Turkey will maintain military presence in Syria

The story comes from Al Arabiya.

Turkey will maintain military presence in Syria

The Turkish army said Friday it will keep a military presence in Syria despite officially ending its offensive in the country’s north against the ISIS militants.

“Our activities continue for the protection of our national security, to prevent any undesirable entity, to allow our displaced Syrian brothers and sisters to return to their country, and to ensure security and stability in the region,” the military said.

The Turkish armed forces said in a statement this “phase” of its operation against ISIS and “terrorists” in the region was “successfully completed.”

The completion of the operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield” had been announced by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Wednesday, who nevertheless did not rule out new military campaigns inside Syria.

At the time, neither Yildirim nor the top advisory national security council had said whether or not there were plans to withdraw Turkish troops.

Turkey launched in August its unilateral operation with Syrian rebels to remove ISIS from its border and to halt the Kurdish militia advance.

Dozens of Turkish soldiers were killed by ISIS during clashes and attacks as Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters recaptured towns including Jarabulus, Al-Rai, Dabiq and Al-Bab.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Friday the completion of the military operation did not mean Turkey would ignore what takes place on its southern border.

“There should be no meaning taken from this that Turkey will remain indifferent to the security risks or will not engage there,” Kalin told reporters in Ankara.

“Just the opposite actually, security measures in the region continue at the highest level,” he added, without giving further details.

Turkey has suggested it wants to join any operation to capture ISIS stronghold Raqa, but without the Kurdish militia it views as terrorists.

Turkey appears to be sidelined as US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces including Kurdish fighters are laying the groundwork for an assault on the heart of the militants’ so-called caliphate.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would give no comment on Turkish involvement during his visit to Ankara on Thursday.

Turkey ‘to strike Syrian Kurd militia’ unless it leaves Manbij

You know, it takes NOTHING to keep Turkey from justifying killing Kurds.  Nothing.

The story comes from Al Arabiya.

Turkey ‘to strike Syrian Kurd militia’ unless it leaves Manbij

Turkey on Thursday threatened to strike Syrian Kurdish militia forces if they don’t withdraw from Manbij, a former bastion of Islamic State extremists that has been taken over by predominantly-Kurdish forces.

“We will strike the YPG if they do not retreat,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told journalists, referring to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units.

The YPG, which Ankara considers a “terrorist” organisation, is backed by Washington as the most effective fighting force on the ground in the battle against ISIS.

Turkey launched a military campaign inside Syria in August, backing opposition rebels who captured a number of towns from ISIS, including Al Bab near the Turkish border.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week said the next target would be Manbij -- which is now controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a group dominated by Kurdish fighters that Ankara denounces as “terrorists”.

“We have not yet started our operation in Manbij,” Cavusoglu said.

Turkey has also said it wanted to work with its allies to capture ISIS bastion of Raqa, but has ruled out any operation alongside the Kurdish militia.

“Let’s be realistic ... To carry out this (Raqa) operation with YPG is to risk Syria’s future,” he said.

“We do not want our ally the United States to continue cooperating with terror organisations that target us.”

Turkey's Government Gets Closer To Making Erdogan Supreme Dictator

Believe me, there aren't many walking the Earth more dangerous than Turkey's Erdogan.

The story comes from DAWN.

Turkey takes key step to expanding Erdogan powers

ISTANBUL: Turkey was a key step closer on Monday to dramatically expanding the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after parliament approved, on first reading, a bill critics fear will lead to one-man rule.

The parliament backed the two final sections of the 18-article new constitution late on Sunday after a marathon week of debating that began on Jan 9 and included sessions that often lasted late into the night.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) mustered the necessary 330 or more votes — a three-fifths majority — needed to adopt the constitutional change and send it to a referendum for final approval.

The constitution plan will now go to a second reading in the Ankara parliament expected to start on Wednesday where the 18 articles will again be debated one by one.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus wrote on Twitter that with the changes “God willing, Turkey will reach a more efficient governance model.” He later told A-Haber television in an interview that it was possible the referendum would take place as soon as the start of April.
‘No good news’

The debates have been fractious and last week saw some of the worst fighting in years in the parliament with punches thrown, deputies bloodied and one lawmaker even claiming to have been bitten in the leg.

The proposed changes, which would create an executive presidency for the first time in modern Turkey, are controversial and far-reaching.

The president would have the power to appoint and fire ministers, while the post of prime minister will be abolished for the first time in Turkey’s history. Instead, there would be a vice president, or possibly several.

With Turkey already under a state of emergency for almost six months following the July 15 failed coup, the proposed changes would also widen the scope of conditions in which the president can declare an emergency.

Parliamentary elections and presidential ballots would be held simultaneously, with the draft giving Nov 3, 2019 as the poll date.

The changes are opposed by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). The third largest party, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is boycotting the vote.

