We first started noticing major 'odd' exports of gold from Turkey to Iran in May 2012. Turkey’s trade balance fluctuated wildly as gold stocks flowed out of the country in bursts.

“Turkey’s going to continue it,” the Turkish economy minister said. “If those casting aspersions on the gold trade are searching for immorality, they should take a look in the mirror.”

Then, in 2014, we discussed Turkey's "200 tons of secret gold" trade with Iran detailing how a complex network that spanned Turkey, China, Dubai and Iran was used to skirt US sanctions on energy exports from Iran.

The operation featured an Iranian-born businessman who liked fast horses, faster cars and the fastest planes. His unique skill: Getting gold into sanctions-encircled Iran.

Enough gold that for a time he became the government’s key instrument in improving Turkey’s irksome economic imbalance.

Republican Senator Kevin Cramer prevented the U.S. Senate from voting on a resolution on Thursday that would recognise as a genocide the mass killings of Armenians a century ago, saying it was not an appropriate time to pass legislation that would anger Turkey.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives passed the resolution by an overwhelming 405-11 in late October. But there has not been a vote in the Senate, where President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a majority of seats.

OURCE: ZEROHEDGE
We first started noticing major 'odd' exports of gold from Turkey to Iran in May 2012. Turkey’s trade balance fluctuated wildly as gold stocks flowed out of the country in bursts.

“Turkey’s going to continue it,” the Turkish economy minister said. “If those casting aspersions on the gold trade are searching for immorality, they should take a look in the mirror.”

Then, in 2014, we discussed Turkey's "200 tons of secret gold" trade with Iran detailing how a complex network that spanned Turkey, China, Dubai and Iran was used to skirt US sanctions on energy exports from Iran.

The operation featured an Iranian-born businessman who liked fast horses, faster cars and the fastest planes. His unique skill: Getting gold into sanctions-encircled Iran.

Enough gold that for a time he became the government’s key instrument in improving Turkey’s irksome economic imbalance.

A Turkish diplomat has revealed a map which delineates waters in the Mediterranean claimed by Turkey, amid an ongoing months-long standoff with Cyprus and Greece over Turkish oil and gas exploration and drilling inside Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

"After signing deals with its own puppet state in occupied northern Cyprus and with the pseudo-government in Libya's Tripoli, Turkey declares that it owns half of the eastern Mediterranean," Aron Lund, an analyst at The Century Foundation, observes of the newly published map.

With this renewed effort to combat Daesh forces in Syria, it’s understandable that some observers are scratching their heads, considering the fact that the commander-in-chief has declared ad nauseum that those same Daesh forces have been eliminated over the past year.

Despite US President Donald Trump’s repeated declarations of victory over Daesh, the US has - once again - announced a resumption in operations against the group. While the tug-of-war between the commander-in-chief and the Pentagon is apparent, one expert points out that there is one thing both parties can agree on: oil.

In a Saturday press conference, US Air Force Maj. Gen. Eric Hill announced that, following operations on November 22, a US-led coalition was able to not only capture a “significant amount” of small arms, ammunition and explosives, but also detained over a dozen Daesh soldiers.

Oil tankers and oil makeshift refineries in northeast Syria were bombed by ‘mysterious’ planes yesterday morning, SANA later stated it was done by the Syrian Army regional command.

The statement conveyed Syrian Arab News Agency SANA was brief but very meaningful:

“SANA’s correspondent in al-Hasakah quoted a field source as saying: after verifying that some Kurdish organizations in the Syrian Jazira region smuggle Syrian oil through tanks through Jarablus and Erbil region in northern Iraq to the Turkish regime, which they claim to be their main enemy, Groups of these tanks and oil refining centers were destroyed this morning.

The source stressed that strict measures will be taken against any smuggling of stolen oil from Syrian territory outside Syria.”

Syrian Jazira region refers to the Syrian territories east and northeast of the Euphrates.

That’s it!

Ankara has reportedly been blackmailing NATO, refusing to sign the proposed defense plan for the Baltics and Poland unless the alliance officially recognizes Kurdish-led militia in northern Syria as a “terrorist group.”
Agreeing on a new NATO defense plan for the eastern European countries has escalated from a formality into a true diplomatic battle, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing four senior sources within the bloc.

