Mike Pompeo’s Day According to His Twitter Feed:

• Talked to Norway re: NATO
• US re-evaluating relations with South Sudan
• Congratulates PM if Republic of Mauritius
• Honored State Dept. won “One Team Award” award organization thing
• Thanked Foreign Minister of Qatar for meeting
• Says Court of Justice of the European Union should not promote BDSThanked Foreign Minister if Denmark did meeting.
• Applauds Interim President if Bolivia to restore order

Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) Tweet ~6 Hrs Before Erdogan-Trump PC:

US TOWs used by TFSA @ Tal Tamir

 

I don’t know if anyone at his office reads them, but they all talk about and Tweet at @LindseyGrahamSC .

https://twitter.com/kurdistannews24/status/1194803631469449217?s=20

https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1194783830844030977?s=20

There is also a Rojava propaganda video going around with fighting, funerals, and Lindsey Graham. Tweets appear to be being deleted mercilessly.

candylandriots

Helluva a day there, Mikey. I’m astonished that is what the SoS is doing at a time like this.

I’d like to think there is more that he’s not showing on the Twitter feed, but I’m skeptical given his boss.

 

White House Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Is Committed to Direct Engagement and Diplomacy with Turkey

President Donald J. Trump Is Committed to Direct Engagement and Diplomacy with Turkey

American and Turkish peoples have been friends and allies for many, many decades.

President Donald J. Trump

ENGAGING ON CRITICAL ISSUES: President Donald J. Trump is working to advance America’s important relationship with Turkey.

Today, President Trump welcomed President Erdogan at the White House for bilateral discussions on a range of important issues.
Direct engagement and diplomacy between our nations are essential to addressing the challenges facing the United States-Turkey bilateral relationship.
Turkey’s cooperation is crucial to protecting United States interests in the region and beyond.
The United States-Turkey relationship has benefitted both of our countries for more than 90 years.
A CRITICAL NATO ALLY: Turkey is a critical NATO Ally, and our continued cooperation is important for American interests in the region and beyond.

The United States and Turkey work together on numerous security issues in the Middle East and around the globe.
Within NATO, Turkey has the second largest armed forces and has raised its defense spending with the goal of reaching its 2 percent of GDP minimum obligation.
Turkey has been a critical partner in the fight to annihilate the ISIS caliphate.
Turkey’s continued engagement remains essential in ensuring ISIS is never allowed to reconstitute.
Turkey continues to make important contributions to NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.
Turkey is a significant partner for foreign military sales, which total in the billions of dollars.
Turkey is not only a purchaser of American military equipment, but it is a supplier of component parts for dozens of critical United States and NATO defense programs.
In order to achieve progress on other fronts, it is vital that we resolve the issues involving Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system, strengthening our defense partnership.
GROWING AND BALANCING ECONOMIC TIES: President Trump is working to expand commerce and achieve fair and balanced trade between the United States and Turkey.

The United States encourages Turkey to further open its markets to American goods and services, and ensure a level playing field for our trade relationship.
Turkey has enormous potential as a trading partner of the United States.
Recognizing this opportunity, our two countries are working together to achieve a goal of $100 billion in bilateral trade annually.
Turkey has been an important and growing destination for American investment.
American investment in Turkey totaled $4.7 billion in 2018; a 9 percent increase over the previous year.
Turkey has also been an important source of investment in the United States with $2.4 billion in investments in 2018.
[/SPOILER]

Oval Office: Remarks by President Trump and President Erdoğan of Turkey Before Bilateral Meeting

Remarks by President Trump and President Erdoğan of Turkey Before Bilateral Meeting

Video (Link won’t copy&paste):

C-Span (Video)President Trump and President Erdogan Meeting with Senators on Syria

Oval Office

12:14 P.M. EST

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay. Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to be with President Erdoğan and Mrs. Erdoğan. Thank you very much. We very much appreciate you being here. First Lady, thank you very much. And I know you’re going to go out to lunch after this. Great honor to have you.

The border is holding very well. The ceasefire is holding very well. We’ve been speaking to the Kurds, and they seem to be very satisfied.

As you know, we’ve pulled back our troops quite a while ago, because I think it’s time for us not to be worried about other people’s borders. I want to worry about our borders. We’ve got plenty of borders to worry about.