“The constitutional changes pressed by the ruling party are not good news for Turkey,” said Faruk Logoglu, former deputy leader of the CHP.

He claimed the plan would prove problematic on a wide range of issues from democracy to judicial independence.

In a symbolic gesture, CHP MPs piled up copies of the current constitution by the voting boxes in parliament as they cast their ballots. The AKP, which has 317 seats in the 550-MP chamber, lacks the necessary three-fifths super majority. But the changes have won the support of most MPs from the fourth party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The MHP’s enigmatic leader Devlet Bahceli, who took up the reins of the party in 1997, has emerged as the main ally of the AKP in the constitutional change.

The Aftermath In Turkey From New Year's Eve Night Club Massacre

I'm guessing that ISIS would say that the 39 dead would be alive if they hadn't transgressed against Mohammed.

The story comes from DAWN.

Manhunt in Turkey after New Year's nightclub shooting

A manhunt is on in Turkey for an assailant in a Santa Claus hat who unleashed a salvo of bullets in a crowded Istanbul nightclub during New Year's celebrations Sunday, killing at least 39 people.

Foreigners were among the fatalities, including an 18-year-old Israeli woman and a Belgian national, according to the two countries' respective foreign ministries. Close to 70 others were injured in what authorities described a terror attack.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vehemently condemned “the terror attack in Istanbul's Ortakoy neighbourhood in the first hours of 2017” and offered condolences for those who lost their lives, including “foreign guests.”

The attacker, armed with a long-barrelled weapon, killed a policeman and a civilian outside Istanbul's popular Reina club at around 1:15am before entering and firing on people partying inside, Governor Istanbul Vasip Sahin said.

“Unfortunately (he) rained bullets in a very cruel and merciless way on innocent people who were there to celebrate New Year's and have fun,” Sahin told reporters.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack and authorities did not name any suspects. The bloodiest attacks that Turkey endured in 2016 were the work of the militant Islamic State (IS) group or Kurdish militants.

Turkey is a member of NATO and a partner in the US-led coalition against the IS group. The country is also facing renewed conflict with Kurdish rebels in the southeast, and across the border in Syria and Iraq.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the attacker has not been identified as yet and is still at large. “Our security forces have started the necessary operations. God willing he will be caught in a short period of time,” he said.

Private NTV news channel said the assailant entered the upscale nightclub, on the shores of the Bosporus, on the European side of the city, dressed in a Santa Claus outfit. The minister said the lone attacker was believed to have left the club wearing different clothing.

Security camera footage obtained by AP from Haberturk newspaper, shows the male assailant dressed in black and carrying a backpack as he shoots down a police officer outside the Reina nightclub.

Footage taken by a different camera shows him inside the venue wearing different clothes and a Santa Claus hat.

Turkey's Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya said citizens of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Lebanon, and Libya were among those hurt in the attack. Lebanon's Foreign Ministry said three Lebanese citizens were wounded.

At least 15 of the dead were foreign nationals, according to Turkey's interior minister. Five of the victims were identified as Turkish nationals while authorities were still trying to identify the rest.

At least 69 people were being treated in hospitals, four in serious condition, Soylu said, describing the attack as a “massacre, a truly inhumane savagery.”

He said three or four of the Turkish victims may have been employees at the nightclub, some customers reportedly jumped into the waters of the Bosporus to escape the attack.

Mehmet Dag, 22, was passing by the club and saw the suspect shoot at a police officer and a bystander. He said the suspect then targeted security, gunning them down and entering the club. “Once he went in, we don't know what happened. There were gun sounds, and after two minutes the sound of an explosion.” The nightclub area remained sealed off on Sunday morning.

Heavily armed police blocked the snowy street in front of the nightclub where the entrance was covered with blue plastic sheeting below a Turkish flag. Police patrolled the Asian side of the Bosporus on the other side of the club.

Crime scene investigators were seen inside the club searching through piles of mingled chairs, tables and pieces of clothing left behind during the panic among the guests.

And there were emotional scenes in front of a city morgue where those shot dead were brought for identification. Some relatives cried out and fell to the ground as they apparently learned the fate of their loved ones.

Major attacks carried out by IS or Kurdish militants killed more than 180 people in Istanbul and Ankara alone in 2016.

On Dec 10, a double bomb attack outside a soccer stadium near the Reina nightclub killed 45 people and wounded some 150 others. The attack was claimed by Turkey-based Kurdish militant group, the Kurdish Freedom Falcons.

“Turkey continues its combat against terror and is absolutely determined to do whatever is necessary in the region to ensure its citizens safety and peace,” said President Erdogan in a written statement Sunday.

The nightclub attack drew quick condemnation from the West and Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his Turkish counterpart a telegram of condolences, saying “it is hard to imagine a more cynical crime than killing innocent people during New Year celebrations.”

