Turkish Forum

Tag: Donald Trump

  • Trump Surrenders to Erdogan’s Demands: The Tail Wags the Dog

    Trump Surrenders to Erdogan’s Demands: The Tail Wags the Dog

    Anytime Pres. Trump talks to another head of state on the phone, we can expect a disastrous outcome. Trump does not realize the consequences of his decisions on the United States and the world. He does not ask for proper briefing from his top aides and does not follow their advice.

    Pres. Trump’s telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on October 6 was no exception. While the White House reluctantly released the summary of Pres. Trump’s scandalous phone call with the President of Ukraine followed by the whistleblower’s report, Trump’s conversation with Erdogan is not yet made public and no one knows what exactly transpired during that phone call. All we know is that Erdogan asked Trump to remove the U.S. troops from Northern Syria, allowing Turkey to invade Syria, to expel hundreds of thousands of Kurdish civilians from the 20-mile area inside the Syrian border, and kill hundreds of Kurds, the US allies on the ground in the fight against ISIS terrorists. The Turkish troops are committing War Crimes and Pres. Trump has allowed them to do so!

    The whole world immediately realized that this was a grave mistake by Trump. Even Republican members of Congress who had been blindly supporting him and ignoring his many illegalities and immoralities, have loudly criticized their ‘darling’ President. The US Congress discussed adopting sanctions against Turkey which pressured Trump to do the same.

    On Oct. 9, three days after Erdogan’s phone call with Trump, the Turkish forces invaded Syria. On that same day, Trump sent Erdogan a childish letter, threatening to “destroy the Turkish economy — and I will.” Trump also warned Erdogan that history “will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen.” Trump ended his letter by telling Erdogan “don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool! I will call you later.” This was a uniquely stupid presidential letter in the annals of diplomatic correspondence. Pres. Erdogan’s office stated that he promptly dumped Trump’s letter in the garbage can, where it belonged!

    In the meantime, in response to strong criticism by almost everyone in the world — except for Turkey, Azerbaijan and Russia — Pres. Trump started spewing his usual nonsense. First, he called the Kurds US allies. He then changed his mind and called them “Communists,” “terrorists” and “no angels.” Trump went so far as blaming the Kurds for not supporting the US army in Normandy, France, during the Second World War, forgetting that the Kurds possessed neither a country nor an army! According to the Washington Post, Pres. Trump has made 13,435 false and misleading claims in his first 1,000 days in office. That’s on average 13 lies per day — an unprecedented record for anyone, let alone the President of the United States!

    After undermining the Kurds in his pronouncements, Pres. Trump dispatched his Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Ankara, supposedly to restrain Erdogan’s brutal treatment of Kurds in Northern Syria.

    After several hours of negotiations, the two sides made contradictory announcements about what they had agreed upon. The American side called the agreement a “ceasefire,” while the Turkish side called it a “pause” for five days. Nevertheless, Trump quickly claimed to have scored a major victory, as he does on all occasions, usually without any merit. If anything, it was a victory for the Turks who gained everything they wanted from the United States — the green light to proceed with their invasion of Northern Syria, mass deportations and brutal killings of Kurds. What’s worse is the escape of hundreds of ISIS terrorists from their detention camps during the Turkish attack. The ceasefire or the pause did not even last 24 hours! The Turkish forces and their jihadist partners violated it on day one. Only a fool would trust Erdogan’s promises or agreements. Amazingly, Trump agreed to remove the US sanctions against Turkey before they were even implemented.

    The removal of the US sanctions was confirmed in a lengthy letter signed by the Turkish and US delegates at the UN, titled “Joint Turkish – US Statement on Northeast Syria” which was submitted to the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary-General on October 17.

    In this letter, the US shamelessly capitulated to all of Turkey’s demands:

    — “…The US understands Turkey’s legitimate security concerns on Turkey’s southern border.”

    — “The Turkish side expressed its commitment to ensure safety and well-being of residents of all population centers in the safe zone controlled by the Turkish Forces and reiterated that maximum care will be exercised in order not to cause harm to civilians and civilian infrastructures.”

    — “The two sides agreed on the continued importance and functionality of a safe zone in order to address the national security concerns of Turkey, to include the recollection of YPG heavy weapons and the disablement of their fortifications and all other fighting positions.”