I want to thank the President for the job they’ve done. Again, this has been thousands of years in the process, between borders, between these countries and other countries that we’re involved with, 7,000 miles away. So, we want to worry about our things.

We’re keeping the oil. We have the oil. The oil is secure. We left troops behind, only for the oil.

And I have to just finish by saying that the President and I have been — we’ve been very good friends. We’ve been friends for a long time, almost from day one. And we understand each other’s country. We understand where we’re coming from. I understand the problems that they’ve had, including many people from Turkey being killed in the area that we’re talking about. And he has to do something about that, also. It’s not a one-way street.

So, I just want to say it’s a great honor to have you both and thank you very much. Thank you.

PRESIDENT ERDOĞAN: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You, go ahead, please. Would you like to say something?

PRESIDENT ERDOĞAN: Thank you. (As interpreted.) Well, Mr. President, thank you. In a few moments, we shall be having a larger-scale press meeting, that’s why I don’t feel the need to come up with longer statements here.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay.

PRESIDENT ERDOĞAN: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay, well, that was good. That’s good. It’s true. A lot of truth to that.

I will say, we’re also talking about a trade deal. We do, proportionately, very little trade with Turkey. They make great product. We make the greatest product in the world. And, frankly, we’re going to be expanding our trade relationship very significantly. We think we could be doing $100 billion with Turkey. And right now we’re doing about $20 billion. But we think that number should be easily $100 billion, which would be great for Turkey and good for us.

So, we’re going to be expanding. We have our people from Commerce here. That’s one of the meetings we’ll be having. And having that big relationship, I think, is a very good one. So, we think we can bring trade up very quickly to about $100 billion between our countries. Okay?

Q What do you do, Mr. President, about the S-400s, in terms of getting that trade deal?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ll be talking about it, John. We’ll talking about the S-400. We’ll be talking about that and we’ll be talking about the F-35 fighter jet, too.

Q Are you satisfied with the ISIS fighters that Turkey is keeping an eye on? Are you happy so far with the progress?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Turkey is watching the ISIS fighters. When I became President, ISIS was all over the place. I had no idea to the extent. In fact, it was shown to me about a month ago. We came in. It was a mess. And we took over 100 percent of the caliphate.

And, last week, as you know, we killed its leader and its founder. And we’re very proud of that fact. And we’ve also knocked out number two. And we have our eye out on number three, who was supposed to become number one, but he’s running right now. He’s running for his life, but we have our sights right on him.

So, we are — we’re doing very well. ISIS is very much — very much a factor that’s different than it was when I took over. When I took over, thousands and thousands of ISIS fighters were all over. Now they’re mostly imprisoned.

I will say, the Kurds are watching over them and Turkey is also watching over them. And Turkey recently has captured over 100 ISIS fighters and they are taking care of them.

Q Is there any way, Mr. President, that Turkey can possess both S-400s and F-35s? Or are those things mutually exclusive?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, John, we’re going to be talking about that. So, we’ll — we’ll talk about it. We may report to you later on about that because we’re having a second meeting in a little while.

So, we’ll see you in a little while. We’re going to be having press conference of sorts in a little while. It’s an honor to have the President and Mrs. Erdoğan with us, and they’re highly respected in their country and in the region. And we’ll see what we can do. But the relationship that we’ve had is good.

And, you know, I’ve heard all the pundits — three, four, five weeks ago. They were against what I’ve — what I did. Now, all of a sudden, they’re saying, “Wow. That’s really working well. Why are we guarding other country’s borders? We want to take care of our country.” And they’re saying it really is surprising what’s happened. Plus, we have our troops out of there, and we’ll be bringing a lot of them back home. But again, we’re keeping the oil.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

Q Mr. President, have you watched the impeachment — have you watched any of the impeachment hearing?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. No, I didn’t.

Q You didn’t watch any of it at all?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I didn’t — I did not watch it.

Q Have you been briefed on what’s —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m too busy to watch it. It’s a witch hunt. It’s a hoax. I’m too busy to watch it. So, I’m sure I’ll get a report.