“However, terrorists don't share moral values. Our common duty is to combat terrorists' aggression,” Putin said.

The White House condemned what it called a “horrific terrorist attack” and offered US help to Turkey.

An estimated 600 people were celebrating inside the club that is often frequented by famous locals, including singers, actors and sports stars. Several shocked revellers were seen fleeing the scene after the attack and the music fell silent.

The prime minister's office issued a media blackout on the events and asked media to refrain from broadcasting and publishing anything that may cause “fear in the public, panic and disorder and which may serve the aims of terrorist organisations.”

Security measures had been heightened in major Turkish cities, with police barring traffic leading up to key squares in Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

In Istanbul, 17,000 police officers were put on duty, some disguised as Santa Claus and others as street vendors, Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported.

WATCH: Shooter detained at US embassy in Ankara

The story comes from Al Arabiya.

WATCH: Shooter detained at US embassy in Ankara

Turkish police have detained a man who fired shots in front of the US embassy in Ankara, several hours after the Russian ambassador to Turkey was killed in an attack.

The state-run Anadolu Agency says the man took out a pump action shotgun he hid in his coat and fired around eight shots in the air early Tuesday. He was overpowered by the embassy’s security guards.

No one was hurt in the incident which occurred hours after a Turkish policeman, appearing to condemn Russia’s military role in Syria, fatally shot Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov in front of a shocked gathering at a photo exhibit in Ankara.

The embassy said its missions in Ankara, Istanbul and the southern city of Adana would be “closed for normal operations on Tuesday.”

Blast in east Turkey wounds 48 on 1st day of Eid

This was a VBIED , this was ISIS and Erdogan knows it but he'll blame the Kurds just so he can fly a few more sorties into Iraq.  This works well for ISIS, they get to blow apart Turkish cops and the Kurds get the blame.

The story comes from Al Arabiya.

Blast in east Turkey wounds 48 on 1st day of Eid

A car-bombing at a police checkpoint on Monday wounded 48 people near the ruling party headquarters in the eastern Turkish city of Van, the governor’s office said.

The state-run Anadolu news agency quoted a statement by the governor’s office which said 46 of the wounded were civilians, and the two others were police officers.

Van Police Chief Suat Ekici earlier told Anadolu two of the wounded were in critical condition but did not say whether they were police officers or civilians.

The explosion occurred Monday around 10:50 a.m. local time on the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday.

The private Dogan news agency said an explosives-laden vehicle was detonated about 200 meters (650 feet) from the governor's office in a commercial district where the AKP municipal offices are located.

Turkey has suffered a string of attacks in recent months from both Kurdish militants linked with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK as well as from ISIS group, resulting in dozens of casualties. The PKK is listed a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies.

The attack came a day after Ankara replaced 28 elected mayors with appointees, mostly in the Kurdish dominated east of the country.

Turkey is now in Syria, but IS aren’t the only target

This article nails it - ISIS is nothing to Turkey and it's Mohammedan government...it's the Kurds that Turkey is after.

The story comes from DAWN.

Turkey is now in Syria, but IS aren’t the only target

HOW the West would love to believe that Turkey’s army in Syria — all 10 tanks of it — are striking at last at everyone’s enemy, the blood-soaked cult of the militant Islamic State group. But few in Syria or Turkey will be fooled.

The IS have been sitting in Jarabulus for many months; it is the advance of the American-armed Kurdish YPG militia along the Turkish border towards Jarabulus that worries Sultan Erdogan.

And yet again as Turkish troops advanced, he bundled up the YPG (People’s Protection Units) — who the Turks believe have connections with the PKK or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, whom they view as much more dangerous — as “terrorists”, along with the IS. In other words, he’s calling both the anti-Assad IS and the anti-IS Kurds the enemies of Turkey (as he did after the suicide bombing of a wedding in Gazientep last weekend), lumping his pet hates together. Only his obsession with Fethullah Gulen, whom he blames for July’s failed coup, has been omitted from his latest “battle” objectives in Syria.

Erdogan’s latest ally, Tsar Vladimir, will have no objections. At one blow, Turkey strikes — however feebly — at both the IS and the pro-American Kurdish militia with whose apparatchiks Moscow has remained studiously aloof. The Syrians will know — and surely will have been told — that Putin supports Turkey’s little incursion. They will be in no mood to protest since their own government army was fighting the same Kurdish group in the city of Hassakeh until a ceasefire two days ago. Here, too, the YPG was trying to seize Syrian sovereign territory.

Put simply, the YPG is getting too big for its boots. It is using the anti-IS war to carve out a little homeland inside Syria along the Turkish border and gobbling up as much of Syria as it can before the civil war ends. The Turks don’t want a Kurdish mini-state on their frontier any more than the Syrians want to lose territory to the Kurds. The anti-Assad “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) is supposed to be among Turkey’s little squadron of armour heading for Jarabulus but this is likely to be of little interest to Damascus: Syrian troops have long since ceased to regard the FSA as a serious military force and will not worry if its men wish to “martyr” themselves.