“[The Turks) are taking eastern Europeans hostage, blocking approval of this military planning until they get concessions,” one of the sources said.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
The Israeli government is aiming to increase the volume of Israel’s defence exports, reported Globes, which has revealed the main points of the plan for the first time.

The project, being overseen by the Defence Ministry’s International Defence Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) led by Brigadier General (Res.) Yair Kulas, will begin to be rolled out in early 2020.

According to Globes, the plan is based on “focused seminars for senior commanders in foreign armies”, Israeli military “assistance for promoting sales of Israeli weapons”, and “subsidising small and medium-sized defence companies seeking to sell arms around the world”.

Speaking this week, Kulas said that SIBAT favours a major expansion of agreements between countries, resulting in significant deals for the large defence companies, especially Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.

A Kurdish senior foreign affairs official, Aldar Xelil, reported that the US has assured Kurdish forces that US troops will remain in the oilfield area between Derik and Terbespiya, in eastern Syria.

This assurance doesn’t seem to be helping the Kurds feel a lot better, however. with Xelil pointing out that this really isn’t going to do anything to prevent the Turkish offensives into northeastern Syria.

The US announced a “pullout” from Syria but ended up just redeploying around the oil, with President Trump saying the oil is the priority. Xelil says the US has no intention of staying anywhere west of Qamilshli, and for the Kurds, that’s a problem.

The US is still in Syria, but there’s about 100 km gap between Syrian-held Syria and US-held oilfield where Turkey and its rebels are not only free to invade Kurdish-held territory, but to push potentially quite deep into Kurdish territory.

A Republican United States Senate member on Thursday blocked a resolution recognising the "Armenian genocide", the second time in a week that a member of President Donald Trump’s party halted the measure.

Senator David Perdue prevented a bipartisan effort to pass the resolution by unanimous consent, arguing that its passage during a sensitive period "would undermine the administration’s commitment to overcoming real challenges in our bilateral relationship with Turkey".

The move angered Senate Democrat Robert Menendez, whose effort had been rebuffed the previous week after Republican congressmen met with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"It is amazing to me that the greatest superpower on the face of the earth just can’t speak [the] truth of history," Menendez said.

So much for drawing down in the Middle East. President Trump notified Congress on Tuesday that more American troops are en route to Saudi Arabia, which will bring their overall numbers to about 3,000 in the kingdom.

"These personnel will remain deployed as long as their presence is required to fulfill the missions described above," the president said in a letter.

The official White House notification of Congressional members described the American military presence there as essential in countering Iran's influence in the region.

President Trump’s position on the Syrian War aims to further simplify matters. Turkey’s President Erdogan says he is worried about Turkey’s border with Syria, and President Trump sees an opportunity to contrast his own war, saying “we left troops behind only for the oil.”

In the context of US-Turkey relations, this seems very straightforward and avoids conflicts of interest. Admitting that the whole US war is for oil isn’t the panacea Trump thinks it is, however, and he’s running up against other US officials on this issue.

Lawmakers are couching the Syrian War as being about protecting the Kurds, while the Pentagon’s leadership sees it heavily built around fighting ISIS and continuing to work toward regime change in Syria. Some even suggest it’s about countering Russia.

Trump’s all-oil agenda directly contradicts everyone else, and gives the impression that the US is being deliberately evasive about its military agenda and where US foreign policy is going.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) blocked a resolution on Wednesday that would have formally recognized the Ottoman Empire's genocide against the Armenian people.

Entirely to be expected, a new report in The Wall Street Journal has found that Turkish-backed Syrian forces currently fighting US-backed Kurdish groups as part of 'Operation Peace Spring' are guilty of war crimes, including summary executions of Kurdish civilians.

"U.S. military officials watched live drone feeds last month that appeared to show Turkish-backed Arab gunmen targeting civilians during their assault on Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria, attacks the Americans reported to their commanders as possible war crimes, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the incidents," reports the WSJ.

What the report fails to mention, however, is the blatantly obvious and relevant recent history that the Islamist militants carrying out such atrocities are the very same militants which were a few short years ago funded, armed and trained by the CIA and Pentagon.