Q Have you been briefed?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: There’s nothing — there’s nothing — I have not been briefed, no. There’s nothing there. I see they’re using lawyers that are television lawyers. They took some guys off television, you know. I’m not surprised to see it because Schiff can’t do his own questions.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

Q Mr. President, have you decided to postpone auto tariffs? Are you postponing the decision on auto tariffs?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’ll make a decision fairly soon. I was full briefed and I’ll make a decision fairly soon.

END

12:21 P.M. EST

[/SPOILER]

Press Conference:

NPR (radio) Summary: Vague and not much resolved; sounds like more talks will be needed.

Me: The United States and Turkey must partner to fight terrorism. Trump notes problems of definitions of groups. Implicitly discerns between ISIS & Caliphate. We “captured 100%”; not clear exactly what in reference to. The US is great friends with the Kurds and our relationship is a very good one. Erdogan: We have no problem with Kurds—we have 40 Kurds in parliament—only terrorists.

Me (Editorial): Erdogan railed about war & terror. Trump clearly preferred to talk about money stuff. Erdogan was strangely disrespectful to the US. (I haven’t watched enough of these to know if it’s unusual or another new normal.) Trump wasn’t really paying much attention. NPR sounds about right.

Questions:

OAN: Trump: Impeachment.
OAN: Trump:Syria-Repatriation of peoples
OAN: Erdogan: Will you protect Christians?
“A friendly person from Turkey”***: Trump: How do you undo the damage Obama did?
Ibid: Erdogan: How will we make IS understand how awful Fethullah [Gülen] is and to send him back?
FOXNews: Trump: Ukraine
FOXNews: Erdogan: Why did you ignore president’s letter of warning on Syria?
Kurdistan Reporter: Trump: What is your policy on the Kurds right now? Erdogan: Why are you not able to negotiate with the Kurds in Syria like happens in Iraq?

***

At 19m40s — 20m20s: POTUS starts nodding off and struggles not to before snapping out of it.

Transcript not yet available.

WHITE HOUSE TWEETS (TODAY-In Order)

CNN Press Conference Summary:

Trump holds news conference with Turkish president

CNN: 5 key takeaways

5 key takeaways from Trump and Erdogan’s joint news conference

President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a joint news conference this afternoon at the White House following a day filled with public testimonies in the impeachment inquiry.

Here are some of the big takeaways from the news conference:

1. Trump slams the impeachment inquiry: Trump called the impeachment probe “a sham” that “shouldn’t be allowed.”
2. Ukraine controversy: Trump said he knows nothing about new information revealed in today’s public impeachment hearing that places him closer to the center of a Ukraine pressure campaign. Trump, speaking at the White House, said he doesn’t recall a phone conversation with Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, in which Trump is said to have asked about “the investigations” into Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
3. Another transcript: Trump said he’s releasing a transcript of a second call with his Ukrainian counterpart tomorrow. The President has been promising to release the transcript of his call with the Ukrainian president all week. The call took place in April before the July conversation which is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
4. Ceasefire in Syria: Trump addressed the ongoing conflict in Syria, claiming “Turkey will continue to uphold what it’s supposed to uphold.”
5. Armenian genocide: Erdogan addressed a recent House resolution acknowledging the Armenian genocide, suggesting that the legislation was bolstered by individuals sympathetic to the Kurdish forces who Turks regard as terrorists. The resolution recognized the genocide of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during World War I, a move the Turkish government has long opposed.

 

For some reason, there’s only been buzz about this more recently, at least on the “channels” I’m looking at.

How has this not come up before?

CBN News:’We Will be Violent Against the Unbelievers’: Erdogan Hints Syria Invasion Really Islamic Holy War

MEMRI reports that on October 25, in a speech at the Çamlica Mosque in Istanbul, President Erdoğan said: “The Lord commands us to be violent against the unbelievers. Who is that ‘we’? Muhammad’s ummah. But he commands us to be merciful among ourselves. We will be merciful among ourselves, and we will be violent against the unbelievers, as happened in Syria.”

 

West to East: Current Events

 

 

 

 

 

Yeni Şafak: Turkey-backed SNA responds to attacks by YPG/PKK

At least 198 SNA soldiers martyred in terrorist attacks since launch of Turkey-led anti-terror operation in northern Syria

News Service 12 NOVEMBER 2019, 02:48
Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) continued to fight the YPG/PKK terrorists, who targeted the frontlines and areas liberated from terrorists by Turkey’s anti-terror operation in northern Syria.