It’s all bad news for the IS, of course. And deeply ironic, for it was at the very same Jarabulus — under Turkish shellfire yesterday — where TE Lawrence “of Arabia” spent some of the happiest months of his life before the First World War, digging through the ancient ruins of Carcamish, and where he began to frame his affectionate but also deeply racist view of the Arabs. The sterility of the desert, Lawrence would later write of anyone who lived there “robbed him of compassion and perverted his human kindness to the image of the waste in which he hid”.

He wrote of the Arab’s “delight in pain” and of how the desert became “a spiritual iceberg, in which was preserved intact but unimproved for all ages a vision of the unity of God”. Perhaps Lawrence got closer to the mind of the IS than we might imagine. Now the Turks can discover this for themselves in the new ruins of Jarabulus.

Istanbul bombers were ‘Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz’

 Pictured moments before the attack: The three bombers walk through Ataturk International Airport. (CCTV footage)

Hmmm....and here I thought all Islamic terrorists were brown skinned Pakistanis or Arabs and thus that made me a racist.  If an Islamic terrorist is white, then how can I be a racist?   LOL   Yeah, I know, they'll find a way.

The story comes from Al Arabiya.

Istanbul bombers were ‘Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz’

Three suspected ISIS suicide bombers who killed 43 people in a gun and bomb attack at Istanbul airport this week were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a Turkish government official said on Thursday.

The attack on Europe’s third-busiest airport was the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings in Turkey this year.

The three bombers opened fire to create panic outside, before two of them got inside the terminal building and blew themselves up. The third detonated his explosives at the entrance. A further 239 people were wounded.

The official gave no further details beyond confirming the attackers’ nationalities and declined to be named because details of the investigation have not yet been released. Investigators had been struggling to identify the bombers from their limited remains, officials said earlier.

“A medical team is working around the clock to conclude the identification process,” one of the officials said.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper said the Russian bomber was from Dagestan, which borders Chechnya, where Moscow has led two wars against separatists and religious militants since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

The Kyrgyz security service declined to comment, while the Uzbek security service could not immediately be reached.

Turkish police detained 13 people, three of them foreigners, in raids across Istanbul in connection with Tuesday night’s attack.

Counter-terrorism teams led by police special forces launched simultaneous raids at 16 locations in the city, two officials told Reuters. Turkish authorities have said they believe ISIS was behind the airport attack.

Yeni Safak said the organiser of the attack was suspected to be a man called Akhmed Chatayev, of Chechen origin. Chatayev is identified on a United Nations sanctions list as a leader in ISIS responsible for training Russian-speaking militants, and as wanted by Russian authorities.

The Hurriyet newspaper named one of the attackers as Osman Vadinov, also Chechen, and said he had come from Raqqa, the heart of ISIS-controlled territory in Syria.

Turkish officials did not confirm to Reuters that either Chatayev or Vadinov were part of the investigation.

Nine suspected militants, thought to have been in contact with ISIS members in Syria, were meanwhile detained in the dawn raids in four districts of Izmir, the news agency said. It said they were accused of financing, recruiting and providing logistical support to the extremist group.

Turkey is part of a US-led military coalition against ISIS and home to around 3 million refugees from the five-year civil war in neighboring Syria.

Israel and Turkey Restore Ties

Binali Yildirim

If you read the article here from DAWN, about the Israeli-Turkish restoration of relations, please note how Turkey's Erdogan went out of his way to reach out to the PLO and to Hamas after this deal was done - you know DAMN WELL that Erdogan was against it but I'm guessing the pressure from inside of his country and government was too great or ISIS is scaring the shit out of them.

Anyway, I wouldn't trust Erdogan as far as he could throw a Qur'an.

Israeli, Turkish leaders laud deal to restore ties

JERUSALEM: Israeli and Turkish leaders on Monday lauded a deal reached at the weekend to restore ties after six years of acrimony over a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed Israel's maritime blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip would remain after the agreement, though Turkey obtained aid concessions for the Palestinian enclave.

His Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim said that “to this end, our first ship loaded with over 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid will leave for Israel's Ashdod port on Friday.” Yildirim also noted Israel's commitment to pay $20 million in compensation over the 2010 raid that killed 10 Turkish activists, in exchange for all claims against Israeli soldiers being dropped.

Netanyahu pointed to the economic benefits for Israel, with his country in search of regional customers for gas exports and talk of a potential pipeline to Turkey.

Speaking in Rome after meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry, Netanyahu described the agreement as having “immense implications for the Israeli economy”.

“I mean positive, immense implications,” he said.

