Rojava Under Attack: links between Turkish state and Jihadist Groups

Bella has been contacted by a whistle-blower in Kurdistan with details of the role of Turkey in arming and supporting proxy-armies and remnants of ISIS. This follows similar allegations from sources on the ground. The Rojava Information Centre has released a new database detailing that:

“Over 40 former ISIS members now working in Afrin as part of Turkish-backed forces have been identified in a new database, published today by Rojava Information Center. They include commanders, brigade leaders, recruiting officers and co-ordinators working directly with the Turkish intelligence services. The database includes their role under ISIS, their new role as part of Turkish-backed jihadist forces in the Afrin region, their current location, biographical information, and in some instances photographs of the individuals in question.”

The allegations follow accusations of war crimes and brutality. Jiyal Gol from BBC Persian has reported (‘Syria conflict: The ‘war crimes’ caught in brutal phone footage’):

“Turkish-backed forces fighting Kurdish militias in north-east Syria have been accused of committing war crimes, with acts of brutality surfacing on mobile phone footage. The UN has warned that Turkey could be held responsible for the actions of its allies, while Turkey has promised to investigate.”

 

Links between Turkish state and jihadist groups are also explored from Internationalist Commune on Vimeo [warning contains disturbing violent images]:

 

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has obtained information, via well informed sources, that unveils the identity of one of the Turkey-loyal factions, who appeared in the video and pictures that showed the capturing of a female fighter within the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). The video showed his group while threatening the woman to be slaughtered, and describing her as “one of the pigs of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party”, and according to the information obtained by the SOHR; this person is called Yasser Abdul Rahim. Read here.

 

Our source in Rojava confirms these stories saying that “Turkey is the boss of the Islamic state now, arming and providing air support.” With Syria now little more than a client state of Russia, the Turkish-backed forces can act with impunity. The attacks have mean that the Free Women’s Village, or Jinwar in Kurdish, in northeast Syria have been abandoned.

 

These allegations raise profound questions about the role of Turkey, their aims and their conduct, and the role of the west in acting with complicity in this.

The west seems to prefer authoritarian Islamacists to the Rojavan experiment.

Turkey’s aims appear to be to: take over Syria, eliminate the Kurds and destroy Rojava.

The threat of a good example seems to be still a profound one.

Sarah Glynn explains:

“Inspired by the developing ideas of Abdullah Öcalan, and building on decades of leftist (as well as nationalist) resistance and organisation, the Kurds of Syria and Turkey have been turning their back on capitalist structures and capitalist values to build a new kind of society. This is based on the concept of communalism elaborated by the late American political theorist, Murray Bookchin, who envisaged confederated communities of active citizens engaged in a bottom-up direct democracy. [1] In a region known for patriarchal traditions and inter-religious and inter-ethnic dispute, they aim to be gender-equal, politically secular, and – despite their movement’s Kurdish origins – inclusive of all peoples. And they want to work with nature rather than conquer it.”

Glynn continues:
“For all who are looking for an alternative to capitalist greed and ecological destruction, Rojava provides a real existing source of hope. If we want to build on that hope, then we need to show support.”
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Notes
Scottish Solidarity with Kurdistan are here: http://www.sskonline.org.uk/
and on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/ScottishSolidaritywithKurdistan/

Comments (12)

Leave a Reply to john learmonth Cancel reply

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  1. john learmonth says:

    Show support? How?
    I thought the left were against ‘imperialist interventions’.
    Lets get lots of writers/poets etc to show their ‘support’by writing articles although i’m sure the people affected would much prefer to see the Royal Marines and US delta forces.
    ‘Western imperialism’ what has it ever done for us?

  2. Jell says:

    Daesh have surfaced like a rash in sync with Turkish forces and the semi retreat of USA forces. Not only have they attacked Kurds in Rojava but killed and injured Syrian and Russian forces:
    https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/11/07/report-isis-appears-again-in-daraa-syria/
    Turkey has its eyes on the land and oil, while the USA finds Erdagan s udeful tool to quash any kind of socialism in Syria.

  3. Alex Wright says:

    Started off as an interesting article. Sadly, a lot of credibility vanished when you introduced The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights into the mix. This tool of the regime changers, has been churning out lies and misinformation from his semi in Coventry since the start of this horrendous crime against the Syrian people.
    Sorry Mike, It’s quite obvious that you have limited knowledge of what is happening in that region and there is a distinct possibility that you’re being used. https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Document:The_Syrian_Observatory_for_Human_Rights_is_a_Propaganda_Front_funded_by_the_EU.

    1. Ah Alex – and what may I ask is your authority in this matter? – and with whom does your sympathy lie?

      I can only begin to wonder.