Have Turkey's floodgates begun to open? For months now the question of what to do with foreign jihadists which flooded Syria over the course of the eight-year long war has been intensely debated. President Erdogan has shocked European officials by repeatedly threatening to unleash them along with some three million Syrian refugees on Europe if his 'Operation Peace Spring' does not gain support, and if the EU rejects his 'safe zone' offer.

But as of Monday Turkish officials announced plans to begin sending hundreds of the some 1200 plus ISIS detainees and other jihadists it has in its custody back to Europe, saying Turkey "is not a hotel for jihadists" — to quote an Interior Ministry statement from last week.

Maj. Gen. Eric Hill, addressing the arrival of more armored vehicles at the US positions in eastern Syria, says it is part of the “resetting” of the US position further east, and required the US to have more “combat power here to sustain ourselves.”

Maj. Gen. Hill says that the goal is not simply to have power to match ISIS but “the militaries of the Syrian regime, the Russians, or even militias backed by fellow NATO partner Turkey.” The focus is on how everyone is carving up territory in eastern Syria, which was once controlled by the US and its Kurdish allies.

Though the Pentagon likes to brag about its ability to project power across the world, in Syria its ability to accomplish anything has historically hinged on getting the Kurds to do it for them. Though the deployment at the oilfields is no doubt capable of inflicting some casualties if control of the fields is challenged, it’s hard to imagine that the US believes it would truly hold this ground with a few hundred troops.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
The British founder of the organisation that trained the Syrian rescue group known as the White Helmets has died in Istanbul.

A spokesman for the White Helmets confirmed on Monday afternoon the death of James Le Mesurier, but said further details were yet to be established.

Le Mesurier, 48, was found dead near his apartment in central Istanbul’s Beyo?lu neighbourhood at around 4.30am. Turkish media reports said he was found with fractures to his head and legs near the building on Monday morning and appeared to have fallen from the balcony of one of the apartments.

The office of Istanbul’s governor said it had commenced a “comprehensive” investigation into the death.

Over the past days, Syria’s northeast has been the main point of instability in the war-torn country.

On November 10, the Turkish-backed coalition of militant groups, the Syrian National Army, announced that it was resuming it offensive in the area. The group justified this move by claiming that the Kurdish People Protection Units and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which are the core of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, violate the safe-zone agreement reached by Ankara and Moscow. According to the Turkish version of the events, Kurdish rebels did not fully with draw from the border area and continued attacks on positions of Turkish-led forces and civilians.

Whether to control the oil or flat out take the oil, US statements on the new military mission in Syria are heavily oil-themed. Other reports, however, suggest that the operation is a lot more complicated than that.

In reality, a lot of the goal is nation-building, with US forces meant to both keep the Syrian government out of this part of Syria, and try to “bring prosperity” to the region, propping up a potential territory of rebels.

This is again built around the assumption that the US can manufacture an autonomous, prosperous region, using the oilfields as the revenue source, and then steer that region toward hostility with the rest of Syria.

This will likely end up being a plan easier for the Trump Administration to sell than overt theft of oil, as it allows the US to retain its primary focus, military hostility toward Syria with an eye toward eventual regime change.

Submitted by Nauman Sadiq, an Islamabad-based attorney, columnist and geopolitical analyst focused on the politics of Af-Pak and Middle East regions, neocolonialism and petro-imperialism.

A car bomb exploded in northern Syria killing 13 and wounding 20. The blast on Saturday ripped through a crowded market in Tal Abyad, a town recently occupied by Turkish-backed militant proxies. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast targeted pro-Turkey fighters and civilians were also among the dead.

Even though the Turkish Defense Ministry promptly laid the finger of blame on Turkey’s arch-foe, the Kurdish YPG militia, without conducting an investigation, car bombing as a tactic for causing widespread fear is generally employed by jihadist groups and not by the Kurds.

Compare US pillaging with Russia-Iran-Turkey’s active involvement in a political solution to normalize Syria..

What happened in Geneva this Wednesday, in terms of finally bringing peace to Syria, could not be more significant: the first session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee.

The Syrian Constitutional Committee sprang out of a resolution passed in January 2018 in Sochi, Russia, by a body called the Syrian National Dialogue Congress.