Kerry also hailed the deal as a “positive step”, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon, on a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, called it a “hopeful signal for the stability of the region”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas spoke by phone overnight, with the Turkish leader explaining the agreement's main points, a statement from the Palestinian presidency said.

Erdogan also met with Doha-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on Friday in anticipation of the agreement.

After the deal is signed on Tuesday, the approval process will start in both countries, and the Turkish premier said Ankara would appoint an ambassador to Tel Aviv within weeks.

Turkey Continues Its Slaughter of Kurds

Turkey is up to its old tricks of raining hell down upon what it terms a "terrorist group" - meaning Kurdish fighters.  Yesterday was no different as Turkish forces killed over 20 Kurdish fighters.

The story comes from DAWN.

Turkish army kills 23 Kurdish militants

DIYARBAKIR: Turkey’s armed forces killed 23 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in the latest clashes in eastern Turkey, including three militants who died in an air strike, the general staff said on Saturday.

Security sources said warplanes and attack helicopters fired on a mountainous, forested area in the eastern province of Tunceli after military drones spotted a group of about 20 PKK rebels there on Friday.

The armed forces’ statement said three of the militants were killed in the air strikes.

Thousands of militants and hundreds of civilians and soldiers have been killed since the PKK resumed its fight for Kurdish autonomy last summer, ending a 2-1/2-year ceasefire and shattering peace efforts.

Turkish warplanes have frequently struck PKK targets since the conflict revived, mainly hitting the group’s bases in northern Iraq.

ISIS fires wound Turkish soldier near border

Now, now...if Turkey were to go full blown and cross into Syria to hunt down ISIS, wouldn't that make for some big decisions on the part of Vladmir Putin and BabyPresident Obama?

The story comes from Al Arabiya.

ISIS fires wound Turkish soldier near border

One Turkish soldier was lightly wounded on Tuesday after a military outpost in the southeastern province of Gaziantep came under fire from ISIS militants from across the Syrian border, privately owned Dogan News agency said.

Turkey’s military responded in kind and fired artillery into Syria, the agency said.

Turkey, which faces multiple security threats, is on heightened alert after four suicide bombings already this year, two of which have been blamed on ISIS.

Gaziantep province is near the Syrian border and part of it lies just across the frontier from the ISIS-controlled Syrian town of Jarablus.

Meanwhile, authorities in southern Turkey have arrested two men suspected of preparing to carry out suicide bombings for ISIS, which has staged two attacks in Istanbul this year, reports said Tuesday.

The men were arrested in the southern province of Gaziantep, which borders Syria, the local governor’s office said in a statement carried by the Dogan news agency.

One of them was named as Mehmet Mustafa Cevik, described as a member of ISIS and one of its Turkish affiliates, the Dokumacilar Group.

The Dokumacilar Group, named after its wanted founder Mustafa Dokumaci, is the suicide bomber unit suspected of being behind the October 2015 attack that killed 103 people at an Ankara peace rally in Turkey’s bloodiest-ever attack.

The cell has also been linked to the killing of 34 people in the town of Suruc on the Syrian border in July 2015.

The other militant arrested was Ercan Capkin, the brother of Erkan Capkin, one of the suspected suicide bombers behind the March 19 attack on a famous Istanbul shopping thoroughfare that left four people dead.

A dozen German tourists were also killed in January when a suicide bomber linked to ISIS detonated his charge in the heart of Istanbul’s historic center.

Both suspects were ordered by a court in Gaziantep to be held in jail ahead of trial, the report said.

The Turkish interior ministry now has 23 suspected ISIS militants on its most wanted list with a total bounty of 42 million lira ($15 million) on their heads, the Hurriyet daily reported Tuesday.

Three suspected ISIS militants are on its urgently-wanted red list including Mustafa Dokumaci, the alleged leader of ISIS in Gaziantep, Ilhami Bali and Yunus Durmaz who is said to have planned the March 19 attack.

Turkey has been for several months on a state of high alert due to a series of attacks blamed both on ISIS and Kurdish militants amid the resumption of a conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The attack in Istanbul came less than a week after a car bomb exploded in central Ankara killing 35 people which was claimed by a radical Kurdish faction that split from the PKK.

Russia vs. Turkey - They Are Headed To War?

The story comes from Israel National News.

EU warns Russia and Turkey are headed for open war

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned on Tuesday that Russia and Turkey are headed towards a "hot war," as she voiced concerns that the growing tensions between the two on the Syrian border risk spilling over into open warfare.

Speaking at a debate at the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels, Mogherini said, "we are always referring to Syria as a proxy war among regional actors. This risks to become something bigger than this."

"I'm not thinking of a cold war. No, we risk a hot war among different actors than the one we always think of. Not necessarily Russia and the United States, but Russia and Turkey, could be," she said.

"As Europeans, we have a clear interest in trying to contain and scale down the tensions."