    — “The Turkish side will pause Operation Peace Spring in order to allow the withdrawal of YPG from the safe zone within 120 hours. Operation Peace Spring will be halted upon completion of this withdrawal.”

    — “Once Operation Peace Spring is paused, the US agrees not to pursue further imposition of sanctions under the Executive Order of October 14, 2019, ‘Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Syria,’ and will work and consult with Congress, as appropriate, to underline the progress being undertaken to achieve peace and security in Syria, in accordance with UNSCR 2254. Once Operation Peace Spring is halted as per paragraph 11 the current sanctions under the aforementioned Executive Order shall be lifted.”

    Interestingly, the text of the US – Turkish agreement never once mentions the Kurds by name, whereas the whole Turkish invasion is being carried out for the purpose of eliminating Kurds from Northern Syria.

    The United States forces were stationed in Syria in violation of international law, and contrary to the wishes of the Syrian government. The same applies to the Turkish forces. The departure of the US forces is not wrong. Their arrival was wrong. And Trump’s claim that he wants the US forces out of the Middle East is an outrageous lie, since the same day that he decided to withdraw the American troops from Syria, it was announced that most of these soldiers would be relocated to Iraq and he will send 3,000 fresh US troops to Saudi Arabia. This is yet another one of Trump’s lies which needs to be added to his over 13,000 other lies!

  • Trump withdraws U.S. forces from northern Syria, and administration scrambles to respond

    Trump withdraws U.S. forces from northern Syria, and administration scrambles to respond

    The morning’s most important stories, curated by Post editors.

    (AFP via Getty Images)

    Trump withdraws U.S. forces from northern Syria, and administration scrambles to respond

    “This is total chaos,” a senior administration official said on a day when Cabinet secretaries denied that the United States had “abandoned” its Syrian Kurdish allies to invading Turkish forces.
    By Karen DeYoung, Dan Lamothe, Missy Ryan and Kareem Fahim  ●  Read more »

    Democrats and Republicans on Oct. 13 criticized President Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from positions in northern Syria. (JM Rieger/The Washington Post)
    By Seung Min Kim and
    Josh Dawsey

    October 13 at 10:46 PM

    President Trump’s order to withdraw essentially all U.S. forces from northern Syria came after the commander in chief privately agitated for days to bring troops home, according to administration officials — even while the Pentagon was making public assurances that the United States was not abandoning its Kurdish allies in the region.

    The officials, granted anonymity to describe internal deliberations, described Trump as “doubling down” and “undeterred,” despite vociferous pushback from congressional Republicans who have been loath to challenge the president apart from a few issues, such as national security.

    Behind the scenes, Trump has tried to convince advisers and lawmakers that the United States is not to blame for Turkey’s military offensive, which has targeted Kurdish fighters who have aided the U.S. fight against the Islamic State.

    But experts — and many Republicans — say otherwise. And even Trump allies say the president needs to do a better job of selling the troop withdrawal to the public, beyond tweets.

    The escalating crisis in northern Syria has prompted further criticism from foreign policy heavyweights in Trump’s party, who argue that the president’s strategies abroad send a concerning message to allies and endanger regional partners.

    “I’ve always looked at the approach the administration takes as very transactional and very short-term in nature,” former senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a phone interview Sunday. “It’s almost seeking headlines for the very next day, but not really thinking through the longer-term impact on our ­country.”

    In a tweet and later in the interview, Corker warned against the decision to withdraw support for Kurdish forces, telling The Post that it was a “blight on our character.” He said, too, that it would only embolden Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has given no indication that he would halt the offensive that began Wednesday despite the threat of sanctions from the U.S. Congress and international condemnation.

    “To pull the rug out and to do so in such a hasty manner, where there’s been no preparation, nothing has been done to limit the damage to them, and as [former defense secretary Jim] Mattis and others have said, this is going to create additional activities, additional opportunities for ISIS . . . it’s bad all the way around,” said Corker, who has remained relatively quiet since he left office in January.

    Such criticisms have been echoed publicly and privately by current Republican elected officials who have been increasingly alarmed by the withdrawal, announced in a late-night White House statement on Oct. 6 and fully fleshed out by Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper on Sunday.

    Trump has closely watched that kind of public criticism in recent days — complaining frequently about comments from Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) in particular — but has been encouraged to stay the course by other allies who support a withdrawal, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson, according to administration officials.