The 150-strong committee breaks down as 50 members of the Syrian opposition, 50 representing the government in Damascus and 50 representatives of civil society. Each group named 15 experts for the meetings in Geneva, held behind closed doors.

This development is a direct consequence of the laborious Astana process – articulated by Russia, Iran and Turkey. Essential initial input came from former UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura. Now UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen is working as a sort of mediator.

The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to recognize the mass killings of Armenians a century ago as a genocide, a symbolic but historic vote instantly denounced by Turkey.

The Democratic-controlled House voted 405-11 in favor of a resolution asserting that it is US policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey.

The vote marked the first time in 35 years that such legislation was considered in the full House, underscoring widespread frustration in Congress with the Turkish government, from both Democrats and President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans.

Donald Trump is justifiably condemned for approving Turkey’s assault against the United States’s Kurdish allies in the war against ISIS. What is not widely known is that the U.S., in a largely secret program dubbed Operation Nomad Shadow, appears to have been using drones for over a decade to help Turkey stalk and kill Kurds.

Although the U.S. is now publicly opposing the Turkish push into Syria, is Nomad Shadow continuing to be used secretly to support Turkish attacks on Kurdish forces there, given, among other things, the apparent U.S. desire to continue operating from Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base and to maintain its nuclear weapons there?

SOURCE: NEW EASTERN OUTLOOK

Timing is Everything

The supposed military operation – unfolding just miles from the Syrian-Turkish border – comes at a time when the prospects of America’s proxy war in Syria have reached all time lows.

First – US proxy forces jointly armed and aided by Turkey as well as other US allies – have been all but eliminated from the battlefield with their remnants residing in Idlib, increasingly encircled by Syrian forces.

Attempts by the US to intervene in Syria directly to oversee the overthrow of the government in Damascus was also thwarted by Russia’s military intervention beginning in 2015.

Moscow and Ankara are close to conclude a deal on the delivery of 36 Russian fighter jets Su-35 to Turkey, Daily Sabah newspaper reported on Friday citing its sources.

The Turkish daily also added that in line with the deal at the issue Turkey will also be granted the right for manufacturing parts and components of Russian fighter jets.

Turkey's Daily Sabah reports that Ankara is close to purchasing an initial round of Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, in what would mark a huge reversal of course following the heated Lockheed F-35 fighter and Russian S-400 saga with Washington, which has sunk US-Turkey relations to a low point over the past year.

Citing Turkish defense sources, the report reveals:

Turkish and Russian officials are discussing the details of the sale of a total of 36 Su-35 fighter jets to Turkey, two months after President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's visit to the International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS) aviation show outside of Moscow.

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

Russia-Turkey deal establishes ‘safe zone’ along Turkish border and there will be joint Russia-Turkey military patrols.

The negotiations in Sochi were long – over six hours – tense and tough. Two leaders in a room with their interpreters and several senior Turkish ministers close by if advice was needed. The stakes were immense: a road map to pacify northeast Syria, finally.

The press conference afterwards was somewhat awkward – riffing on generalities. But there’s no question that in the end Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan managed the near impossible.

Authored by Con Coughlin via The Gatestone Institute,

With Turkey seemingly intent on forging an ever-closer relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the time has come to give serious consideration to Ankara's continued membership of the NATO alliance.

When the Turks first became members of NATO back in 1952, it was because their country was seen as a vital bulwark against the Soviet Union. Having Turkey in NATO meant it was easier to monitor the activities of the Soviet Black Sea fleet, and limited Moscow's ability to spread its tentacles into eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Now, thanks to the increasingly anti-Western conduct of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, none of these considerations remains relevant.

President Trump was up against bipartisan disapproval for his decision to withdrawal US troops and end military support for the Kurdish factions, and he stood his ground. And lest we forget, America’s number one ally in the region, Israel, is the biggest supporter of separatist Kurdish factions in Iraq and Syria, the independent Kurdistan project is conveniently aligned with the Greater Israel project. Standing up to both Capital Hill and Israel is a bold move.

As for the Israeli-Kurdish relationship, not much has changed since I originally reported on their mutually beneficial dealings a few years ago. Israel’s selfish interests in supporting Kurdish independence remain two-fold, oil and to counter supposed “increased Iranian influence” in the region.

