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Russian Crackdown On Muslims Fuels Exodus To
ISIS
Security forces in Russia's southernmost republic of Dagestan
keep devout Muslims under surveillance, routinely raid their homes and haul them
to police stations to give DNA samples and fingerprints. So it was no surprise
to many in the village of Komsomolskoye that Rashid Magomedov fled to Syria to
join DAESH (or ISIS), leaving behind a pregnant wife and two children. The
30-year-old had been detained several times, spent two months in jail on charges
that later were dismissed and complained that police repeatedly planted weapons
at his home as a pretext to arrest him. "The fact that he left for Syria the
police are to blame. They wouldn't leave the boy alone," said Magomedov's
father, Zaynudin.
The heavy-handed security presence in the predominantly Muslim area is an
outgrowth of two separatist wars in nearby Chechnya in the mid-1990s that spread
an Islamic insurgency throughout the North Caucasus region of Russia. Militants
carried out many attacks, including suicide bombings and kidnappings, to pursue
their goal of establishing Islamic fundamentalism, or simply to seek revenge
against corrupt officials. This culture of violence has fostered a generation of
hardened fighters, which combined with the continuing crackdown by police and
other security forces, has made areas like Komsomolskoye a fertile recruiting
ground for ISIS.
Few efforts are made by Russian authorities to stop young men from leaving. Many
in Dagestan see the intimidating security presence as not only fueling the
exodus but also serving to rid the region of potential militants by encouraging
them to flee. Almost everyone in Komsomolskoye knows someone who has left for
Syria. Dagestani police put the number at 11, but when residents are asked to
list those who have left, the count is far bigger. Regional police say nearly a
third of the estimated 3,000 Russians who are believed to have gone to fight
alongside ISIS militants in Syria are from Dagestan, a republic of 3 million
people. They are men and women from both rich and poor families, from
religiously conservative villages to very secular towns. Komsomolskoye is one of
several villages in Dagestan where security officials routinely announce
"counterterrorist operations" and send SWAT teams to raid houses of suspected
militants at the break of dawn.
The main road in and out of the village is guarded around the clock by security
officers with automatic weapons, and hundreds of residents are kept under
surveillance, their names kept on a so-called Wahhabi list. Those on the Wahhabi
list can expect to get stopped at police checkpoints, where they can be detained
for hours. They are visited at home and get phone calls at any time of day from
police inquiring about their plans and whereabouts. They are often required to
provide DNA samples and fingerprints.
Magomed Magomedov, deputy editor-in-chief of Dagestan's respected weekly
Chernovik, said the authorities' systematic repression of the ultra-conservative
Salafi Islam community is pushing its members to the margins of society. "If
someone goes to the wrong mosque, he knows that when he leaves he could be taken
to the police station, where he would be questioned, he would be fingerprinted
for the 20th time," said the editor, who is not related to the Magomedov family
in Komsomolskoye. "This system of keeping people on edge alienates and embitters
them, and one in 10 may just decide to take radical steps and go to Syria."
Russian officials have defended the police profiling and raids on the homes of
suspected militants, describing them as steps designed to stave off
radicalization and deter possible terrorist attacks. Officials at Dagestan's
Interior Ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The Associated Press spoke to more than a dozen residents and activists who
described how ISIS extremists use the resentment over the police tactics as a
way to recruit new followers. After Friday prayers last week, police rounded up
about 50 worshippers at the main Salafi mosque in Dagestan's capital of
Makhachkala. The men were taken to the police station, and some were
fingerprinted and asked to give blood samples, according to the Caucasian Knot,
a major Russian website that covers the region.
Russia's air campaign in Syria that began Sept. 30 has not received unanimous
support among Muslims in Dagestan because President Vladimir Putin is seen as
siding with Syria's Bashar Assad in a war against the Sunni opposition. Most
Russian Muslims are Sunni.
Putin said one of the goals of the air campaign in Syria was to prevent Russians
fighting alongside ISIS from coming back. Most of the young people fleeing
Dagestan to escape repression and police persecution have no intention of ever
returning because they would almost certainly face long prison terms.
When Rashid Magomedov left in February, he told his family he was going to Egypt
to study the Quran. "He didn't say he was going to Syria, he said he was going
to study," said his wife, Assiyat, as she held her 8-month-old son, Musa, on her
lap. Her tablet computer has a photo of her husband, smiling with curly black
hair. Her last message from him was via a smartphone at the end of June, saying
he was going away for 10 days. By July, word reached the village that he had
been killed in Syria. After his death, she was visited by law enforcement
officers, who continue to keep tabs on her and her children.