    The president, one senior administration official said, was particularly heartened by a segment from another Fox News host, Lou Dobbs, defending him last week.

    A U.S. soldier sits atop an armored vehicle in Syria’s Hasakeh province near the Turkish border on Oct. 6. (Delil Souleiman/Afp Via Getty Images)

    For his part, Graham appeared to be more aligned with Trump on Sunday evening, saying that he planned to work with Democratic and Republican lawmakers on economic sanctions against Turkey.

    “The outrage in Syria about Turkey continues. The ripple effect I was concerned about has happened at a faster pace than I believed. The administration needs to be far more aggressive,” Graham said in an interview.

    Graham and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) have drafted legislation that would place sanctions on the U.S. assets of people at the highest levels of the Turkish government, including Erdogan, as well as on any military transactions with Turkey.

    The two are circulating their plan among Senate offices.

    Graham and Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) have also asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to arrange a briefing from the Pentagon and State Department, as well as intelligence officials, on the withdrawal.

    An aide to Schumer deferred to the majority leader’s office, although Schumer has said that he wants Esper; Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of U.S. Central Command, to appear publicly before senators. A spokesman for McConnell said Sunday that he had no announcements to make. A private briefing could help shape the congressional response, as could a closed-door Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Syria scheduled for Thursday morning.

    Some Republican donors and officials worried that Trump’s decision would trap them in an untenable situation and have deleterious effects around the world. Furthermore, the significant intraparty rift is coming at a time when Trump particularly needs Republican support as he faces the threat of impeachment.

    “Republican senators are going to increasingly resemble a herd of ostriches with their heads in the sand,” said Dan Eberhart, a prominent Republican donor. “They don’t want to break with Trump while simultaneously wanting to disagree with his policy on allowing Turkey to get away with exterminating the Kurds inside Syria.”

    Still, Trump has resisted the repeated urging from some of his closest allies to intervene in the situation and has become more convinced that bringing troops home is both the right decision and a key political promise to fulfill ahead of the 2020 ­election.

    That view has been reinforced by the reaction from supporters. At a campaign rally in Minneapolis last week, the crowd chanted “Bring them home!” as Trump noted that U.S. troops had been in Afghanistan — the longest war in American history — for nearly two decades.

    During deliberations in the past, Trump has repeatedly pushed to remove troops from Syria but has usually been dissuaded by top officials, such as John F. Kelly, his former chief of staff.

    The usual argument against removing troops, according to former senior administration officials, would be that doing so would cause widespread deaths and chaos and Trump would be blamed for it.

    “Normally, convincing him he would be blamed for death and chaos could keep it from happening at least at that moment,” one former senior administration official said.

    But current administration officials say many moderating officials like Kelly are gone, and longtime friends say the move is consistent with Trump’s worldview — and that he has long wanted to do this.

    “When he looks at a conflict, he’ll say, do we have a national interest? What is our national interest?” said Chris Ruddy, a Trump ally. “A secondary thing is the money issue. Why are we spending billions, if not trillions, in places like Afghanistan and the Middle East?”

    Corker also suggested that the president’s decision was swayed by a circle of current advisers putting “un-thought-out ideas in the president’s head.”

    “I just have known through my years there that so many people have access to the president,” Corker said, declining to name them. “Typically, you want the people who are giving input to have credentials and have knowledge of the area, but I know that’s not the case necessarily today.”

    Some Trump allies were urging him to do more. Retired Gen. Jack Keane, who regularly speaks with Trump and has been a candidate for positions in the past, said he should quickly enforce a no-fly zone and warn Turkish officials that there would be retaliation.

    Keane said international allies had flooded the State Department with concerns about trusting the United States.

    “All is not lost,” he said. But not doing anything, he said, “sends a message about trust and reliability, something the United States has taken some pride in since World War II, that we can be counted on.”

  • It’s clear. Trump doesn’t want to be president anymore.

    It’s clear. Trump doesn’t want to be president anymore.

    President Trump walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn at the White House on Oct. 10. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
    President Trump walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn at the White House on Oct. 10. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
    By Nancy Gibbs 
    Oct. 11, 2019 at 5:10 p.m. EDT

    Nancy Gibbs, a former managing editor of Time, is the director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

    With each passing day, President Trump flaunts his great and unmatched wisdom and so invites us to play armchair, arm’s-length therapists. So let me float an untested theory about what is unfolding before our eyes. And then let’s test it.

