Erdogan Threatens Kurds

Erdogan wants to kill ’em all: Erdogan Warns Kurds Will Be ‘Buried in Syrian Lands Along with Their Weapons’

Erdogan Warns Kurds Will Be ‘Buried in Syrian Lands Along with Their Weapons’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Kurdish militias in Syria on Wednesday to either lay down their arms or be “buried.” On the same day, the Turkish military said it killed 21 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq – including members of the People’s Defense Units (YPG), the leading Syrian Kurdish force allied with the United States against the Islamic State.

Erdogan and other Turkish officials have adamantly insisted for years that the YPG is allied with, or merely a branch of, the violent separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK is banned in Turkey and classified as a terrorist organization by many other nations, including the United States.

Protests in Syria Follow Attack on Alawite Shrine

Protests in Syria Follow Attack on Alawite Shrine

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Wednesday reported protests in Syria’s coastal cities of Tartus, Latakia, Homs, and Qardaha after a video showing an Alawite shrine attacked by unknown militants was posted to social media.

The Alawites are a sect of Shiite Islam whose numbers in Syria are fairly small, but until recently they held outsized influence because dictator Bashar Assad was an Alawite. Qardaha is Assad’s hometown, while Tartus and Latakia are the cities with the heaviest Alawite populations.

The world turns a blind eye to Turkish aggression. They have been committing atrocities against the Kurds for years, and no one seems to care. What’s even more shocking is Turkey is still in NATO. There should be consequences for their actions.