Turkey has "No Intention" of Using Its Ground Troops to Intervene in Syria

Turkey, which has close relations with the West, supplies arms, money and volunteers to groups such as the Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State (IS). “The West perceives terrorism as a wildcard that it can pull off periodically”, said the Syrian President Bashar al Assad to the Russian channel RT, adding that the alliance between Syria, Iran, Iraq and the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, which he termed the axis of resistance, “will achieve a defeat of terrorism which is the new tool used to subjugate the region.” Russia has joined the axis decisively. The United States has been bombing Syria since September 2014 without the consent of Damascus and has violated international law. Attacks had no impact on terrorist groups such as the Islamic State but only strengthened it… until now. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, caused a stir when he sent military help to Syria beginning on September 30, 2015. For the past several weeks, joint forces of military warplanes of Russia and Syria attacked command posts of terrorists in Palmyra, Aleppo and Homs.

Turkey announces 'plans' for joint US operation against IS

Turkey has been actively bombing in Syria and Iraq after entering the air war against ISIS. 

November 17, 2015

AFP - Turkey's foreign minister on Wednesday said Ankara "has plans" for a joint operation with the United States to end the presence of Islamic State militants along any part of its border with Syria.

Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu told the state-run news agency Anatolia that IS militants still had a presence along some of Turkey's border with northern Syria.

"We have certain plans to put an end to the control that IS is still exercising on a zone of our frontier," he said. "These are plans for a joint operation with the United States."

"When these plans are completed, our operations will continue with more and more intensity. You will see this in the days to come."

US Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview with CNN late Tuesday that "we are entering an operation with the Turks" to shut off 98 kilometres (61 miles) of border still not secure from IS.

Their comments come amid growing momentum for coordinated international action against IS after the Paris attacks last week claimed by the extremist Islamist group which killed 129 and injured 350.

IS "is still present in a zone on our border. We will not tolerate it keeping a presence on our border," said Sinirlioglu.

Turkish security forces on Tuesday killed one suspected IS militant seeking to cross into Turkey from Syria, the army said Wednesday.

Twenty-one people, including nine children, who were part of the group trying to cross the border were detained.

Meanwhile, Turkish police said they detained eight suspected IS members at Istanbul's main airport who had travelled from Morocco, adding they

Sinirlioglu did not expand on what the operation would entail but the Hurriyet daily quoted security sources as saying is would involve clearing an area from Mare to Jarablus in northern Syria of militants.

It would be conducted by Turkish F-16s and US F-15s from the Turkish base of Incirlik, baacked up by US A-10s to destroy armoured vehicles belonging to IS.

Kerry's comments did not imply any ground operation but a unit of Syrian Turkmen forces linked to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) would cross the border once the air campaign was completed, Hurriyet added.

Turkey has for months been touting the idea of a safe zone for Syrian refugees inside Syria. But the plan has so far found just a lukewarm response from its Western allies and its implementation remains unclear.

Sinirlioglu had said on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Antalya that at the moment Turkey had "no intention" of using its ground troops to intervene in Syria.

"A ground intervention in Syria is not on the agenda of Turkey," said ruling Justice and Development Party () spokesman Omer Celik Wednesday.

"If there is not a political solution, then Syria will become like Afghanistan," he added.

Speaking at the G20 Monday, US President Barack Obama had expressed scepticism about a safe zone, saying "a true safe zone requires us to set up ground operations."

"There's a whole set of questions that have to be answered there," including how such a zone would work and whether it would be a "magnet" for terror attacks, Obama added.

Obama's envoy for the coalition against IS, Brett McGurk, told CNN the US and Turkey had "very, very intense discussions" over how to pressure IS in the border area.

"This is all part of this concerted pressure campaign because we're going to do everything we can to suffocate and destroy this network," he said.

Comments at Yahoo!: 

This coming from the country whose Muslims booed the French soccer team during a moment of silence for the recent victims of Islamic terrorism.

I call bull. They'll probably attack the Kurds while assisting ISIS....like they have been doing the entire time. It is no coincidence that Turks started shouting "Allah is Great" during a moment of silence for France during a soccer friendly. These people are in bed with ISIS and so is the US Government. This is why the French were quick to form an alliance with the Russians, because the French people paid a severe price for sitting back and playing along with this sick game that Obama Administration, Erdogan, and the house of Saud are perpetrating on the world.