    ARTICLE CONTINUING IN THE FOLLOWING LINK

     

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/11/its-clear-trump-doesnt-want-be-president-anymore/

     

  • The Fatal Flaw in Trump’s ISIS Plan

    The Fatal Flaw in Trump’s ISIS Plan

    A Kurdish fighter from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) gestures at a convoy of U.S military vehicles driving in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syria, on April 28, 2017. Rodi Said / Reuters
    When Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visits Washington next week, he and President Donald Trump will no doubt spend considerable time discussing the future of the Syrian-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), America’s favored contingent in the war against the Islamic State. With U.S. assistance over the past two and a half years, the YPG-dominated anti-ISIS forces have recaptured some 7,400 square kilometers of northeastern Syria from the terrorist group. From Erdogan’s perspective, this strategy, embraced by the Obama administration and now Trump, is helping a Kurdish terrorist group that threatens Turkey’s security and territorial integrity—security and territorial integrity that NATO is supposed to help defend. Erdogan’s likely response: more pressure on America’s Syrian-Kurdish allies, even if that pressure undermines Washington’s goal of reducing the Arab-extremist threat in eastern Syria
    Recent events show how complicated this will be for the Trump administration. After Turkey’s bombing of YPG positions in northern Iraq and Syria on April 25, a U.S. military officer met with a known commander of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), an insurgent group that has long been a thorn in Turkey’s side, and has held a spot on the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list since 1997. The meeting provoked outrage in Turkey and drew a sharp rebuke from Erdogan. The announcement on Wednesday that the United States would arm the YPG demonstrated that Erdogan has failed to convince the Americans to reverse course with the PYD-YPG, despite intense lobbying.  His visit to Washington promises to be a difficult one for both governments.
    As autocratic and intemperate as he is, Erdogan isn’t actually wrong about the commingling of various Kurdish outfits. In a 2013 interview with Osman Ocalan, the brother of imprisoned PKK leader Abdallah Ocalan, Osman claimed that he and other PKK figures founded the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the YPG’s political arm, in 2003 in Iraq’s Qandil Mountains, the headquarters of the PKK. The PYD is also a member of the Kurdish Communities Union, established in 2005 in Qandil by the Kurdish People’s Congress, a PKK organization that the State Department added to the FTO in January 2004. The co-chairperson of the executive council of the Kurdish Communities Union is Cemil Baylik, the acting leader of the PKK. In addition, hardened PKK activists, fighters, and commanders fill the ranks of the PYD and YPG. A YPG fighter told The Wall Street Journal that he had been with the PKK before, and that fighters regularly rotated between PKK armed entities. Iraqi Kurdish Region President Masud Barzani, a close ally of the United States against ISIS, said in March 2016 that the PYD and the PKK are basically the same entity.

    Yet, the Trump administration (and Obama’s before him) keep contending, as recently as March 8, that the PYD-YPG and PKK are separate entities. But this has no basis in observable fact. And given the organic links between the YPG and the PKK, the PYD-YPG autonomous zone in northeastern Syria will likely provide strategic depth for the PKK’s ongoing and future fight against Turkey—something Erdogan knows and fears. There are reports out of Turkey already that Kurdish militants aligned with the PKK and PYD organized and trained in YPG-held northeastern Syria for attacks conducted in Istanbul, Ankara, and Bursa, in 2016.

    By relying on the YPG in the fight against ISIS, the United States is helping one terror group fight against another. That’s despite its longstanding policy of not working with any organization on the FTO, as it is doing with the YPG, which is effectively synonymous with the PKK. Of course, some argue that the PKK should not be on the U.S. FTO list. An in-depth discussion on the conditions for the PKK’s removal would require months. In the meantime, however, blatantly ignoring the FTO strictures on official U.S. conduct with a listed organization like the PKK and its subsidiaries reflects utter policy incoherence, diminishing America’s credibility on fighting terrorism.

    America’s infatuation with the PYD-YPG also allows it to ignore some uncomfortable realities that will haunt it long after ISIS is ousted from Raqqa. While the PYD-YPG organization is secular, it is not democratic. It has repressed political competitors, detained other Kurdish political activists, and detained and harassed independent journalists. What’s more, its emphasis on gender equality, and its insistence on imposing its political agenda, will cause problems for the future governance of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS, and other Arab-majority towns the United States is now helping it seize from a weakened ISIS.