Mogherini's statements come in the wake of a ceasefire in Syria announced by the US and Russia which is to go into effect on Saturday. There remain huge doubts over the implementation of the deal, as it does not take into account Islamic State (ISIS) or Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Nusra Front, which Russia could continue striking.

Her comments also come as US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Tuesday that if Russia and the Syrian regime are not serious about a political transition, he has a "Plan B" that likely would consist of a military escalation.

Russia has been conducting airstrikes on the ISIS and Nusra Front as well as Western-backed rebel forces since last September, to prop up the regime of its ally Bashar al-Assad. Iran has likewise been militarily involved to keep Assad in power.

Tensions between Russia and NATO-member Turkey have been high, ever since Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 jet on the Syrian border on November 24, killing two Russian officers. In response, Russia issued vast sanctions on Turkey dealing serious financial damage.

Russia has also been spying on Turkey from the border, and has warned that if Turkey and Saudi Arabia follow through on their statements hinting at a ground offensive in Syria, it would cause a "world war."

Highlighting the growing military standoff between the two, Russia in December deployed its Mosvka missile cruiser off the coast of Syria. While the ship was said to be there to aid the airstrike campaign against Syrian rebels, its arsenal includes nuclear-capable Vulkan missiles designed to sink other warships - indicating the deployment was likely meant as a message to Turkey instead.

Terrorism Is Hitting Turkey HARD

The Turks are finding it a bit painful trying to walk the Islamic world tightrope - too bad.  Perhaps next time they'll think twice about following a maniac down the Sharia rabbit hole.

The story comes from DAWN.

At least seven security personnel killed by remote-controlled bomb in Turkey

ISTANBUL: At least seven security force members travelling in a military vehicle were killed by a remote-controlled bomb in southeast Turkey, security sources said.

The blast hit the armoured vehicle on the highway linking Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast, to the district of Lice. Sources previously said the explosion hit a convoy of vehicles.

The incident comes just a day after a car bomb in the heart of the Turkish capital, Ankara, killed at least 28 people and wounded 61 others. The country has recently faced a string of attacks blamed on militants and Kurdish rebels.

The perpetrator of the Ankara attack was identified as a member of the Syria Kurdish YPG militia working with insurgents from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Prime Minister Davutoglu said.

Davutoglu said the bombing showed that the Syrian Kurdish YPG is a terrorist organisation and that Turkey expects cooperation from its allies against the group. He said Turkey would continue to shell positions of the YPG.

Washington, which has said the YPG is not a terrorist group, has backed the insurgents in the fight against the militant Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.

"In light of information we have obtained, it has been clearly identified that this attack has been carried out by the members of terrorist organisation inside Turkey together with a YPG member individual who has crossed from Syria," Davutoglu said.

He also said nine people have been detained in relation to yesterday's attack.

Turkey strikes Kurdish militia in Syria

Make no bones about it, Turkey's number one goal in anything is to kill Kurds.  Anywhere they are to be found.

The story comes from Al Arabiya.

Turkey strikes Kurdish militia in Syria

Turkey’s military shelled Kurdish militia targets in northern Syria on Saturday and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanded that the group withdraw from the area in a move that further complicated the conflict across the NATO member's border.

The shelling took place after Kurdish YPG fighters backed by Russian bombing raids drove Syrian rebels from a former military air base, south of the town of Azaz and near the Turkish border.

“Today retaliation was taken under the rules of engagement against forces that represented a threat in Azaz and the surrounding area,” the prime minister told reporters in comments shown live by state broadcaster TRT Haber.

A Kurdish official said the Menagh base which was hit had been captured by the Kurdish-allied Jaysh al-Thuwwar group rather than the YPG. Both are part of the Syria Democratic Forces alliance.

The shelling came amid growing anger in Ankara with the United States for supporting the YPG, which Ankara regards as a terrorist organization, in its fight against ISIS militants.

The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which backs the YPG, controls most of the Syrian side of Turkey’s border and Ankara views it as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade-old insurgency for autonomy in southeast Turkey.

U.S. State Department spokesperson John Kirby urged both Turkey and the Syrian Kurds to step back, saying they should focus instead on tackling a “common threat” of ISIS militants who control large parts of Syria.

“We have urged Syrian Kurdish and other forces affiliated with the YPG not to take advantage of a confused situation by seizing new territory,” Kirby said in a statement.

“We have also seen reports of artillery fire from the Turkish side of the border and urged Turkey to cease such fires.”

Davutoglu demanded that the Menagh base be evacuated and said he had spoken to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to make that point and stress that the PYD was an extension of the PKK and a direct threat to Turkey.

“We will retaliate against every step (by the YPG),” he said after a visit to the eastern Turkish city of Erzincan. “The YPG will immediately withdraw from Azaz and the surrounding area and will not go close to it again.”

Turkey’s disquiet has been heightened by the tens of thousands of people fleeing to the Turkish border after attacks by Russian-backed Syrian government forces, swelling refugee numbers in the area to 100,000.