While President Trump was very determined to insist that anything good happening in Syria was “created by us, the United States, and nobody else,” the evidence is pointing to substantial improvements in the regional situation coming more or less directly out of the new Russia-Turkey ceasefire deal.

In the hours after the Russia deal was signed, Turkey announced that they will push no further into Syrian territory. There would indeed be no need to, since Russia and Syria are going to expel Kurdish SDF forces from the area for them.

The US had tried to claim that all the SDF were already out of the region before the US ceasefire ended. Turkey disputed this and Russia seems to agree, promising to get them out in the 150 hour deal they reached. Russian DM Sergey Shogiu moved on to talk with the SDF head almost immediately after the announcement.

In this week’s new Russia-Turkey deal on northeastern Syria, the agreement will see Turkey and Russia carrying out joint patrols within the safe zone. US-Turkey joint patrols were initially part of the plan months ago, but the US ultimately backed out of that idea, and had subsequently suggested the whole operation was up to Turkey.

Turkey responded to the US plan by announcing 12 observation posts would be built to keep an eye on the Kurds. With the new deal with Russia, Turkey’s security sources say they are re-evaluating the observation posts, and might not need them anymore.

There really may not be a need for any observation posts with the joint patrols plan. If Russia is participating in the patrols, the two nations will have enough patrols to keep the area covered. Russia’s talks with the Kurds are sure to help.

Scattered fighting flared in northern Syria on Friday despite a ceasefire deal as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned he would resume a full-scale operation against Kurdish forces if they do not withdraw from a border "safe zone."

US President Donald Trump said Mr Erdogan told him there had been "minor sniper and mortar fire" in the region "that was quickly eliminated" and the Turkish leader assured him in a call that "he very much wants the ceasefire, or pause, to work."

Mustefa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), accused Turkey, however, of violating the ceasefire deal reached during a visit to Ankara on Thursday by US Vice President Mike Pence.

Authored by 'Spengler' via The Asia Times,

Beijing’s biggest support package ever for President Erdogan arrives at a critical time...

Despite the US threat to “obliterate and destroy” Turkey’s economy, the Turkish lira and Turkish interest rates barely have budged in the past week (Turkish stocks, especially banks, are down sharply, in part due to the US criminal charges against Halkbank for aiding Iran sanctions violations). That is remarkable given the fragility of Turkey’s currency earlier in 2019. Between February and May, the Turkish lira fell from 5.2 to the US dollar to 6.2 in response to US sanctions, before recovering to 5.88 to the dollar today. The Turkish central bank leaned on Turkish banks to refrain from offering liquidity to short-sellers, but Turkish money markets remained orderly.

Russia imposed the Astana process instead of Geneva for peace talks, it offered countries to use their local currencies for commerce rather than the dollar, and it is dealing pragmatically with Iran and Saudi Arabia, and with Assad and Erdogan. The Americans, by their recklessness, showed themselves incapable of diplomacy.

Moscow mediated between the Syrian Kurds and the central government in Damascus even when these had been under US control for years. Putin behaved wisely with Israel even when he accused Tel Aviv of provoking the killing of his officers, and stayed relatively neutral in relation to the Iran-Israel struggle.

On the other hand, Tel Aviv never thought Syria would be reunited. Today Damascus has armed drones, precision and cruise missiles from Iran, supersonic anti-ship Russian missiles- and has survived the destruction of its infrastructure and so many years of war.

Via AlmasdarNews.com,

The U.S. Armed Forces are not withdrawing from the eastern Euphrates River Valley region of Deir Ezzor or its plethora of oil fields, a military source in Damascus told Al-Masdar News.

According to the source, the U.S. Armed Forces won’t withdraw from these areas because of Iran’s presence in eastern Syria and the reality that Damascus would again have access to Deir Ezzor’s vital oil fields.

He would add the United States' two largest military bases in Syria are in the east near some of the country’s largest oil fields like Al-Omar.

Damascus has wanted the Al-Omar and Conoco oil fields to be returned to their government; however, with the U.S.’ large military presence in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, they have found themselves blocked from these critical petrol supplies.