      1. Alex Wright says:

        It didn’t take much to receive a response Mike, a wee tickle at the hubris button usually works wonders.
        In answer to your first question, the realisation of the scale of misinformation fed to us daily by the MSM finally dawned on me in July 2004. This was when NIST published it’s preliminary report into the collapse of Tower 7 at the World Trade Center. To paraphrase the immortal line of the wonderful Karen Dunbar, “I could definitely smell shite”. I felt qualified to have this Damascene Moment, due to the fact that I’m involved in fabricating and building structural steel buildings, so I was convinced that this report was a sham, as subsequently shown by The University of Alaska. ae911truth.org/news/480-wtc-7-evaluation-nearing-the-finish-line-an-interview-with-dr-leroy-hulsey.
        You must remember Mike, at the time, we were up to our neck in an illegal war in Iraq which was a direct response to the fiction created before and subsequently after 11-09-2001.
        In the last 15 years, I have, with great difficulty I may add, tried to make sense of this madness, by researching and reading documents, books and articles written by a gamut of organisations and individuals, and have been convinced that we are now, hanging with our fingertips on the shoogliest of pegs.
        An article by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker 2007, gave ample warning to the havoc that was going to engulf Syria and then Iran. Unfortunately for some, there happens to be a fly in the proverbial ointment, Russia. Hence the psychotic reaction of the EU, USA and of course the UK in our current construct to constantly antagonise them. ( Whatever happened to the Skripals?) The Integrity Initiative for example, are a collection of nutjobs who seem to have the ear of the meejia and maybe even some of our SNP. How sad is that? Anyway, I’m just a concerned guy who is definitely not an authority on many things, but, I can assure you that I’m on the side of the many victims of this geopolitical cesspit.
        I would also like to point out, I appreciate what you are doing.

        1. Thanks Alex, I’m not sure why responding swiftly to reader is a bad thing but there you go.

          I’ve written extensively about Britain’s role in Iraq so I remember it well.

          It is indeed difficult to to make sense of the war zones and power-plays at work and “make sense of this madness”.

          I don’t think we’ll agree on the role of Seymour Hersh, a once great journalist, see for example this rebuttal here:
          https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/07/syria-case-editorial-accountability-170711133007352.html

          1. Alex Wright says:

            Interesting guy Mike. I’m sure that I’ve read some of his articles in the past, in fact there is a distinct possibility that I’ll purchase his book. Road to Iraq.
            And yet and yet
            In his attempt to belittle Sy Hersh alongside good sources of information like Global Research News, along comes that pesky fly again.
            https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/douma-syria-opcw-chemical-weapons-chlorine-gas-video-conspiracy-theory-russia-a8927116.html
            Good old OPCW. As the old saying goes, “Shag one sheep”.

  4. SleepingDog says:

    I have no knowledge of the current conflict described above. However, using radical Islamic jihadi groups as shock troops to further national aims has long been a strategy of the UK government, as historian Mark Curtis describes in his introduction to his book Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam, which relies on declassified official documentation:
    “Radical Islamic forces have been seen as useful to Whitehall in five specific ways: as a global counter-force to the ideologies of secular nationalism and Soviet communism, in the cases of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan; as ‘conservative muscle’ within countries to undermine secular nationalists and bolster pro-Western regimes; as ‘shock troops’ to destabilise or overthrow governments; as proxy military forces to fight wars; and as ‘political tools’ to leverage change from governments.”
    https://web.archive.org/web/20190212181410/http://markcurtis.info/2015/12/17/britains-collusion-with-radical-islam/
    So if the UK can get away with it, I imagine fellow NATO member Turkey would have no qualms.

    1. Jell says:

      Amd here we go again. As we have noted the USA only semi retired from Syria, leaving enough forces as the Pentagon said ‘to protect the oil fields’ from ISIS while Turkey and it Sham contractors to ‘hold the field’ elsewhere. The US has no legal standing in Syria so where is the oil going?
      It is apparently important for the USA to control the Syrian oil fields as part of longer term strategy:
      https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/11/09/us-claims-it-has-authority-to-shoot-any-syrian-official-who-tries-to-retake-control-of-syrian-oil/

  5. Lawrence Anderson Burley says:

    Mike, you ought to take Alex’s advice on this one; Syrian Observatory is pretty notorious as a strong anti-Assad voice, far from impartial. They are basically a propaganda channel. You are right on many things but not on this one.

    Note the repeated positive coverage and outright praise Syrian Observatory (apparently a one-man outfit as Alex notes, though much bigged up by the western MSM) has lavished on the White Helmets over the years. That alone should put you on alert. White Helmets, definitely a US/UK creation with funding from other Europeans, are always most conveniently around when alleged atrocities happen and have acquired a most troubling track record. See link to article below. Interestingly, a few months ago, the Netherlands Govt quietly distanced themselves from WH, refusing to renew funding, after credible reports that funds and other logistical support given to WH ended up with the Jihadi head-coppers. The Netherlands did not publicise their decision to end support, not wishing to embarrass their Anglo-saxon allies, but the message is clear.

    Syrian Observatory, White Helmets – all in the same camp.

    https://www.mintpressnews.com/james-le-mesurier-british-ex-military-mercenary-founded-white-helmets/230320/

    1. Is being a strong anti-Assad voice a bad thing? I’m confused.

  6. Voline says:

    Well, done on this story Mike. The world needs to know. A bright light of hope in Rojava is being snuffed out by Turkish Fascists with tacit approval of Syria and Russia. Thanks for keeping us informed.

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