I like the old traditional jihad uniforms of the Bin Laden days when each jihaddy johnny wore their own style robes and rags ... now they all look like a Hollywood production of black clad ninja's - probably filming most of their videos on a green screen between promo photos ... leading me to believe they are hiding their faces because they are a bunch of Halliburton white guy mercenaries .... I could be wrong ... but I doubt that ... takes the fun out of all the killing doesn't it? I long for the days of real blood thirsty mayhem and murdering days of yor ! ... knowing it's all for money removes the excitement huh? Oh the humanity.

The You Tube videos of ISIS do show shadows going in two directions. Last time I checked there is only one sun in the desert, therefore they must have been backlit from two different directions.

How's is it that Turkey, a close U.S Ally and member of NATO, has for years allowed ISIS terrorists to freely move between the Turkish and Syrian Boarder? Turkey has been buying the oil from ISIS at 2 Million $$$ a day, making ISIS one of the most wealthiest terrorists groups in the world. When Saudi Arabia bought and paid for all those shiny, brand new Toyota pickup trucks by the 1000s that we all saw ISIS driving, what country do you think they were shipped and delivered from? That's right, TURKEY! And theses aren't conspiracy theories: these are known facts the media will not report on. The media only reports on the fear that the terrorists are coming. Nothing is what is seems, and don't look for truth from our government or media.

Watch the video of Apache helping to deliver fleet of brand new Toyota's to ISIS... Google this video headliner:  Apache helicopters escorting large ISIS convoy.

What’s actually taking place in Syria: is it a civil war? I refuse to accept the thesis that there is a civil war here. It is as false as the sun coming out at night. What is happening here is an international aggression, maintained by NATO, the US State Department and the Israeli intelligence services, who managed to unite the monarchies of the Persian Gulf – Saudi Arabia and Qatar – along with the governments of Jordan and Turkey, to initiate a siege on Syria. The strategies for starting the crisis were clear. They tried to transfer to Syria the effects tested on other countries in what became known as the Arab Spring, a form of destabilization which caused pain in all countries where it was imposed. For this they utilized various methods, one of which was the manipulation of the well-known Muslim Brotherhood, which had already been used in Egypt, Libya, Tunis and in other countries, trying to give religious overtones to protests; and, on the other hand, using the well-known destabilizing political organizations organized by the US embassy.

It is no secret that prior to the supposed popular demonstrations that took place in March 2011 that initiated the beginning of the conflict, the former north American ambassador in Damascus, Robert Ford, traveled constantly to various provinces, met with leaders of the opposition and financed the protests. In these “popular” demonstrations, there were armed men who fired at the police. Generating chaos and violence, because it was all a well designed plan to generate destabilization and give way for jihadist groups, organized, armed and trained by the West, who were waiting at the borders with Jordan in the south, Turkey in the north, and Iraq in the east. It is also not a secret that the self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army - of which there is now barely a trace - composed in its majority by defectors from the Syrian Army, was financed by Paris, and that in its process of disintegration, a majority of members joined the terrorist gangs of the Islamic State or the Al Nusra Front, which is the armed wing of Al Qaeda in Syria.

These people trying to shout myself and others down are not supporters of freedom. Their behavior reeks of fascism. I would never deny their right to post their sad opinions even f I don't agree with them. The fact that I seem to have developed a cult following of harassers to my post tells me that I am being quite effective at getting the truth out. So I guess I should thank them for that.

More garbage from US and its stooges about their phony fight against ISIS. Turkey can stop training and stop letting ISIS mercenaries to enter Syria, and the US can stop funding and equipping ISIS fighters through its Arab puppet governments. As shown by a year of phony US bombing of ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq, US and its stooges have no intension of destroying their ISIS creation. The goal is, and has been, to bring down Syrian government to implement Yinon plan for greater Israel, among other things.

Not sure which side Turkey is on. Are they going to use this as another excuse to attack the Kurds and cause more division in the area? While ISIS seems to have no problem traveling through Turkey to gain access to Syria and beyond...