Turkey's shooting down Russian military jet is a serious blow for President
Vladimir Putin's calculated air offensive in Syria's Latakia. The offensive has
not only harmed the Turkmen brigades who are basically holding the border area
with other moderate rebels, but also strategically targeted Turkish plans for
the Azez-Jarablous line.
Make no mistake, Turkey's response was an expected move considering its rules of
engagement and also its several diplomatic warnings against Russian incursions
into Turkish airspace. However, this incident is not only a Russian-Turkish
brawl; it is a fight concerning all the parties involved in Syria in which the
U.S. and Russia engage in clashing strategies. Russia props up the regime of
Syrian President Bashar Assad with its air power and lends financial and
logistical support while the U.S.'s only concern in the country is containing
and destroying DAESH (i.e ISIS). Despite the recent Syria talks, these two
separate strategies have been on a collision course for a while. Weakening the
moderate Syrian rebels is obviously also harming the war against ISIS, and the
Azez-Jarablous line was particularly important in all of this.
International media outlets, specifically Turkish ones, missed the story
published on Nov. 1 by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), ushering the news that
Turkish and American jets bombarded ISIS strongholds in northern Syria, in
coordination with the Syrian opposition groups including Turkmen fighters. That
was a first operation jointly conducted by Turkey and U.S.-backed Syrian
opposition forces against ISIS. It was a clear sign that Turkey was adamant to
clean ISIS from the last part of the border it holds. Since then, Turkey's air
campaign around the Mar'a line intensified. An anti-ISIS coalition press release
last week indicated that allied forces hit the area at least a dozen times in a
day. One of the crucial ground forces in this area is Turkey-backed Turkmen
groups.
While Turkey is trying to rid ISIS from this area, Russian war planes plowed the
Turkmen mountain region on the west throughout the week and undermined Turkish
plans for the Azez-Jarablous by risking all of northern Syria held by the
opposition. It might be natural for Assad forces to secure Alawite-dominated
Latakia and extend its rule over the border - the domestic repercussions in
Turkey of Turkmen refugees running from the Russian airstrikes and the public
outcry against Turkish inaction also must be noted. But ruining Turkey's plans
to keep a specific territory along the border from both ISIS and the PKK-linked
Democratic Union Party (PYD) is something that has deeply concerned Ankara. The
failure of this plan would give significant leverage to the PYD's ambitions to
connect Tal Abyad to Afrin, which is one of the government's nightmares
considering the possible Kurdish state that could come to fruition in the
future.
The immediate reaction from U.S. officials was supportive but it is clear that
Washington is not a big fan of such serious escalation. The U.S. State
Department's spokesperson, Mark Toner, avoided confirming that Russia had
specifically been hitting the Turkmen rebels. He said the U.S. cannot verify the
reports. Despite Turkey's intensive diplomatic work, including a phone call from
Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu to Secretary of State John Kerry over the
issue, the U.S. is not convinced that the composition of the rebels in the area
only consists of Turkmens. Peculiarly enough, he admitted that Russia targeted
moderate Syrian rebels along the border, without specifying their locations.
The impact of this incident to crucial Syria talks is negative, and there is a
chance that the retaliation game would be in play for quite some time. Yet, it
is very possible that Russia would ramp up its support for the PYD, both
diplomatically and militarily, and continue to target Syrian rebels even more
forcefully. Expect some bold moves by Russia, but their response is likely to be
in Syria rather than on any diplomatic front.
This is why Turkey will require NATO support more than ever in the coming days.
It will also be under even more self-pressure to act swiftly to clear the
Azez-Jarablous line.
Peril Posed By Putin In The Middle East Runs
Parallel To ISIS
Soon after Syria downed a Turkish F-4 jet in 2012, Turkey
announced to the world that it had instituted new military rules of engagement (MRoE)
on the border with its southern neighbor. It had underlined its determination to
strike at any violation of its airspace that emanated from Syria. A Syrian
helicopter that tested the new move in 2013 was promptly shot down.
Operating near the border, Russia recently began its own air offensive in
support of the Assad regime and violated Turkish airspace twice early in
October. However, Turkey chose not to put these new rules into effect, opting to
warn Russia instead. Even U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the time shared
his concern over the possibility of the repeat of such serious transgressions.