Following reports that several high-value ISIS prisoners and their families had escaped Kurdish detention facilities during the chaos that has dominated northeastern Syria over the past week, President Trump tweeted Friday afternoon that he had convinced several of his European partners to accept responsibility for ISIS members in the custody of Syria's Kurds.

United Nations chemical weapons inspectors announced on Friday that they are investigating whether Turkish forces used chemical weapons in their invasion of Syria, the Guardian reported Friday.

The Kurds have accused Turkey of using white phosphorous during their recent incursion into northeastern Syria. The Kurdish Red Crescent claims that six patients, including civilians and military members, have been hospitalized in the city of Hasakah due to burns from “unknown weapons.”

The organization could not confirm chemical weapons usage, saying it was “working together with our international partners to investigate this subject.” However, a British chemical weapons expert who examined a photo of one of the victims said the burns on the victim were likely from a chemical weapon.

The Trump administration greenlit sanctions against Turkish officials and entities on Monday over Ankara's operation in northern Syria. Previously, lawmakers had sought to sanction Turkey under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) over its purchase of Russian-made S-400 air defence systems.

A bipartisan group of senators including Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Chris Van Hollen has put together legislation known as the 'Turkey Sanctions Bill', with the bill proposing 'wide-ranging mandatory sanctions' against Turkey.

Senator Graham said he expected strong bipartisan support for the bill.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday downplayed the escalating tensions in the Middle East in the aftermath of his abrupt withdrawal of American troops from northeastern Syria, referring to the area as "not our border" and to Kurdish forces as "no angels."

"If Turkey goes into Syria, that’s between Turkey and Syria," he said to reporters in the Oval Office. "It’s not between Turkey and the United States, like a lot of stupid people would like us to — would like you to believe."

Moscow and Ankara inked an agreement on using Russian rubles and Turkish lira in mutual payments and settlements, the Russian Finance Ministry announced on Tuesday.

The deal is aimed at gradually switching to using national currencies in mutual trade, the ministry said. Trade turnover between the two countries grew by 16 percent last year, reaching $25.5 billion.

According to the ministry, the agreement aims for “further expansion and strengthening of interbank interaction, as well as ensuring uninterrupted payments between business entities of the two countries.”

President Donald Trump tried to cajole Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Turkish counterpart, into negotiating with Syrian Kurds instead of invading, a letter released by the White House reveals.

'History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don't happen,' the president wrote on October 9, as Erdogan's forces prepared to cross into Syria.

'Don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool!' he wrote. 'I will call you later.'

Trump told reporters during a press conference Wednesday that he hadn't given Erdogan 'a green light' to invade, and claimed releasing 'a very powerful letter' would dispel misconceptions about the impact of his troop withdrawal from Syria days before he wrote it.

Good on Russia's leadership!! And I know this will happen when pigs discover that they are aerodynamic, but I think, right now, for his intelligent, adult work in and for Syria, Putin really deserves a Nobel peace prize.

There is a risk of an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) resurgence in Syria, and it is Turkey’s invasion of the northeast that should be blamed, Bouthaina Shaaban, a political adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad, told RT.
“Every war creates chaos and chaos is a good climate for terrorism. So this invasion creates better climate for ISIS terrorists,” she said, referring to the terrorist group by its old name. “But the major force that is fighting for Turkey now are the Jabhat al-Nusra. So the terrorists are led by Turkey now to occupy part of the Syrian land.”

And from beginning it was Turkey, who allowed terrorists from all over the world to cross the border and fight this war against the Syrian people.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning to visit Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 22, the Turkish presidential administration announced on Wednesday.

Erdogan spoke by phone with Putin on Tuesday. The leaders discussed the situation in Syria and the ongoing Turkish Operation Peace Spring on the Syrian territory. At the end of the conversation, Putin invited Erdogan to visit Russia in the coming days.

"Our president plans to pay a visit to Sochi on October 22," the Erdogan's administration said in a statement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier confirmed that Putin and Erdogan would discuss the developments in Syria in light of the Turkish military operation against Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria during the Turkish president's visit to Russia.