Turkish-backed SNA soldiers have been thwarting the attacks and violations by terrorists, especially in the east of Syria’s Ras al-Ayn town, recently liberated from YPG/PKK terrorists.

The YPG/PKK terrorists continue their attacks despite Turkey’s deals with the U.S. and Russia on the withdrawal of the terror group from northeastern Syria.

The SNA soldiers continue search and sweep activities in the region. In the last 24 hours, four SNA soldiers were martyred in YPG/PKK terrorist attacks.

So far, at least 198 SNA soldiers have been martyred in the attacks since the launch of Ankara-led anti-terror operation in northern Syria.

According to the SNA commanders in the field, a total of 643 SNA soldiers were also wounded and one soldier went missing during the Operation Peace Spring.

Launched on Oct. 9, the Operation Peace Spring aims to eliminate terrorist YPG/PKK elements from northern Syria east of the Euphrates River in order to secure Turkey’s borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees, and ensure Syria’s territorial integrity.

Ankara agreed with Washington on Oct. 17 to pause its operation to allow YPG/PKK terrorists to withdraw from the planned safe zone.

On Oct. 22, Ankara and Moscow reached a deal under which YPG/PKK terrorists will pull back 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) south of Turkey’s border with Syria within 150 hours, and security forces from Turkey and Russia will mount joint patrols there.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union — has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.

Darnell’s Son

Is someone that someone else doesn’t like a terrorist?

And if so, what does terrorist even mean?

Am I watching an episode of South Park?

Reverend

RUDAW: Turkish forces, Kurds clash in strategic Syrian town

 

 

US (D of State): We Need Local Partner to Fight ISIS: SDF

Reuters: U.S. has no intention of ending alliance with Syrian Kurdish fighters: official

US Acknowledges Turkish Supported Syrian Rebel War Crimes

res iPad loquitur.

WSJ: U.S. Drones Appear to Show Turkish-Backed Forces Targeting Civilians in Syria

Independent.UK: ‘Filled with hatred and lust for blood’: Turkey’s proxy army in northern Syria accused of abusing civilians

US (Pompeo Himself) Talking to Iraq

The US is talking more about Iraq than Syria, even though the Kurdish population is vital to US strategic interests. So it’s bullshit, but what is it? I think it’s indirect messaging to the other players in the Syria conflict; there is much evidence to support the player using media to say things ahead of time before the taking begins. Hell, we may have elected a president based on that phenomenon.[/SPOILER]

His Holiness Weighs In

It’s the Pope. Nuf said.

Erdogan-Trump: Autocratic Families Are Creeps

Behind Trump’s Dealings With Turkey: Sons-in-Law Married to Power

Big Picture: How the Kurds’ Experience Getting Fucked All the Fucking Time Has Influenced Their Fucking Outlook

Why Resistance Is Foundational to Kurdish Literature

Today in “Sure, they are following orders but they’re also assholes.”

 

 

 

Not really surprising, but Tall Tamir is a tire fire.

Apparently this is preferable to getting hit by air strikes. It’s a bad decision matrix they have there.

People in this region of the world appear to be surprisingly-perhaps amazingly?-resilient.

Shots Fired! Little Changes

• Turkish forces patrolling the Kobanî on have fired upon civilians perhaps leaving four dead.
• This attack does not appear to have led to an escalation of the conflict.

RUDAW: Turkish convoy kills protesters in Northern Syria: SDF

How is this possible?: It continues to appear, to me anyway, that until the Wednesday meeting, things are more positioning for leverage for that negotiation without blowing anything up to make negotiation possible.

Discussion (Me):

What happens after a White House meeting or if Trump even decides to care is, as we know by now, anybody’s guess.

Oddly enough, it appears the hope now is for him to not care. Or cares in only the simplest terms and not about the right things. Basically, a constellation of caring and not caring that provides other WH officials the leeway and discretion to do what they want to do. However one feels on the issue of Syria, this is actually kinda a terrifying political arrangement here in DC. But whatever. That’s a Black Box right now.