The following days and weeks saw Turkish and Russian officials discuss how to
avoid such incidents on five separate occasions. Each time, Russia was told that
the rules of engagement would be implemented to the letter and warned about the
deadly consequences repeating their actions. Russian officials said these were
momentary lapses due to navigational errors and assured Turkey that they will be
more careful in the future.
Russia's decision to launch airstrikes in Syria in September sparked the tensest
crisis with Western powers since the end of the Cold War. On Nov. 24, while
Russia was once again raining bombs on anti-Assad opposition groups and Turkmen
villages, two Russian fighter planes approached the border with Turkey, with one
violating its airspace. According to a statement by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK),
the as of yet unidentified jet that violated the airspace was warned 10 times in
five minutes, with each warning repeatedly ignored by the pilot. Then the F-16
fighter planes that were ordered into the air proceeded to strike the plane in
accordance with the international accepted rules of aerial engagement.
This, without doubt, is a serious crisis. This will definitely be a watershed
moment in Turkish-Russian relations.
Russia's total disregard of the international system was already apparent by the
way it behaved in Ukraine and Crimea. Russia's acts were in total contravention
to the accepted modes of international conduct and its repeated violations of
the airspaces of NATO member countries places it at an international threat
level at least equal to that of DAESH (or ISIS) in the eyes of the West. A
report by the European Leadership Network released in March this year showed
Russian aircraft posed a threat scores of times to NATO armed forces and
civilian flights in the English Channel, Baltic Sea, Black Sea and North Sea.
Russia clearly poses a threat to the international system and, when one delves
deeper, its conduct is no different from that of ISIS. Russian President
Vladimir Putin now accuses Turkey of stabbing him in the back. Turkey has been
observing Russia's actions in Syria since September with growing concern.
Moscow's priority is not to fight ISIS but to prop up the Assad regime while
securing its military installations in Latakia.
Russia should stop trying to fool the international community by claiming to be
fighting ISIS, and the international community, in turn, should stop being so
gullible. Putin, in an effort to justify his ambitions in the Middle East to his
people, is exploiting the tension and trying to portray Turkey as the aggressor.
His aggressive efforts to broaden Russia's zone of influence over the energy
transportation routes of the Middle East and energy supplies in the Eastern
Mediterranean can be ascertained by just a quick look at what he has done.
This growing threat from Russia should be dealt with by the U.S. and other NATO
allies as a paramount security issue. Turkey is not alone in its concern over
Russia's actions in the region. Saudi Arabia and Israel are also worried about
the escalating Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria.
NATO should continue to support Turkey's security establishment against any and
all threats emanating from Syria. Russia is harming its own interests by losing
a friend like Turkey, which is its largest commercial partner in the region.
Moscow, which everyone knows is not above exploiting its energy riches as a ploy
to dominate its neighbors, should be aware of the fact that it is losing the
trust of its commercial partners as a secure energy source. Such acts will
definitely push its trade partners to seek other avenues. Turkey thought the
crisis in October had ended with a mutual understanding but Moscow's decision to
take on Turkey means Russia is actually taking on NATO.
Such a senseless escalation will push Moscow to the margins of the international
community and will hurt its commercial and strategic interests.
Turkey 'Fully Justified' In Shooting Russian
Warplane, Former NATO Official Says
Turkey had the right to shoot down a Russian fighter jet
violating its airspace, a former U.S. representative to NATO said, adding that
the incident should not come as much of a surprise.
In fact, the incident was one "that was waiting to happen," Ivo Daalder told
Anadolu Agency. "The way Russia has used its military forces not only in Syria
but around NATO territory ... was bound to lead to this kind of incident."
He added: "Turkey was fully justified after having repeatedly warned Russia to
shoot down an airplane that was entering its airpsace."
The SU-24 was shot down early Tuesday after being intercepted by two patrolling
Turkish F-16s acting within Turkey's rules of engagement.
The Russian aircraft was warned about the violation 10 times within five minutes
before it was shot down. NATO has confirmed the accuracy of information shared
by Turkey about the violation.
In early October, Russian warplanes had twice violated the airspace. Russian
officials apologized and pledged that no such incident would be repeated.
Tuesday's incident prompted an emergency NATO meeting in which the alliance
expressed solidarity with Turkey.
NATO "needs to be prepared to defend NATO territory and the Turkish decision to
shoot down the aircraft was an indication of that," according to Daalder.
He said the alliance should also "declare its interest in sitting down with
Russia to work out procedures to ensure that these kinds of accidents and
incidents don't happen in the future".
