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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 8-Oct-2014
8-Oct-14 World View -- Kurds protest violently in cities across Turkey over ISIS attack on Kobani

Web Log - October, 2014

8-Oct-14 World View -- Kurds protest violently in cities across Turkey over ISIS attack on Kobani

Biden makes a third apology, this time to Saudi Arabia

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

Turkey's Erdogan sets conditions for saving Kobani from ISIS
Kurds protest violently in cities across Turkey over ISIS attack on Kobani
Biden makes a third apology, this time to Saudi Arabia

Turkey's Erdogan sets conditions for saving Kobani from ISIS

Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Kobani have been pouring into Turkey (Getty)

Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Kobani have been pouring into Turkey (Getty)

As we've been reporting the last few days, the Syrian city of Kobani appears to be close to being overrun by the Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria (IS or ISIS or ISIL). The city is populated by Syrian Kurds, and a successful attack by ISIS would result in a massacre and tens or hundreds of thousands of refugees. Now, on Tuesday, Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a statement that I consider to be pretty remarkable:

"I am telling the West – dropping bombs from the air will not provide a solution. The terror will not be over ... unless there is cooperation for a ground operation.
Months have passed but no results have been achieved. Kobani is about to fall. We asked for three things: one, for a no-fly zone to be created; two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped."

I keep reading this statement over and over, and it appears to me to be almost a kind of extortion: "Meet my demands, and I'll save Kobani."

It's well known that Erdogan is very dissatisfied that the US-led air strikes in Syria have been attacking only ISIS targets, and that he would like the air strike to attack targets of the regime of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad. So he's making the following demands:

"one, for a no-fly zone to be created." This would be a no-fly zone directed at al-Assad's airforce.
"two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared." Erdogan would like to create a secure zone, protected by Turkish forces, to which Syrian refugees could flee. Currently, millions of Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey. There have been 200,000 refugees from Kobani alone, mostly in the last couple of weeks.
"and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped." These "moderate" fighters would fight al-Assad's army.

Erdogan has said that ground troops will be required to save Kobani, and that Turkey would be willing to join in a coalition ground troop force with Western governments.

However, whether Erdogan likes it or not, Turkey is under tremendous international pressure to save Kobani. On Tuesday, prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu expressed his government's willingness to join with a Western coalition to use ground troops in Syria to fight ISIS and the al-Assad regime.

According to a Turkish analyst, Turkey might be dragged into a quagmire:

"If Turkey engages in a ground assault against the Assad regime in Syria, then it might be dragged into a quagmire. I want to draw attention to the fault lines based on ethnic and sectarian divisions. We have divisions similar to those Middle Eastern countries which have been recently dragged into civil wars. The most appropriate option is for Turkey to join the air campaign against ISIS."

Hurriyet (Istanbul) and AP and Today's Zaman (Ankara)

Kurds protest violently in cities across Turkey over ISIS attack on Kobani

Twelve people were killed in clashes with police, as Kurdish protesters in cities across Turkey took to the streets in violent riots to demand that Turkey protect the Kurds in Kobani who are under attack by ISIS. Curfews have been declared in five provinces. The protests were called for by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the biggest Kurdish party in Turkey. PKK is considered to be a terrorist organization by Turkey and by Western countries. In a 30-year civil war between the PKK and Turkey, some 30,000 people were killed. Now the PKK is accusing Turkey of siding with ISIS, in order to exterminate the Kurds in Kobani.

For its part, Turkey sees helping the Kurds in Kobani as being the same as helping the PKK. Turkey sees ISIS as less of a threat than the al-Assad regime and the Kurds, and fears that the Kobani crisis will revive the civil war. BBC and Today's Zaman (Istanbul)

Biden makes a third apology, this time to Saudi Arabia

As we've reported, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had to apologize on Saturday to Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan for saying in a speech on Thursday that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE had funded and armed the Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria (IS or ISIS or ISIL) and contributed to its rise. Biden was trying to pin the blame on Mideast states in order to defuse the scathing criticism from the Obama administration's former defense secretary, Leon Panetta, whose new book blames administration policy for the rise of the ISIS. On Sunday, Biden apologized to the Foreign Affairs minister for United Arab Emirates (UAE). Now, on Tuesday, Biden call the Foreign Affairs minister of Saudi Arabia to apologize for the same remarks. CBS News

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 8-Oct-14 World View -- Kurds protest violently in cities across Turkey over ISIS attack on Kobani thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (8-Oct-2014) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 8-Oct-2014 8-Oct-14 World View -- Kurds protest violently in cities across Turkey over ISIS attack on Kobani

Turkey's Erdogan sets conditions for saving Kobani from ISIS

Kurds protest violently in cities across Turkey over ISIS attack on Kobani

Biden makes a third apology, this time to Saudi Arabia

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 8-Oct-2014
8-Oct-14 World View -- Kurds protest violently in cities across Turkey over ISIS attack on Kobani