This excuse will definitely raise the stakes of trying to remove Assad and stop his taking of gold instead of USD for oil. I hope Putin bombs the sheet out of Turkey and Saudi Arabia when they target Assad forces under the guise of fighting ISIS. Are you ready for WWIII ?

What was life in Syria like before the intervention by the US and EU?

President Bashar al Assad was converted into a scapegoat by those great circles of international powers who seek to repeat in Syria the same as they did in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and in other countries in the region. Since long before the beginning of the crisis in 2011, al Assad was under the scope of Washington and its intelligence agencies, destined to become a victim of imperial greed for not bowing to the edicts of the White House.

Since President al Assad came to power following the death of his father, Hafez al Assad, he continued the same pan-Arab policies for regional unity, which have been given much prominence in Syria within the Non-Aligned Movement. Assad did not compromise on the national economy for the sake of the designs of the IMF and followed the example of his father, the most important defender of the Palestinian cause for the return of the occupied territories by Israel and for the return of million of Palestinian refugees to their place of origin. Syria has always been one of the worse enemies of Israel, who condemned it for its expansionist policies and called for the return of the Golan Heights, occupied illegally since 1967. To that, we must add the solid relationship that exists between Damascus and the Islamic Republic of Iran. They are united by historical ties of friendship and collaboration. Now we see that in 2013, Rupert Murdoch, Jacob Rothschild and Dick Cheney have formed a gas extraction consortium called Genie Energy that proposes to extract gas worth $40 billion from Syrias contested Golan Heights. Israel has tried to annex that territory since the war in 1968. Bashar al-Assad drove the modernization of Syrian society, initiated by his father in the 1970s, defended the concept of the secular state, imposed the law of the state on all religions and the right of coexistence of a multiethnic population, which forms the core of the Syrian people. He also did not allow for the privatization of the oil industry nor of the most important industries of the country. For all these reasons, it was an objective to destroy on the part of the neo-colonial administrations of the U.S. and its European allies.

Thanks for your post and the enlightment about Assad's history. I agree, that if countries outside of Syria kept out and not tried to influence the change in leadership -- trying to establish their puppet governments -- then perhaps we wouldn't have the current situation. Unfortunately, it's all about greed and trying to force others into your realm of influence; and if you don't agree, they will try to topple you. I congratulate Russia's Vladimar for pushing back upon the forces that want to restructure Syria. Can't we let people live as they want to, without trying to mold them into what we want? The USA is a very sick and disillusioned nation.

And still no facts proving the ISIS/neocon/Zionist/head chopper horse manure about Assad's "atrocities". If human rights mattered in any way to Obama, US bombs would be falling on Riyadh.

How can Turkey explicitly support IS for the last 4 years as they were fighting Assad and Kurds, and now claim to want to lead the fight against them? Turkey's hands are dirty.

The US is again being outfoxed by the Turkish Pashas. They are and have been supporting ISIS all these years against the Syrian and Iraqi Kurds and now they are going to attack ISIS? Are you kidding me?

Turkey's idea of fighting terrorism means that they might pay a little for ISIS Syrian blood oil than before. Seriously, Turkey has been one of the biggest enablers of ISIS from the beginning. All Turkey cares about is murdering as many Kurdish fighters as they can under the cover of their fake war against ISIS!

Note how Saudi Arabia still continues to get a free pass for financing ISIS?

Turkey (and others) support ISIS - they bomb Kurds only and arm ISIS.

Hey, Turkey, start your plan by stopping the smuggling of ISIS oil into your country. Seeing as ISIS relies on selling that oil in order to pay its fighters and their families. If they are denied that income they will immediately begin to break down. NBC news says "the amount of money ISIS can earn from selling and smuggling oil and gas is roughly $8 to $10 million a month." and "pil smuggling, much of it to Turkey, is a key source of income for ISIS." Just denying them that income would decrease the number of fighters that they can pay by at least 10,000. About 1 out of 8 fighters in ISIS are paid because Turkey hasn't stopped them from smuggling oil across their border. THAT should be at least part of Turkey's plan of action.