    Consider the case of Layla Mohammed, a PYD member and women’s rights activist from the town of Tel Abayad on the Turkey-Syria border. In a conversation, a senior U.S. official spoke with admiration of her dedication and commitment to the cause of women in Syria. Over objections from some Arab community leaders in Raqqa, the PYD- and YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (an entity that serves, basically, as a fig leaf by Washington to cover the U.S.-backed YPG campaign against ISIS) named Ms. Mohammed co-chair of a new Raqqa administrative council that will rule Raqqa after ISIS is gone.

    But Raqqa, more than Damascus, Homs, or Aleppo, is known among Syrians as a conservative Arab city, where many communities retain links to tribal networks extending along the Euphrates and eastwards into the Syrian desert towards Iraq. Traditional norms, including those governing the roles of women, prevail. Many Americans find the constraints placed on Arab women objectionable, and would applaud Ms. Mohammed’s activism. But as the Iraq war should have taught Washington, it cannot impose, either directly or through local proxies, its own social and political norms on conservative Middle Eastern communities without potentially provoking a counter-reaction.

    Arab opinions polls from recent years make this tension plain. An unofficial survey of ISIS fighters from 2014 conducted by a Lebanese communications firm showed that defending Sunni communities under attack was the top reason recruits from other Muslim countries joined ISIS. The 2016 ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey highlighted how disputes over how best to interpret Islam and perceptions that western culture is being imposed on Arab societies feeds extremist recruitment. The longstanding Arab-Kurdish ethnic competition and the PYD’s ideological agenda, such as suddenly imposing gender equality, stand to boost extremist recruitment once ISIS shifts to insurgency mode after the fall of Raqqa.

    Most worrisome: evidence that Sunni-Arab extremists learn and adapt from their own mistakes. In Idlib province in northwest Syria, al-Qaeda shifted away from the brutal tactics it honed in Iraq from 2004 to 2009. Instead, by transitioning into something of an “al-Qaeda, Version 3.0,” it has reduced violence against local populations, provided infrastructure-service delivery through local administrators, and integrated more with local communities. If the Arab communities of eastern Syria perceive that the PYD-YPG seeks to dominate them,  wiser al-Qaeda and ISIS leaders in Syria may be poised to pick up more recruits and embed in communities, making the coming Arab insurgency harder to contain.

    For now, ISIS is still in Raqqa and hasn’t yet shifted into wide-scale insurgency mode. But it won’t be long until Washington will have to decide who will control and govern Raqqa and eastern Syria, and who will pay for it. As Colin Powell told George W. Bush in 2003, if Bush toppled Saddam, America would “own” Iraq and have to take responsibility for it. America may soon have 1,000 more troops on the ground in eastern Syria, and its proxies are seizing new territory from ISIS every week with U.S. support, including a Marine artillery battalion and regular airstrikes. There are even U.S. peacekeepers deployed in Manbij and near Tel Abayad to keep Turkish, Syrian-Arab, and Syrian-Kurdish fighters from shooting at each other. America now effectively owns eastern Syria.

    The Obama administration knowingly launched America in this direction, but Trump, who denounced nation-building in his campaign, will pay the larger bills now coming due. America’s difficulties will be even worse if Turkey stokes further anti-PYD-YPG sentiment in this Arab-majority region. Thus, we will need to cut a deal with Erdogan.The saddest part of all this is that the Syrian Kurds, like so many Middle Easterners before them, think the Americans will protect them from their enemies. They have forgotten the bitter experience of Mustafa Barzani, the Iraqi-Kurdish leader whom the Americans backed in the 1970s against the Iraqi Baathist regime, only to sell them out in 1975 when the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran cut a deal with Baghdad. Henry Kissinger halted the U.S. arms supply to Barzani, and Iraqi forces overran Iraqi Kurdistan. Mustafa Barzani, father of  President Masud Barzani, had to flee and died in exile in the U.S. Especially with presidents like Obama and Trump, the Syrian Kurds of today should expect no better of the Americans.

