#turkey

Syrie. La ville d’Amoud a été fin mars le théâtre d’affrontements violents entre des manifestants venus protester contre l’indigence des services municipaux et les milices du Parti de l’Union démocratique kurde (PYD, une branche du PKK) qui contrôlent une partie des zones kurdes du nord de la Syrie. Ces affrontements entre Kurdes sont récurrents. Cette fois-ci, ils ont conduit les partisans d’Öcalan (PKK) et ceux de Massoud Barzani, président de la région du Kurdistan en Iraq (KDP), à s’opposer. Il est douteux que ces affrontements conduisent à une guerre civile entre Kurdes, mais il est certain qu’ils affaiblissent leurs positions au sein de la coalition syrienne. Il n’est pas impossible qu’Ankara se soit résolu à prendre langue avec le PKK d’Öcalan par crainte de voir le Parti de l’Union démocratique kurde (PYD) renforcer son contrôle dans les zones syriennes frontalières de la Turquie.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/kurdish-clashes-syria-pyd-kdp-pkk-ocalan-barzani.html#ixzz2Ps9AirNm

Clashes Break Out Between Kurdish Groups In Syria

By : Wladimir van Wilgenburg for Al-Monitor Iraq Pulse, Posted on April 4 (2013)

Kurdish protesters clashed with the militia of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the rebellious town of Amude on March 27 over the lack of services which resulted in several wounded and led to fears of more fights between Kurds in Syria
The clash lead again to tensions between the supporters of the imprisoned PKK-leader Öcalan and supporters of Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region in neighboring Iraq and head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Syria. The Syrian Kurds have been heavily influenced by Kurdish parties from outside, although they have their local parties.

#Syria #Kurdish_Democratic_Union_Party #Öcalan_PKK #Massoud_Barzani #Kurdistan_Democratic_Party #Syrian_Kurds #Turkey #Supreme_Kurdish_Council Kurdistan_Worker_ Party_PKK #Arbil_agreement

La bataille pour Damas ? CBS News rassemble, à son tour, des informations qui tendent à démontrer que la grande offensive sur Damas (la sixième ?) est en vue. Si les financements qataris et saoudiens de fourniture d’armes à destination de l’opposition syrienne étaient largement médiatisés, en revanche l’implication des Etats Unis et d’autres Etats occidentaux était assez peu commentée. Ce n’est plus le cas puisqu’on dispose désormais d’un grand nombre de commentaires de presse sur les types d’armes exportées vers la Turquie et la Jordanie, sur le rôle de la CIA qui interviendrait pour s’assurer que ces armes finissent entre des mains « modérés et légitimes » (Kerry en marge d’une réunion de l’opposition tenue en Italie) et qu’elles rééquilibrent l’effort militaire fourni par l’Iran à Assad, enfin, sur l’abondance des matériels militaires qui arrivent en Syrie en préparation à une offensive finale sur Damas.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57576722/ap-master-plan-underway-to-help-syria-rebels-take-damascus-with-u.s.-approv

CBS/AP/ March 28, 2013, 5:26 AM
AP : "Master plan" underway to help Syria rebels take Damascus with U.S.-approved airlifts of heavy weapons

“Mideast powers opposed to President Bashar Assad have dramatically stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels in coordination with the U.S. in preparation for a push on the capital of Damascus, officials and Western military experts said Wednesday. A carefully prepared covert operation is arming rebels, involving Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, with the United States and other Western governments consulting, and all parties hold veto power over where the shipments are directed, according to a senior Arab official whose government is participating. His account was corroborated by a diplomat and two military experts. Saudi Arabia and other regional powers have been arming Syria’s rebels for months, but the scale and coordination with the West — and the suggestion by the AP’s sources that the effort is linked to a plan for the rebels to try and seize Damascus — represents a potentially significant escalation in the civil war.”

