with Neville Chamberlain.
Librarian 50 says
Pope Francis is not an appeaser, he is a collaborator. The Roman Catholic Church has turned itself into a political institution run by a dyed in the wool Marxist.
Bennya1 says
Sorry for the stupid question.
Who are the YPJ & YPG?
I know they are Kurds but, what do they represent and why is Turkey going after the YPG and not the YPJ?
Thanks in Advance
ElderlyZionist says
From what I read, the YPJ is a branch of the YPG. The YPJ is an all-female self-defense militia under YPG organization and command. The Turks and their Free Syrian Army stooges are fighting both organizations. The Kurdish woman soldier whose corpse the FSA defiled the other day was a YPJ fighter:
https://thekurdishproject.org/history-and-culture/kurdish-women/ypj/
https://sofrep.com/99174/fsa-defends-against-mutilation-of-ypj-fighter-accusations/
Baucent says
Be very interesting to see how this develops. Erdogan has got the Caliph complex himself and believes he is in fact the rightful heir to that title and would dearly like to regain the old territories of the Ottoman Empire, that fell apart almost exactly 100 years ago. Is it fate? Does Erdogan have some grand plan to occupy northern Syria to create a “security buffer zone.”. He watched Syria meddle in Lebanon for years, maybe that’s his endgame plan in Syria. The Turks will not leave and he’s gambling the West will do nothing.
MFritz says
Dropping the mask once again, great leader?
ElderlyZionist says
“The Economist sums up the very volatile situation, and warns the conflict could spiral out of control…..”
A-yep.
Yesterday the US Air Force bombed the cr*p out of Syrian Arab Republic forces who were attacking our Kurdish allies near Deir al-Zor:
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2018/0208/939228-syria-attacks/
It looks like we’re trying to draw a western border for Syrian Kurdistan on the Euphrates River. Also yesterday an American general made a speech to US troops in Manbij city, saying we would stay there and fight with the Kurdish defenders.
I wonder how many of our ‘Coalition’ partners will join us in action, fighting the Turks and/or the Syrians if this goes hot? RAF? Armee de l’Air? Luftwaffe? Saudi Air Force? Emiratis?
I wonder whether Putin will send Russian soldiers to be human shields for Assad’s troops?
As far as I know, our supply lines for Syrian Kurdistan run from Basra port through Iraqi Kurdistan. I wonder whether the Iranians will allow us to supply a war via this route, or whether they and their Iraqi partners will try to shut it down?
If the Iranians allow us to fight a war for Syrian Kurdistan, will that be because they see us defeating their rivals for them, and clearing the way for Iranian hegemony in Syria?
WorkingClassPost says
US needs to show ‘solidarity’ with Kurds, and it’s easier to bomb Assad’s guys, than it is to hit the Turks.
Oleg Gielman says
It is very unlikely Trump will ask for permission from anyone to protect, prop and support our ally (The Kurds), especially when the word “decimate” was used by their (and our) enemy.
ElderlyZionist says
A war from the Shatt al-Arab through Iraq and via Kurdistan into Syria against Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Russia would be a handfull, even for the United States. I hope that doesn’t happen.
Jerry Zavage says
The Pope gave the aspiring. Caliph the green light to do this by showing his weakness.
Wellington says
I agree, Jay Boo. NATO has become a lesser organization for two reasons: 1) the continued dhimmi posture of many Western European countries which are in NATO; and 2) Turkey’s continued existence in NATO considering that the Turkey of Ataturk (who certainly was not a man for freedom but he was one who had a realistic view of Islam and Turkey in the past served as a southern bulwark against the USSR and sometimes free nations have to make certain compromises with non-free polities) is no more and has been replaced with the Turkey of Erdogan and thus now an Islamic state and no Islamic state belongs in NATO because NATO is about the protection and promotion of freedom and Islam is anything but.
GreytigerTX says
This is the face of evil incarnate. Possibly the antiChrist
Lydia Church says
Bullseye!
Halal Bacon says
gee, and I thought Sultan Ergodan was just hugging the pope the other day
Tom says
“Assimilation is a crime against humanity. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam, Islam is Islam. The mosques are our barracks, The minorets are our bayonets, The cupolas our helmets, and the faithful our soldiers.” Tyyip Erdogan, President of Turkey 2008.
Does any more have to be said. Erdogan is a leader in the world wide Jihad and will do anything to attain the goal of a new Caliphate.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Christine Williams, call It any name you like, Turkey has to decimate these idiot agents of treacherous evil united states. Erdogan Will not take It lightly, hence action !!
Lydia Church says
Yes, show us the depths of the darkness that lies in your soul and the soul of islam!
“Turkey has to decimate these idiot agents….”
Definition of the word decimate:
dec·i·mate
ˈdesəˌmāt/Submit
verb
past tense: decimated; past participle: decimated
1.
kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of.
“the project would decimate the fragile wetland wilderness”
2.
historical
kill one in every ten of (a group of soldiers or others) as a punishment for the whole group.
Sounds like hitler to me! “Ve must kill these jooooz, these evil joooos must be decimated…!
They are subhuman and must be killed!!! Vat are you vaiting vor!”
So, what were you calling ‘evil’ again???
Eric jones says
Turkey under Erdogan is another threat at the gates of Vienna all over again. Trump must forget his towers in Istanbul and put the interest of the USA first. Erdogan’s claim is that he is against the Kurds is his only target is false. His real goal is to finish what ISIS started. Erdogan is an Islamist to the end and must be dealt with as such.
Eric
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Éric Jone, any attempt to attack Turkey by evil united states means end of evil united states. Let your savage mad devil dog move and See what Will follow. It means droping more power ful Hydrogene nuclear bombs .Idiot monkeys
Billy Chickens says
Ibrahim I.M.
That’s big talk with no meaning. Is that what your Big Black Mithra Mecca Rock told you to say?
Everyone in the world knows that the US has more nuclear power than Turkey.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Billy chickens, such powerful Hydrogene nuclear bombs Will Come from somewhere you never expect if muslim Turkey is threatened. There is nothing your mithraist evil god the Satan (holy spirit) can do.
diane wyder says
His Holiness Pope Francis: “he is one of them” an enemy of the Church and mankind … Woman Clothed with the Sun, come and do not delay
al uzza bint-allaha says
jihad is a wide held commodity in the muslim world, and used liberally.
pretty much anybody who hates somebody, declares jihad on that person.
not related, erdogan’s picture at the top, makes me think he should have his head checked.
Politicianophobia says
He is not the first evil, bastard, all in the name of Allah.