But there is reason to believe people are all over this one and at least have a strategy for managing information with Trump, so we’ll see. @barbed wire Bob posted a theory in the ME thread that WH officials would try to convince Trump that Erdogan wanted to bully him. I had come to the same possibility as well. Speculation, but I expect those single point power point presentations about oil. Not even ISIS. Oil. Or more specifically, “people who want to steal the oil from us.” And then only elaborate when he angrily demands the information and he’ll feel like he figured out. Maybe not exactly that, but something like it. Even fighting ISIS doesn’t have that simple one-on-one mano-a-mano angle of him trying to steal the oil from you.

Another possible scenario is that Trump is irritated about the situation and maybe Turkey for coveting the oil. Maybe he’s truculent and distant. And then Mike or Mark or maybe one of their aides says something to another aid or to Erdogan himself something to the effect of: OK, now you’ve seen him and see how it is. Perhaps before you thought his disposition was one you could exploit. I am here to assure you that that is no, longer the case, if it ever was.”

Or Erdogan could work him into a frenzy about something else, about this situation as it is or speculation on something else that gets Trump jumping up and down.

It’s Trump. We don’t know. But there are definitely people on it and two two executive branches have suggested to us that things are in good hands. Which m, as per above, is not great, but in foreign pokicy and international relations, we are accustomed to trying to discern what states will do without being able to see into the specific political machinations, hence the aforementioned term: “Black Box.”

What happens after a White House meeting or if Trump even decides to care is, as we know by now, anybody’s guess.

Oddly enough, it appears the hope now is for him to not care. Or cares in only the simplest terms and not about the right things. Basically, a constellation of caring and not caring that provides other WH officials the leeway and discretion to do what they want to do. However one feels on the issue of Syria, this is actually kinda a terrifying political arrangement here in DC. But whatever. That’s a Black Box right now.

But there is reason to believe people are all over this one and at least have a strategy for managing information with Trump, so we’ll see. [USER=58664]@barbed wire Bob[/USER] posted a theory in the ME thread that WH officials would try to convince Trump that Erdogan wanted to bully him. I had come to the same possibility as well. Speculation, but I expect those single point power point presentations about oil. Not even ISIS. Oil. Or more specifically, “people who want to steal the oil from us.” And then only elaborate when he angrily demands the information and he’ll feel like he figured out. Maybe not exactly that, but something like it. Even fighting ISIS doesn’t have that simple one-on-one mano-a-mano angle of him trying to steal the oil from you.

Another possible scenario is that Trump is irritated about the situation and maybe Turkey for coveting the oil. Maybe he’s truculent and distant. And then Mike or Mark or maybe one of their aides says something to another aid or to Erdogan himself something to the effect of: OK, now you’ve seen him and see how it is. Perhaps before you thought his disposition was one you could exploit. I am here to assure you that that is no, longer the case, if it ever was.”

Or Erdogan could work him into a frenzy about something else, about this situation as it is or speculation on something else that gets Trump jumping up and down.

It’s Trump. We don’t know. But there are definitely people on it and two two executive branches have suggested to us that things are in good hands. Which m, as per above, is not great, but in foreign pokicy and international relations, we are accustomed to trying to discern what states will do without being able to see into the specific political machinations, hence the aforementioned term: “Black Box.”

But people are pissed, though.

Coverage:

Considerations:

ISIS is canvassing in the Deir ez-Zur region:

Ground Conditions: Turkish Exacerbation

IT: Erdogan’s Plan to Control the Rojava Water (google translate)

ISIS Situation Could Explode: Camps & Attacks

It’s worth mentioning here again: ISIS wants war.

Israeli Help:

RUDAW: Does Israel’s advocacy for the Kurds do more harm than good?

Interestingly, perhaps amazingly, since the Iraqi Kurdistan President mouthing off and pleasing nobody, Kurdistan has kept low and out, despite being goaded by Turkish attacks. Kurdistan is not a strong and not even an autonomous state, but if it’s not apparent by now, that Kurds that have survived can fight.

And the US military continues to rattle sabres until some actual policy made, which strikes me as more than reasonable.

US troops at Syria base say they’ll keep pressure on ISIS

Picture worth 1,000 word heading that article.

The Kurds aren’t the only ones there who can fight. We’ll see what happens.

candylandriots

I have this awful feeling that people are going to be reading about these few weeks in history books 100 years from now.