#Syria #weapons_supplies #escalation #battle_for_Damascus #Croatian_arms #Qatar #Turkey #Jordan #chemical_weapons #Kerry

Ibrahim al-Amin (Al-Akhbar) énumère, de manière pas toujours logique, les ambitions de l’opposition syrienne qui vient de se donner un premier ministre par intérim, sous la « pression de certains pays comme la France, la Grande-Bretagne, la Turquie, le Qatar et l’Arabie saoudite » :
– Unifier les diverses composantes politiques et militaires syriennes - y compris le Front Al-Nosra ;
– Occuper le siège vacant de la Syrie au sein de la Ligue arabe et dans d’autres instances arabes ;
– Etre perçue comme l’égal du régime de Damas dans la perspective de futures négociations et se présenter comme le seul et unique représentant du peuple syrien ;
– Ecarter ceux qui, au sein de la coalition, ont accepté le principe d’un dialogue avec le régime, comme Moaz al-Khatib (Président de la Coalition Nationale Syrienne) ;
– Obtenir des avancées sur le terrain de manière à contrecarrer toute velléité américano-russe, avec ou sans le truchement de Lakhdar Brahimi, de contraindre à un dialogue avec Damas.

Why the Rush to Form a Syrian Opposition Interim Government?

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/why-rush-form-syrian-opposition-interim-government

By: Ibrahim al-Amin, editor-in-chief of Al-Akhbar.

Published Thursday, March 21, 2013

“Syrian opposition groups only took the step of naming a head of an interim transitional government as a result of pressure, on the one hand, from France and Britain, and Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia on the other.
But what does this move signify, and what does it add to the agenda?
They want the interim government to be the go-to place for any inquiries about the opposition – including armed groups on the ground. For one thing, the Syrian opposition’s sponsors believe it provides them with a fresh opportunity to unite various opposition groups. They see the process of forming an interim government as a means of bringing them all together by providing them with representation and resources.
They want the interim government to be the go-to place for any inquiries about the opposition – including armed groups on the ground – as well as the sole provider and distributor of money, arms, and supplies. They hope that by channeling aid through it, all the political and paramilitary opposition factions will gradually be forced to accept it.”

#Syria #interim transitional government #Syria opposition #Arab League #negotiation #Syria National Coalition #Al-Nusra Front #Turkey #France #Qatar #Saudi Arabia

Öcalan says PKK might withdraw from Turkey in August

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-308246-.html

Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), envisions the withdrawal of his fighters from Turkey by August under a draft peace plan sent to his group’s leadership and Kurdish politicians, media reports said on Wednesday.
Held in an island prison since his capture in 1999, Öcalan has been negotiating with the government since October over the outlines of a deal to end a conflict which has killed at least 40,000 people since his fighters took up arms in 1984.

#PKK #Kurds #Kurdistan #Turquie #Turkey

Land border sealed, Greek police chief says

A chief of police in a border town in northeastern Greece says irregular migrants are no longer crossing into the country from its land border with Turkey.

Barbed-wire fences, landmines, thermal night vision cameras and regular patrols are among the tools used to stop a phenomenon the Greek state considers a national security threat.

Some 55,000 people were detected attempting to wade across the Evros River into Greece from Turkey in the region in 2011.

The figures have now dropped to near zero, says Pashalis Syritoudis, director of police in the run-down Greek border village of Orestiadas.

http://euobserver.com/fortress-eu/118439

@reka
#Grèce #Evros #border #migration #Orestiada #Turkey #land_border #wall #Frontex

Syrian refugees ’turned back from Greek border by police’

Asylum seekers crossing from Turkey say they have been illegally deported by Greek police or blocked from entering

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/07/syrian-refugees-turned-back-greek/print

#Turkey #Greece #migration #refugees #Evros #refoulement #border #Syrian_refugees #police

@reka

Evros fence ready by mid-December

Interceptions of illegal immigrants on Aegean islands up tenfold in recent months

A barbed-wire fence running along a 12.5-kilometer stretch of land border between Greece and Turkey is expected to be finished and operational by mid-December and to decisively curb illegal immigration, sources at the Public Order Ministry have told Kathimerini.

The fence, which has been under construction since the summer, has already had a huge impact on the influx via the land border with illegal arrivals down by 95 percent, according to border guards. “We are impressed by the operation and its results,” the regional governor for eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Aris Giannakidis, told Kathimerini. “We no longer see desperate migrants waiting at Alexandroupoli train station or people walking to the city from Orestiada,” he added, referring to a small town near the Turkish border.

The police force at the border, currently 1,900-strong, is to be whittled down to half its size, starting from today, sources said.

