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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria Turkmen move to form anti-Kurd army |
| 2015-07-08 |
| [EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Syrian Turkmen military and political officials, who are close to ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , have been moving to form a unified army in northern Syria capable of confronting the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as a terror group. "Turkmen fighting groups in Syria have taken the decision to offer greater support to each other and work to create a Turkmen army if conditions permit," Syrian Turkmen Assembly chief Abdel Rahman Mustafa told Turkish Anadolu news on Monday. The Turkmen official's comments came as the Syrian Turkmen Assembly held a meeting in southern Turkey's Gaziantep that brought together Turkmen representatives from Aleppo, Tal Abyad, Jarabulus, Latakia, Idlib, Raqqa and the Golan. Alaraby Aljadeed reported that the Turkmen military and civilian officials in the meeting decided to form a military council that reports to the Syrian Turkmen Assembly, a pro-opposition group with ties to the Turkish government. The decision to form the council comes after calls emerged from Turkmen military formations to fight both ISIS and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party that controls the YPG, the London-based daily added. Syrian Turkmen have already armed themselves in a series of brigades throughout Syria that are loosely affiliated with each other and count on about 10,000 gunnies in total, with the largest fighting units operating in the Aleppo province. Turkey's security institutions maintain close links with the Turkmen units in Syria, providing special forces training to the brigades, which are affiliated with the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... and have taken part in operations in Aleppo, Idlib and outside Latakia. |
| Posted by:Fred |