Turkey, which already hosts 2.6 million Syrian refugees, has kept the latest arrivals on the Syrian side of the border, in part to pressure Russia to cease its air support for Syrian government forces near the city of Aleppo.

Davutoglu earlier condemned the attacks in Aleppo as “barbarity, tyranny, a war strategy conducted with a medieval mentality” and said hundreds of thousands faced the danger of starvation if a humanitarian corridor was not opened.

“We will help our brothers in Aleppo with all means at our disposal. We will take those in need but we will never allow Aleppo to be emptied through an ethnic massacre,” he said.

NATO-member Turkey is one of Assad’s most vehement critics and an ardent supporter of opposition forces.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was reported as saying on Saturday that Saudi Arabia would send aircraft to Turkey’s Incirlik air base for the fight against ISIS.

Iraq threatens to use military option against Turkey if forced

As if things couldn't get any worse in the Middle East....boy, it sure is a lucky thing that the dimwits and sheep of America re-elected Obama in 2012.  Isn't it?

P.s.  Someone might want to tell Iraqi officials that they can't even handle an enemy force within their own borders at the moment before they open a war on a new front.

The story comes from DAWN.

Iraq threatens to use military option against Turkey if forced

BAGHDAD: Iraq's foreign minister said on Wednesday it could resort to military means if forced to defend itself from what it says is an intrusion of Turkish forces into part of its north.

Turkey said it had deployed a force protection unit earlier this month to the area due to heightened security risks near a camp where its troops were training an Iraqi militia to fight Islamic State insurgents. Ankara acknowledged that there had been a "miscommunication" with Baghdad over the deployment.

Iraqi security forces have had only a limited presence in Nineveh province where the camp is located since collapsing in June 2014 in the face of a lightning advance by Islamic State.

Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Iraq was committed to exhausting peaceful diplomatic avenues to avoid a crisis with its northern neighbour Turkey, but insisted that all options remained open.

"If there is no other solution but this (military), then we will adopt this solution. If we are forced to fight and defend our sovereignty and riches, we will be forced to fight," he told reporters in Baghdad.

Turkey's deployment of around 150 troops this month to the Bashiqa military base in northern Iraq prompted Baghdad to accuse Ankara of violating its sovereignty and lodge a formal complaint at the UN Security Council.

Turkey later withdrew some troops to another base inside the nearby autonomous Kurdistan region and said it would continue to pull out of Nineveh province, where Bashiqa is located. It did not say how many troops would be moved or where to.

After the diplomatic dispute flared, the base came under fire from Islamic State when militants fired rockets in an attack on Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the area. The Turkish military said its soldiers returned fire and four had been lightly wounded in the incident.

Baghdad's forces have regrouped and retrained with US help since the debacle at the hands of Islamic State 18 months ago and on Sunday retook the western provincial capital of Ramadi, their first big victory against the militants.

The World Teeters On the Ego of Putin?

I don't know about you folks but I'm not sleeping comfortably knowing that the world moving towards World War 3 rests on the decisions of a Soviet KGB mentality.

The story comes from Israel National News.

Kremlin says Putin 'fully mobilized' to tackle threat from Turkey

Russian President Vladimir Putin is fully mobilised to tackle what the Kremlin regards as an unprecedented threat from Turkey following the shooting down of one of its warplanes by a Turkish F-16, the Russian leader's spokesman said on Saturday.


In comments which underscore how angry the Kremlin still is over the incident, Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, called the behavior of
the Turkish air force "absolute madness" and said Ankara's subsequent handling of the crisis had reminded him of the "theater of the absurd." "Nobody has the right to traitorously shoot down a Russian plane from behind," Peskov told Russia's "News on Saturday" TV program, calling Turkish evidence purporting to show the Russian SU-24 jet had violated Turkish air space "cartoons".

Former BBC journalist found hanged at Istanbul airport - but hey! Her Hanging is a "mystery"

I just don't understand what might be "mysterious" about a female journalist found dead hanging in a toilet at a Turkey airport.  Doesn't that happen everywhere in the world, every single day of the year?  It certainly can't have something to do with a damn female, sub-human having the nerve to expose the exploits of Muslim men....now, would it?

The story comes from DAWN.

Former BBC journalist found hanged at Istanbul airport

ISTANBUL: A former BBC journalist, Jacky Sutton, was found dead in a toilet at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport under mysterious circumstances, according to a report published on the BBC website.

The 50-year-old woman is believed to have been working as the acting Iraq director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and was travelling to Irbil, northern Iraq. The London-based IWPR supports local journalism in countries affected by conflict and crisis.

The previous director of the institute was killed earlier in May this year in a car bomb attack in Iraq. A memorial service for the former director was held in London last week.

The British Foreign Office said it was "providing consular assistance to the family at this time" and did not provide any other details.