"I think that's where focus now needs to be -- not at the kind of bluster or
escalation that we are seeing coming out of Moscow," he added.
Meanwhile, U.S. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush expressed support for
Turkey's decision to shoot down the Russian warplane.
"Turkey is a NATO ally, they are an integral part if we're to be successful in
the fight against [ISIS] and to change regimes, to take out [Syrian President
Bashar al] Assad, it used to be our objective," Bush told CNN on Wednesday.
"If we are serious about that, Turkey needs to be an ally and we need to show
support. I think President Obama was correct to say that every country has a
right to self-defense" he added.
PM Davutoğlu, Italian PM Renzi Speak Over The
Ohone On The Downing Of Russian Jet
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu held a phone conversation with
his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi late Wednesday regarding Turkey's downing
of a Russian fighter jet.
According to prime ministry sources, the Turkish premier informed Renzi that the
SU-24 fighter jet was downed after it violated Turkish airspace. Italian PM
thanked Davutoğlu for the briefing and congratulated him on the formation of the
64th Turkish government.
Both leaders agreed on continuing bilateral talks at the Turkey-EU summit which
will be held in Brussels on Sunday.
On Tuesday, two Turkish F-16 fighter jets on an aerial patrol intercepted a
Russian warplane within engagement rules when it intruded Turkish airspace near
the Turkey-Syria border.
The intruding aircraft was warned about the violation 10 times within five
minutes before it was shot down.
Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed that one of its Russian SU-24 fighter jets
had been shot down, crashing in the Syrian region of Bayırbucak, close to the
Yayladağı district of Turkey's southern Hatay province.
NATO confirmed the accuracy of the radar trace data that Turkey shared which
clearly showed that the Russian warplane violated Turkish airspace.
Ricciardone: Russia's Intensions Unclear,
Their Aircraft Fly Far From ISIS Targets
Commenting on the Turkish Air Force downing a Russian warplane
near the Syrian border after it violated Turkish airspace, former U.S.
Ambassador to Ankara Francis Ricciardone told Daily Sabah that Russia, unlike
Turkey, has not made its intentions in the Syrian crisis explicitly clear.
The Russian fighter jet was downed near the Turkmen-populated region of Latakia,
where there is no DAESH (or ISIS) presence. Ricciardone said Russian aircraft
were "evidently" flying far from any route that would be necessary to support
multinational efforts against ISIS.
Daily Sabah: How do you interpret NATO member Turkey's airspace being violated
by a Russian fighter jet that was a region where there is no ISIS presence?
Francis R Ricciardone: At least three years ago and since then, Turkey has
repeatedly made clear its rules of engagement with respect to its airspace on
the Syrian border. The Syrian regime and Russia have violated Turkish airspace
several times. In each incident, Turkey has issued warnings directly to the
foreign pilots involved, and subsequently in public and through official
channels to the countries involved. In those cases when Turkey has fired on the
intruding aircraft, it evidently did so only after they failed to respond to the
warnings.
Only the Russian side can explain their intended targets and why they were in or
even close to Turkish airspace. It will be interesting to see whether they offer
any public statements as to why their aircraft were flying in that region,
evidently far from any route that would be necessary to support multinational
efforts against ISIS.
DS: What does Russia actually want at a time when the two sides came together in
Vienna to find a solution to the chaos in Syria? Could Russia's move be
interpreted as a threat to the region?
FR: You raise this question because in this incident as in others recently,
Russia, unlike Turkey, has not made its intentions explicitly clear. Turkey has
clearly and emphatically stated its intentions and purposes over the past
several years with respect to protecting its airspace along the Syrian border,
and again following recent incidents. I would not presume to speak for Russian
intentions. If Russia does not clarify its intentions publicly and credibly, it
will be important nonetheless for Moscow and Ankara to communicate clearly with
each other through their bilateral diplomatic channels. The same is also true if
Russia wishes to play an influential role in multilateral diplomacy with respect
to Syria, as at Vienna.
3) What will NATO's response be to the incident in terms of Turkey's security?
Will the incident have an impact on the security of energy transfer into Turkey?
FR: This incident demonstrates the continued importance of the NATO alliance for
all its members and Turkey's ever-important role as NATO's southeastern flank.
There can be no question of NATO's solidarity with Turkey in this matter.
