Cyprus-Forum.com

by **repulsewarrior** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 6:17 pm

ANKARA, September 22, 2014 (AFP) - More than 130,000 Syrian Kurds have fled across the border into Turkey, escaping an advance by Islamic State jihadists, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Turkey's PKK Kurdish rebel group on Monday urged fellow Kurds to cross into Syria and combat IS insurgents besieging a town near the border, the pro-Kurdish agency Firat reported.

"The number of Syrians has passed 130,000," Kurtulmus told reporters in Ankara, warning that the number would likely rise.

IS extremists have seized dozens of villages in the past week as they advance on the town of Ain al-Arab, called Kobane in Kurdish, near the border.

"If ISIL attacks continue in the Kobane region, Turkey may face an intensive influx," Kurtulmus said, using one of a handful of alternative names for the IS group.

"We have taken all necessary measures in case of a continued influx of displaced people. We don't want that, of course, but we are ready," he added.

http://reliefweb.int/report/turkey/more ... y-minister

...what with the volume of the displaced, what with the Kurds as Kurds rallying, what with the release of the hostages, Turkey will surely follow in action.

by **Oceanside50** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 6:45 pm

Turkey won't act against these Isis group anytime soon, in my opinion because there is too much at stake for Turkey..many of these fighters are Turks and behind them there is a large part of turkey that supports Isis.. Note that the 49 Turk hostages weren't killed by Isis.... You could compare this to the Serbian crises where numerous Greek and Greek Cypriots volunteered to fight alongside the Serbs but Greece being part of NATO had to finally agree to the bombing of Serbia...and if you look at it from that perspective then turkey is one messed up country... Since this group has the ear of Erdogan and turkey and if this group makes waves in Cyprus then the next step is partition...

by **Tim Drayton** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 6:11 am

Erdoğan and his party support Islamic State.

by **Tim Drayton** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 6:42 am

Oceanside50 wrote:[...]
You could compare this to the Serbian crises where numerous Greek and Greek Cypriots volunteered to fight alongside the Serbs but Greece being part of NATO had to finally agree to the bombing of Serbia.
[...]

This is something that Foti Benlisoy saw coming about a month ago in the very insightful article of his that I translated and put up on another thread. In his words, as translated by me:

"If the AKP government is not hell bent on changing Turkey’s place in the international system, it will whether it likes it or not have to oppose ISIL in some way."

The same considerations apply to countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

by **Tim Drayton** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:23 am

A joint air raid against IS in Syria was apparently conducted this morning by the USA, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

by **Tim Drayton** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:25 am

The BBC web site's report on the above:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29321136

by **Tim Drayton** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:36 am

There is talk that the Turkish regime secured the release and return of the 49 Turkish hostages by arranging for the release of 50 IS members who were being held by a rival, Muslim brotherhood affiliated, faction in Syria.

by **Tim Drayton** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:55 am

It seems that the Syrian authorities were given advance notice of the air raid and did not live up to their threats to take defensive action, so top marks to our antipodean pundit for forecasting that correctly. This may also imply Russia's implicit approval.

by **Tim Drayton** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:14 pm

The Egyptian Al Youm Al Sakhen newspaper is alleging that in return for the release of the 49 Turkish hostages, 100 IS prisoners were released from Turkish prisons and IS was supplied with arms.

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/duny ... kildi.html