Reverend

It’s tough, I admit, and hopefully we’ll be discussing possibilities and concerns for the Erdogan-Trump meeting of the minds somewhere.

But until then, rest assured, we are sending our best man.

So I had been doing a catch all Bad Guys Doing Bad Guys thing post for some stuff of maybe interest, but then Israel shouted, “Hold my beer!”

Anyway, the reason I was getting around to the other post was because, since the bombings in Qamishli this morning, not much of note has happened on the ground.

I mean, people are getting wrecked. But territorially it seems like it’s a lot of back and forth and trading of villages, and Commander Kyrie Irving will tell you that that is one of the most difficult things to do in war.

So, dull day by war standards, unless you can’t get enough of pics of light armor and technicals and smoke wafting in the distance.

So we’ll go west to east this time.

Qamishli:

Aforementioned car bombs, priest killed traveling from there. Change in rock throwing behavior.

Tal Tamr-Hossakah region:

It seems like fighting is always reported to be getting a little heavier there each day, with heavier weapons. But it goes on.

Ayn Issa/Manbij/Kobanî:

Similarly heavy fighting by Ain Issa, though maybe a bit lighter than Tal Tamr-what do I know from my living room? But the area is most marked by two things, which seems to create some hesitancy:

• Anybody with a map and basic knowledge of shapes can tell see attempts to surround Kobanî area.
• Nobody seems to know what the hell the US is doing.

So there are SNA/TFSA types wary of them, and SAA folks complaining that Syria can’t maneuver properly with the US there and not knowing what they will do. Basically, the bear got bored rooting through the trash and wandered out into the street and is stopping traffic. People seem to feel roughly like they know what everyone else is trying to do except for this fucking bear… And that doesn’t even include the Bear, Russia. See…

I don’t know why anybody thinks they can reliably know what Russia is really doing, but they seem to be consistently adhering to their self-assigned role of policing a border that has fighting on the inside of it that they sometimes do something about sometimes, and not securing the air space over northern Syria which allows Turkish drone strikes. I guess some people have gotten used to it and consider it relatively predictable now, but I’m not seeing that as anything to rely upon.

Idlib:

Everything is pretty much the same, except, while not in Syria per se, the founder of the White Helmets fell off of a balcony in Istanbul and died.

I’m going to have to circle back to this when I can think clearly about it.

This was going to a greater elaboration of Bad Guys Doing Bad Guy Things, but then someone started firing missiles at someone and I had to go chek that out.

Bad Guys Hate Art

Militants wrecking priceless historical art. Interesting that many sources are starting to go more granular in their identifications of which militants are responsible for which atrocities lately. The fuck up churches too, though as one maybimagine, a lot of the historical art is going to be in churches and mosques and temples and whatever Yazidism uses and such.

Think of the Children: Refugees

UN has had to toe the line between providing humanitarian aid and dealing with a rogue NATO country. Some have accused the organization of being effectively complicit in the humanitarian problem by facilitating the movement of peoples to avoid confrontation. Sounds like a shit situation, IMO.

UN News: Hundreds of thousands of civilians at risk in Syria amid ongoing violence in northeast and northwest

Wait, This Has Been Going on How Long?

There’s starting to be articles that, like, this is not a new problem. Basedon where I grew up, I now feel like a dickhead for not learning more about the Armenian genocide.

ForeignPolicy: Erdogan Wants to Redraw the Middle East’s Ethnic Map

In fact, even exactly this iteration has been going on for awhile.

openDemocracy: Turkey’s occupation and expansion in Syria: Turkish-backed violations intensify in Northeast Syria: why we should not be surprised.

NYTimes: Damascus Attack Hit Islamic Jihad Official’s Home, Group Says

Reuters: Syrian army fires on ‘hostile’ target in skies west of Damascus: state TV

Quick hits:

• Explosion in Damascus, near the Lebanese embassy.
• Syrian Army fired on something in the sky
• The Internets is claiming Israel.

This comes concurrently with Israel announcing it had killed a “Gaza leader” and rocket strikes fired from Gaza at Israel.

JPost: Israel strikes deputy Islamic Jihad chief’s home in Damascus – casualties