However, the sharp drop in undocumented immigrants entering Greece through Evros has been accompanied by a renewal in the illegal influx via the islands of the Aegean. From the beginning of the year until the end of July, police and coast guard officers on the Aegean islands detained 102 undocumented migrants while more than 10 times that number – 1,536 – were intercepted over the following three months.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_30/11/2012_472466

#wall #fences #border #migration #illegal_migration #Greece #Turkey
@reka

#Turkey cuts #Iranian oil buys steeply in May

The figures show Turkey, the world’s fifth-largest buyer of Iranian oil in 2011, is holding to its pledge to cut imports from the Islamic Republic after buying and stockpiling more Iranian oil from January through April than it did last year.

Before May, Turkey was the only buyer in Europe to increase purchases from Iran, while other European refiners cut back on imports of the crude ahead of an impending EU oil embargo due to take effect from July 1.

to read more
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/11/us-turkey-oil-idUSBRE85A0KM20120611

#SNC met in #Turkey to pick a new leader after the resignation of Burhan #Ghalioun last month. http://bit.ly/Noj2LJ

MAP of FREE #Syria TERRITORY JUNE 2012:

http://twitpic.com/9sozwl/full

#FSA NOW CONTROL most of North #Syria: “Amid a torrent of news coverage focused on massacres and sanctions, a major change in the #Syria political landscape has gone largely unremarked: All across northern and central Syria, in an area known as the #AlGhab Plain, a growing number of villages and towns effectively are outside Government control.

In an area that stretches from the mountains around Jisr al Shughour in the north to the town of Salhab in the south, and east to the highway that links the cities of #Hama and #Idlib, rebels administer justice and provide local services, including the distribution of cooking gas and food.”

Read more here: ►http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/06/3647353/in-northern-syria-rebels-now-control.html#storylink=cpy

MughiraSyrian
#FSA shot down a Syrian army helicopter between #Reyhaneli and Bakhshin camp in #Turkey #Syria

ashrafkhalil
#Turkey Foreign Min at #wef and talking #Syria. Assad “missed a big chance” to accept Turkish mediation offers last year

HamwiyaStrength
As of June 4 2012: #Syria|n refugees since March: +54,164 Refugees in #Turkey: 24,564 Refugees in #Lebanon: +24K Refugees in #Jordan: +5.6K

Mark ‏@markito0171

#Syria More than 2,000 Syrians fled to #Turkey in the past 3 days

markito0171
Helicopter bombs #Syria / #Turkey border
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqpm8NQe_2k

markito0171
#Syria #Turkey fire-fighting-aircraft over #Lattakia mountains extinguishes fires from shelling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_eDq-rdKUY&feature=g-u-u

AymanM
Head of UN Syria Observer Mission says 13 bodies discovered in Eastern #Syria with hands tied, some shot in the head

NOW_Syria
Annan says situation in #Syria is “complex” and urges an intensification of international efforts to end bloodshed. http://bit.ly/KbSgW6

Samsomhoms
About 1/3 of #Homs ’s residents are gathered in an area no more than 1/5 of the city. About 5000 ppl occupy the refugee schools #Syria

WashingtonPoint
“Pres Obama’s lack of leadership resulted in a policy of paralysis that has watched Assad slaughter 10,000” http://goo.gl/jfh7h

Locations of some snipers in #Hama city http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=cc5ca49ae621498ead0f9666c0eb0028&extent=36.7064,35.1043,3 #Syria

i_magpie
1. Assad will continue killing 2. The world won’t stop him or help Syrians 3. Syrians have no options but to carry on & fight back. #Syria

NOW_Syria
#Turkey orders all #Syria diplomats to leave country within 72 hours. http://bit.ly/KZ5fGD

MulhamJundi !!!!!!!! “@ emmasuleiman: I am unable to sleep since I watched this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsQwnApVlBA&feature=youtu.be

NOW_Syria AFP:
President Bashar al-Assad must step down if UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan plan is to be saved, opposition say
#Syria expelled the Dutch charge d’affaires, AFP reported on Wednesday

Revue des enjeux de l’exploitation du gaz naturel en Méditerranée orientale
#Israel, #Cyprus deal on gas, #Lebanon snubs talks
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Lebanon/2012/Apr-20/170783-israel-cyprus-deal-on-gas-lebanon-snubs-talks.ashx#axzz1sxQFTdx

Israel’s biggest gas discovery, potentially turning the fuel importer into an exporter, is prompting a race by nations from Lebanon to #Turkey to tap similar deposits in disputed waters of the East Mediterranean.

#natural_gas
#oil