Headlines

• Turkey’s Contradictory Actions

• Al-Assad Admits He is in Trouble

• Zionist State Attacks Al Aqsa

Details

Turkey’s Contradictory Actions

This week, after much fanfare, Turkish warplanes attacked ISIS positions in Syria and the AKP government finally agreed that the US can use Turkish bases for its missions against ISIS. This took place with a big security sweep, detaining people suspected of being ISIS agents and Kurdish militants. But the statements coming from Turkish officials have been contradictory. Erdogan warned June 27, “We will never allow a state to be established in northern Syria and in the south of our country. No matter what the cost, we will continue our struggle in this regard.” Whilst Ahmet Davutoglu said regarding entering Syria: “We will never take a step that would put the country at risk and allow the formation of [threatening] structures on our borders." Turkish forces also launched attacks against PKK forces in northern Iraq and Southern Turkey, despite saying ISIS was the target for the attacks. This contradictory statements and then actions contrary to them all indicate there will be no invasion of Syria any time soon. Recent set-backs in domestic politics seem to be the driving factor in this calculation by Erdogan and his cronies. Despite possessing every capability to end the Syrian struggle against the al-Assad regime, Turkey is playing games with the sentiments for the people in the region.

Al-Assad Admits He is in Trouble

Bashar al-Assad admitted in a speech, televised to dignitaries, in Damascus on 26 July that after 5 years of war the Syrian army has been forced to give up some areas in order to retain others in the war against rebels. His army, he said, also faced a shortage of soldiers.

According to most analysts Syria's conscript army was once 300,000 strong, but has been roughly halved by deaths, defections, and a rise in draft-dodging. "Sometimes, in some circumstances, we are forced to give up areas to move those forces to the areas that we want to hold onto. We must define the important regions that the armed forces hold onto so it doesn't allow the collapse of the rest of the areas," Assad said. In 2015 alone the Syrian military has lost the north-western provincial capital Idlib, parts of the south, and Palmyra in the north-east, which was taken over by ISIS. Despite possessing heavy weaponry and aircraft, after five years the Syrian regime failed to quell the uprising. The regime in Damascus is now completely reliant upon external help. Al-Assad finds himself in the same situation as many dictators did in the former Soviet satellite states in 1989, where they also relied upon external support when their masses hated them.

In 1991, the external support from the Soviet Union collapsed in spectacular fashion. Many of the dictators of satellite states were hung in public whilst in other cases whole ruling families were killed. The future doesn’t bode well for al-Assad and his cronies.

Zionist State attacks Al Aqsa

Clashes erupted between Muslim worshippers and ‘Israeli’ Jewish hardliners at Al-Aqsa compound after hundreds of Jews tried to enter the mosque complex to mark the Tisha B'Av holiday. Israeli police stormed the mosque shortly after the skirmishes on Sunday morning and closed the gates of the compound. An Al Jazeera correspondent confirmed the police fired sound bombs inside the compound. In a statement, ‘Israeli’ police said that they stormed the mosque to root out what they said were Palestinian protesters suspected of stockpiling fireworks and petrol bombs in preparation for a riot. The Zionist state has attempted to make Jerusalem is capitol; but has failed in imposing its authority over it as the Muslims in Palestine refuse to give up on the blessed land. Despite over 65 years of occupation, conspiracy by both the regional rulers and international powers the Muslims in the region have remained steadfast in protecting the blessed al Quds.