BBC correspondent Ben Ando said that the ex-BBC journalist had missed a connecting flight which was due to depart for Iraq two and a half hours after her arrival at Ataturk Airport from London on Saturday.

"Local media are reporting that she didn't have enough money to purchase a replacement ticket and then she was found dead in the toilets a couple of hours later," Ando was quoted in the BBC report adding that, "What exactly happened though is not known."

She had held various positions in International Non Governmental Organisations (INGOs) including the United Nations. The former journalist, who spoke five languages, was also studying for a PhD at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University.

Sutton's research focused on international development support to female media professionals in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2013.

Video: Actual Footage of One of the Two Blasts at Pro Kurdish Rally In Turkey

ISIS Strikes Turkey, Suicide Bomber Kills 30

Even Turkey isn't immune.

The story comes from Times of India.

Suicide bomber kills 30 in Turkey, attack blamed on ISIS

ANKARA: A suicide bomber attacked on Monday a cultural centre hosting anti-Islamic State activists in a Turkish town near the border with Syria, killing 30 people in an "act of terror" blamed on the jihadist group.

The blast ripped through the centre in Suruc, a town opposite the Syrian flashpoint of Kobane — which was itself later hit by a suicide car bombing.

Most of the dead were university students who had been planning a mission to help Kobane residents, according to a pro-Kurdish party official.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on a visit to northern Cyprus, condemned the attack as an "act of terror".

"On behalf of my people, I curse and condemn the perpetrators of this brutality," he said. "Terror must be condemned no matter where it comes from."

The force of the explosion blew out the windows of the building and set off a blaze, witnesses said.

Television footage showed several people lying on the ground covered in blood and ambulances rushing to the scene.

"The Turkish authorities have strong reason to believe that the terrorist attack was perpetrated by ISIS," a government official told AFP, using another name for IS.

If confirmed, it would be the first such attack by IS fighters against Turkey, a regional military power and NATO member.

The blast took place as an anti-IS group based at the cultural centre was preparing to announce a mission to Kobane.

Alp Altinors from the pro-Kurdish HDP party said the group from the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations was made up of about 300 people, mainly university students from across Turkey.

"They were planning to build parks in Kobane, hand out toys for children and paint school walls," he told AFP.

"The town is in chaos. Almost all the shops are closed in Suruc," local resident Mehmet Celik told AFP.

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the "barbaric act" and said in a statement: "Fighting terrorism requires an active cooperation from the whole international community."

EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn said in a Twitter message: "Tragic consequences of Syrian conflict felt in a neighbouring country."

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is sending three ministers to the southeastern region following the bombing, his office announced.

"We are calling on everyone to show common sense in the face of this terrorist attack targeting our country's unity," the interior ministry said.

In Kobane, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at a checkpoint, killing two members of Kurdish security forces, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Kobane has been a symbol of resistance against the jihadists since IS fighters were driven out by Syrian Kurdish forces in January.

Turkey's Kurds were frustrated at the time at Ankara's refusal to intervene to quash the IS insurgents, who have seized large parts of Syria and Iraq over the past year.

But in recent weeks, security forces have arrested dozens of ISIS militants and sympathizers in the most significant action by Ankara against the jihadists.

"It's now obvious that the Turkish government has upgraded the threat posed by ISIS to among the top ones it is facing," a Western diplomat told AFP last week.

Turkey has also boosted its border defences, stationing tanks and anti-aircraft missiles there as well as bolstering troop numbers.

The build-up has fed speculation that the government is planning to intervene in Syria to push IS jihadists back from the border and halt the advance of Kurdish forces who have made gains against the extremists.

Davutoglu has however ruled out any immediate action in Syria. Turkey has been accused of tolerating or even aiding ISIS in the early stages of its existence as a useful ally against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Erdogan wants ousted.

Officials fiercely dismiss the criticism that Ankara is not doing enough to halt the flow of militants across the 911-kilometre (566-mile) border and say Turkey has deported more than 1,500 IS suspects and banned nearly 15,000 people from 98 countries from entering.

Ankara has categorised IS as a terrorist group since October 2013. But Turkey has been a reluctant member of the anti-ISIS coalition led by the United States and refused to give its Nato ally the green-light for the use of Incirlik air base in the south for bombings against jihadist targets.

In January, Kurdish forces backed by rebel groups and US-led air strikes had pushed IS out of Kobane after four months of fierce fighting in a hugely symbolic defeat for the Islamists.

The Islamists made a surprise raid on Kobane last month but the fighters were driven back by Kurdish forces.

Suruc, once a centre of silk-making, is home to one of the biggest refugee camps in Turkey housing Syrians who have fled the bloody four-year conflict at home.

The camp shelters about 35,000 refugees out of a total of more than 1.8 million refugees taken in by Turkey since 2011.