‘The Intercept’ claims that “As Turkey Bombed Anti-ISIS Fighters, It Hired Lobbying Firm Tied to 2016 Candidates

On July 24, Turkey launched a massive military campaign that included sweeping attacks against Kurdish forces as well as minor strikes on Islamic State positions south of Turkey’s border. Just five days later, the Turkish government inked a contract to hire a team of prominent lobbyists to add to its already formidable army of influence-peddlers in Washington.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s call for local “muhtars” across Turkey to collect intelligence on people in their area as part of the struggle against terrorism has infuriated the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which accused the president of taking yet another step aimed at creating polarization between citizens
HDP İzmir Deputy, HDK Co-Spokesperson Ertuğrul Kürkçü told “Everyone wants peace in Silopi. They say ‘We don’t want the death of soldiers and policemen beside our sons.’
PKK, not Islamic State, is Erdogan’s real target | Letters

Luke Harding’s report (11 August) considerably underplays the extent to which Turkey has sought to reverse Kurdish gains in Syria and Iraq on the pretext of confronting Isis. Far from being embroiled in a two-front war, Turkey has carried out hardly any attacks against Isis and has instead focused on bombing raids on PKK camps in northern Iraq. Almost all the jihadis entering Syria did so via Turkey. There are an estimated 12,000 jihadis. That’s a lot to miss. In 2014, when the al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra captured Kassab, it was clear they’d been allowed to mobilise from within Turkey. Ankara initially opposed the movement of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga to lift the siege of Kobani by Isis. So far as Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is concerned, the PKK represents a greater threat to Turkish interests than Isis.

 

Turkey’s summer of mayhem

Living in Turkey today means experiencing a creeping sense of dread – a sense that the animals have the run of the zoo.
VIDEO: Life for Syrian refugees in Turkey

Around 70,000 Syrian refugees are gathered in the port city of Izmir in Turkey, which has become a hub for human smuggling.
Coalition forces have conducted airstrikes against ISIL targets using Turkey’s İncirlik Air Base, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu has said after correcting a statement earlier from Aug. 13 in which he appeared to say U.S. forces had not yet attacked the jihadist group from the base.
Turkey and the United States both agree that the PYD cannot be permitted to enter an area in Syria in which Turkey plans to establish a zone that will ostensibly be free of jihadists

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