Erdo?an’s next decision towards Syria will heavily impact the future of not only the region, but his relations with the U.S. and Russia. With murmurings existing for years now whether Turkey should leave the NATO alliance, these sanctions against Turkey, a country already in a deep economic crisis, will only bring this question to the forefront of debate.

Although the U.S. cites human right abuses as the reason for the sanctions, an allegation that cannot be taken seriously considering their own long list of war crimes, it is likely Trump is ‘punishing’ Erdo?an for his insistence and defiance in buying the Russian S-400 system. This means that the souring relations between Washington and Ankara provides the perfect moment for Russian President Vladimir Putin to consolidate his country’s relations with Turkey.

Amid all the media and pundit outrage since Turkey's President Erdogan launched his so-called 'Operation Peace Spring' into northeast Syria last week, vowing to wipe out Syrian Kurdish forces who've long held the border areas, what's been largely missing is acknowledgement of the uncomfortable fact that NATO ally Turkey has long hosted a major portion of America's nuclear Cold War-era arsenal stored across Europe.

And as Erdogan threatens to "open the doors and send 3.6 million migrants" to Europe while under increased international criticism for the rapidly rising civilian death toll in Syria, The New York Times reports the following bombshell Monday: some 50 US tactical nukes are "now essentially Erdogan’s hostages".

Turkey has now given Trump every reason to unleash the newly authorized sanctions, as Newsweek reports that American special forces troops have come under Turkish fire.

According to the breaking exclusive: "A contingent of U.S. Special Forces has been caught up in Turkish shelling against U.S.-backed Kurdish positions in northern Syria." It was "apparently by mistake," the report adds.

President Trump said that there is a “great consensus” among Republicans and Democrats in Congress over sanctioning Turkey after its incursion against the Kurds in northern Syria.

Trump said in a Sunday tweet that he has been in contact with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is highly critical of Trump’s decision to move troops out of northern Syria. Graham has called for Congress to sanction Turkey and suspend its membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization over attacks against the Kurdish people, whom the United States considers allies.

Amid all the media and pundit outrage since Turkey's President Erdogan launched his so-called 'Operation Peace Spring' into northeast Syria last week, vowing to wipe out Syrian Kurdish forces who've long held the border areas, what's been largely missing is acknowledgement of the uncomfortable fact that NATO ally Turkey has long hosted a major portion of America's nuclear Cold War-era arsenal stored across Europe.

And as Erdogan threatens to "open the doors and send 3.6 million migrants" to Europe while under increased international criticism for the rapidly rising civilian death toll in Syria, The New York Times reports the following bombshell Monday: some 50 US tactical nukes are "now essentially Erdogan’s hostages".

Turkey ramped up its air and artillery strikes against the Kurds in northeast Syria Friday — forcing 100,000 people to flee the battle, as the White House threatened Turkey with harsh sanctions.

The Kurds, who recaptured swaths of northeastern Syria from ISIS as US allies, said the Turkish assault could allow the jihadist group to re-merge.

That warning was highlighted Friday as the terror group claimed responsibility for a deadly car bomb in Qamishli, the biggest city in the Kurdish-held area, even as the city came under heavy ­Turkish shelling.

President Trump announced Saturday that he had authorized the release of $50 million in aid to human rights groups and other aid organizations in Syria in an apparent attempt to counter criticism of his pullout of U.S. forces there.

“Other presidents would not be doing that, they’d be spending a lot more money but on things that wouldn’t make you happy," Trump said while addressing the Values Voters Summit's Faith, Family and Freedom gala dinner.

AT least 14 people have been killed in a devastating Turkish air raid on a civilian convoy in Syria yesterday, according to reports.

Five civilians, including a journalist, died after they were attacked as they arrived at the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain, that Turkish-allied forces have seized.

A Kurdish news agency Hawar said one of its reporters was killed in the attack which reportedly left dozens more injured.

Several foreign journalists were with the convoy - which was also carrying aid workers - when it was struck, according to France 2 television's Stéphanie Perez.

She tweeted: "We were in the convoy of Kurdish civilians targeted by Turkish forces and their allies at Ras al Ain. Our team is fine, but some colleagues are dead."

Armed men, who were reportedly guarding the convoy, were among those killed in the bombing.