ICYMI We spoke to last foreign journalist forced to flee #Kobane – listen to his story http://t.co/jyIWGrc7yc pic.twitter.com/M9LtwqUx5j
— BBC Outside Source (@BBCOS) October 11, 2014
A Turkish soldier "visiting" an ISIS anti-aircraft unit at Kobani. They look way too friendly. http://t.co/YtzcEYzuNn
— Oliver North (@OliverLNorth) October 10, 2014
Violence in Turkey raises spectre of civil war on the streets (AFP) http://t.co/r0sgPUMlHr pic.twitter.com/JzDBiUJz3S
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) October 11, 2014
https://twitter.com/AkinUnver/status/520877391086759936
When Bombs Aren’t Enough @NewYorker #Kobane #Kobani http://t.co/zffQLNzGo2
— Mutlu Civiroglu (@mutludc) October 11, 2014
Here is a gem: ISIL behading Öcalan (PKK leader), making this ultra-nationalist/Kemalist fringe happy. pic.twitter.com/4QI8YyQyEW
— Mustafa Akyol (@AkyolinEnglish) October 11, 2014
The military success of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq intensifies questions over Turkey’s strategy and decisions. What Ankara does next will help to resolve them.
Turkey’s parliament, the grand national assembly, voted on 2 October 2014 to extend for a further year pre-existing parliamentary permission for the government to send troops into Iraq or Syria in pursuit of “terrorist organisations”. The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) is specifically mentioned in the resolution, while the Islamic State (IS) is not. The resolution also envisages permission for allied forces to be granted access to Turkish territory. Washington has welcomed the vote, and in coming days will discuss with Ankara precisely what contribution Turkey might now make to the anti-IS campaign.
ISTANBUL
The squabbling factions that make up the Syrian “moderate opposition” should get their act together. But so should the foreign nations — such as the United States, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan — that have been funding the chaotic melange of fighters inside Syria. These foreign machinations helped open the door for the terrorist Islamic State group to threaten the region.
The Islamic State is pouring reinforcements into the besieged Syrian city of Kobani, a Kurdish enclave, despite heavy attacks from American-led aircraft.The advance of Isis on Syrias Kurds is undermining the peace process between Turkey and the PKK
Turkey feels as if its reliving an old nightmare. Each morning television presenters and newspaper headlines glumly round up news from the Islamic State (Isis) siege of the Syrian Kurdish town Kobani, and its spillover into Turkey. three Riots, tear gas, and live fire this week have killed more than 20 people in cities in Turkeys Kurdish south-east. There have been multiple arson attacks on cars, buses and trucks, ethnic tensions, street corner nationalist gangs, curfews and armed troop deployments unseen since the miserable years of all-out Turkish Kurd insurgency in the 1990s.
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