    We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com

    Robert Ford is a teaching fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute. He is a former U.S. ambassador to Syria and deputy ambassador to Iraq.
  • SYRIA ISSUE: LETTER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP AND FOX NEWS FROM TURKISH FORUM ADVISORY BOARD

    SYRIA ISSUE: LETTER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP AND FOX NEWS FROM TURKISH FORUM ADVISORY BOARD

    image001 1

    SURIYE SORUNU…

    BASKAN TRUMP VE FOX NEWS’A

    TURKISH FORUM-DUNYA TURKLERI BIRLIGI

    DANISMA KURULUNDAN BIR MESAJ

    To: Fox News … October 10, 2019
    To: President D.J. Trump, Pres. USA
    From: Dr. Robert B. McKay,  robtmckay @msn.com

    Advisor to Turkish Forum & Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman, Founder/ President of Turkish Forum.

    Fox News:

    FNWHD Hemmer/Smith constantly states “Turkey Attacking U.S. Ally”, However, it is Turkey who has been the longest and best ally of the USA, not the Kurds:

    Turkey is our partner. The Kurdish PKK has been declared a terrorist organization

    by the United Nations and has killed over 30,000 Turks. Kurds have done little to help

    the USA compared to Turkey. Kurdish interests are self serving for territorial gain.

    Turkish troops in Korea …. provided troops in the Korean conflict: The Turks stayed

    behind and took the loses for our men to escape. Turkey was our greatest ally in the

    Cold War against Russia; Submarine monitoring of Russia from the Black Sea, the

    U-2 airplane kept at the Incirlik Air Base near Adana, our spy stations in Samsun our

    nuclear capabilities for quick strikes against Russia and/or China and our air bases

    in Turkey.

    It is foolish, and irresponsible for Fox News not to recognize Turkey as our long

    time friend. Furthermore, Turkey, like the USA has an OBLIGATION to protect its

    national and territorial interests…which for many decades have been under Kurdish

    attack!!!

    Characterizing Turkey as an enemy (by omission of facts) can only make Turkey

    seek other friends or, at the least create further friction in a part of the world where

    more came is needed.

    Recent guests on Fox News, who are intelligent people but who do not exhibit a

    strong historical knowledge of Turkey’s role have included Niki Haley, General

    Pittard and retired Major General Malcolm Frost.

    Sarah Sanders has been the first person on Fox to correctly acknowledge the

    difficulties when two of our friends are having a dispute between themselves.

    We will see Turkey solve the problem of Kurdish terrorism, for the sole reason

    of protecting itself from attack: as President Trump has correctly forecast.

    Most importantly thousands of Kurds, even today live peacefully in Turkey. This

    peace will continue when the nationalistic Kurds of Syria give up their attempt to

    annex parts of Eastern Turkey to create a new expanded Kurdish State.

    Since the time of Ataturk after WWI Turkey has never had territorial aspirations..

    except to live in their own homes—in peace: nothing has changed-except Turkey is

    housing three and one half million (3.5 m) refugees displaced by the U.S. war on ISIS.

    Copy: Honorable Serdar Kilic: Turkish Ambassador to the USA: Serdar.Kilic @MFA.gov.tr

    President D.J. Trump, Pres. USA: djtrump @Trumporg.com

    Foxnews.com

    Senator Lindsay Graham: Fax 202-224-5972

    Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman: Founder/President Turkish Forum: kbuyukataman @gmail.com

    Mr. HikmetAslan,PresidentTurkishAmericanAssociation:SNETACA;  aslanct @yahoo.com

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan  receptayyip.erdogan @baskanlik.gov.tr

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan;  cimer @cumhurbaskanligi.gov.tr

    Dr. Robert B McKay is The Advisor to Turkish Forum in Armenian, Kurdish and Cyprus issues since 1993

    Dr Robert B. McKay has spend many years in Turkey and Taught in Tarsus American College with His Wife Lorraine McKay , Their Three children were Born in Turkey.

    ===============================================================

    A note from TF-WTC President;

    NATO Ally of the Republic of Turkey Battles Terrorist , Not Kurds.

    Turkey is not and has not been against the Kurdish people. Such smear campaigns have only become another weapon in the international platform to delegitimize Turkey. The fact of the matter is Turkey is against terrorist organization like the Marxist–Leninist communist PKK, YPG and ISIS who are walking around freely in Syria / Iraq with guns,missiles pointed at Turkey.

    What would Israel do ? ,

    What would US do ? ,

    What would any government do? to protect it’s national interest and national security ?

