...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
will maintain its military presence in northern Syria "until the people are free," President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...claimed Tuesday, blasting the "so-called" parliamentary vote in the war-torn country.
Turkey has launched three military incursions into northern Syria since 2016 to battle the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group and Kurdish militia deemed by Ankara as "terrorists".
"We will continue to stay in this country until our thousand-year neighbour and brother, the Syrian people, reach freedom, peace and security," Erdogan claimed in a televised speech in the capital Ankara.
Since the 2011 uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
, Turkey has militarily backed rebel groups seeking his ouster and facilitated access and movement of pro-Ankara militias into the Syrian soil.
Erdogan also slammed Sunday's "so-called" legislative polls in Syria.
"In these days, they are holding elections in Syria, so-called elections," he said.
"Can there be such elections? Where are the countries that claim to be democratically advanced?"
The election in Syria comes at a critical phase for the Damascus government, which has restored much of the territory lost at the beginning of the country's war.
The millions of Syrians who fled the conflict were not eligible to vote.
Erdogan also said Turkey "closely followed" the situation in another conflict-struck country Libya where Ankara backs the Government of National Accord (GNA) against rival Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
.