    I thank The State of  Hungary and The State of Spain for not signing EU declaration against Turkish Actions to protect its citizens and national security and I hope many other nations will join them this week.

    Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman

    …………………………………………………………………………………

    COMMENTS  ,, SEFER OZDEMIR  ,,

    “Good Kurds” (show original) 9:32 PM (1 hour ago)

    Legitimizing Terrorists Whitewash the PKK / YPG as a “Good Kurds,”

    How is it that any American can feel good about arming and training a Marxist Leninist communist terrorist organization with American Tax money ?

    It is extremely disturbing to read an articles and ones who are sympathetic toward one of the world’s most infamous and deadly terrorist groups, the PKK /YPG . Articles have been floated to serve as a propaganda instrument for the PKK and YPG , which is declared a terrorist organization by not only by the United States but the European Union and others.

    PKK / YPG terrorist , are portrayed in many articles as humane fighters in an epic struggle against ISIS , The truth is the group has has committed acts of brutal terror that have cost the lives of tens of thousands of Turkish citizens, Syrian Citizens and Araps , among them teachers, engineers, villagers, women and children.
    Articles begin floated declaring Turkey in attacking Kurds in Syria, Do not speak the truth on was is taking place on the ground but are only Fake News with ones who have an alternative motives . There is now the tendency of depicting PKK/ YPG as if they represent the Kurds as glorious heroes, given how they have been portrayed in our media in the fight against ISIS, turning a blind eye to the Kurds own excesses, and as victims, given the negative image of the Turks in our media. Kurdish-Turks are often portrayed as suffering from discrimination or oppression, which seeks to explain or partly justify the PKK /YPG , when the reality is Turkey’s Kurds are equal under the Turkish Constitution and regional Kurds reject the PKK/ YPG . How is it that any American can feel good about arming and training a Marxist Leninist communist terrorist organization with American Tax money ?

    Articles may choose to whitewash the PKK / YPG as a “militant group,” but our country, Israel and others have designated the PKK /YPG as a terrorist group. Notice how our prior Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter confirmed not only the YPG’s ties to the PKK, but the PKK’s terrorist nature, 45 seconds into 2016’s “Graham: ‘Hope is not a strategy’”

    Turkeys current cross border Operation peace spring Battles Terrorist , Not Kurds. Turkey has taken step to protect her National interest against a terrorist organization Marxist–Leninist communist PKK, YPG and ISIS who are walking around freely in Syria / Iraq with guns, missiles pointed at Turkey.
    Kurdish PKK/ YPG finding shelter in Northern Syria or Northern Iraq and the ones who harbor or to continue to legitimizing Terrorists or whitewash the PKK / YPG as a “Good Kurds,” whether their support is active or passive is irrelevant, for there are no acceptable levels of support for terror. Nor is it responsible to undercut the security of a long-term NATO ally like Turkey. Until all terrorist are expelled from Turkeys broader the fight against terror will continue. As I always ask ?

    What would Israel do? What would any government do? to protect it’s national interest and national security?

    …………………………………………………………………………..

    COMMENTS: YURDAGUL  ATUN

    Member since 1/9/16yurdagulbeyoglu (yurdagulbeyoglu @hotmail.com)
    Ynt: [Turkish Forum – eturkiyeyiz.biz] “Good Kurds” (show original) 2:26 AM (2 hours ago)
    Merhaba değerli arkadaşlar. Harekatla ilgili olarak, daha önce yaşanan vahşet fotoğrafları dünyaya “Türk askeri yapmış gibi” servis ediliyor. Bizlerin de buna karşı elimizden geldiğince karşı atak yapmamız gerek. Propagandanın en eski savaş taktiği olduğundan hareketle yetkililere tavsiyem, teknolojik aletlere ve yabancı dillere hakim kişilerden oluşan bir sosyal medya grubu oluşturarak, bu algı operasyonunu çürütmeleri. Tabi bunu bizler de -küçük boyutta da olsa- yapabiliriz. Aşağıdaki yazıda olduğu gibi. Lütfen twiterden veya diğer sosyal medya mecralarından Türk askerini kötüleyen, PKK’yı masum gösteren tweetlere karşı sizler de birşey yazınız. Devede kulak da olsa mesajımızın yerine ulaşması çok önemli. “Biz nasıl olsa haklıyız” diyerek meydanı boş bıraktık, şimdi bunun cezasını çekiyoruz.
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