As for Turkey, Russia, and the global energy transits, Turkey's geography
dictates that it will remain pivotally important as a global energy transit
route from north to south t, and from east to west. Turkey depends on Russia for
a large proportion of its gas supplies, but in return, Russia depends on Turkey
as an important export route for its gas. Moreover, Russia has a strong stake in
exporting its nuclear energy technology, and Turkey is a prime customer. So, it
seems to me both countries have a certain interdependency on energy issues. This
can be a healthy and stabilizing factor, provided Turkey continues to seek to
diversify its energy partnerships.
Turkey's 'Right To Defend Airspace' Should Be
Respected, UK PM Cameron Says
British Prime Minister David Cameron has told the members of
parliament in the House of Commons that the United Kingdom should "respect
Turkey's right to protect its airspace just as we defend our own".
Cameron was answering questions from MPs on Wednesday a day after Turkish F-16s
downed a Russian warplane which violated Turkish airspace.
"The facts from this are not yet clear; I think we should respect Turkey's right
to protect its airspace just as we defend our own. But it is very important that
we get to the bottom of what has really happened," Cameron said.
On Tuesday, two Turkish F-16 fighter jets on an aerial patrol intercepted a
Russian warplane within engagement rules when it intruded into Turkish airspace
near the Turkey-Syria border.
The intruding aircraft was warned about the violation 10 times within five
minutes before it was shot down.
Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed that one of its Russian SU-24 fighter jets
had been shot down, crashing in the Syrian region of Bayırbucak close to the
Yayladagı district of Turkey's southern Hatay province.
NATO confirmed the accuracy of the radar trace data that Turkey shared which
clearly showed that the Russian warplane violated Turkish airspace.
This was not the first time Russian fighter jets had violated Turkish airspace.
In early October, Russian warplanes had breached Turkish airspace for which
Russian officials apologized and pledged that no such incident would be
repeated.
Turkey had also renewed its warning to implement engagement rules, including
military response against violations of Turkish airspace.
Is A Russia-Turkey War On The Horizon After
Airspace 'Breaches?'
By Menekse Tokyay
Turkish media has now become accustomed to waking up to each new day to a ''hot
potato.'' This time, it was Russia. Early Tuesday, Turkey shot down a Russian
warplane near the Syrian border, which Ankara believes was the latest violation
of its airspace.
Since 2012, when a Turkish F4 jet fighter was downed by Syria, Turkey has
adopted strict rules of engagement by regarding any naval, air or land forces
vehicle approaching its territory from Syria as a potential threat.
According to statements from Turkish officials, the aircraft's pilots, flying at
an altitude of 19,000 feet, were warned 10 times during a period of five
minutes, and were asked to change their direction immediately, but these
warnings went allegedly disregarded and the aircraft entered within 15
kilometers of Turkey's border for 17 seconds.
Following the violation, Turkey hit the jet and it crashed on the Syrian side of
the Turkish-Syrian border, with many speculations about whether the two pilots
are dead, captured by the Turkmen rebels, or have been picked up by the Syrian
army after they parachuted out of the jet.
For its part, Russia denies any violation and insists that the aircraft had been
attacked when it was 1 kilometer inside Syrian territories. Russian President
Vladimir Putin warned Turkey of ''serious consequences for Russian-Turkey
relations,'' and termed it as a ''stab in the back carried out by the
accomplices of terrorists.''
Ramifications
In a second blow, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cancelled his
previously planned visit to Turkey scheduled for Wednesday. He also advised
Russians not to visit Turkey. Russia also announced it had suspended all
military contacts with Turkey for now.
In another move that is likely to affect Turkey's tourism revenues from the 3.5
million Russian tourists picking Turkey each year, Russia's Federal Agency for
Tourism recommended the suspension of all sales of tours to Turkey, a call
immediately heard by Natali Tours, one of Russia's largest tour operators.
In a statement published on the government website on Wednesday, Russian Prime
Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Turkish companies could lose their market
share in Russia following the alleged cancellation of some important joint
projects after this incident.
Contrary to what was feared by some analysts, Russian Deputy Minister of Energy
Anatoly Yanovsky quickly announced that gas supply to Turkey will continue
without interruption. Turkey still receives about 60 percent of its natural gas
from Russia as its main provider.
Proxy war?
Metin Gurcan, a security analyst and a former special-forces officer, expects a
far-reaching retaliation from Russia.
''This retaliation may take the form of a proxy war which will be supported by
unidentifiable actors on the ground as well as terror waves inside Turkey,''
Gurcan told Al Arabiya News.
Gurcan also noted that Russia will take this opportunity to give further support
to the PYD and the PKK by taking steps that would increase their international
legitimacy.
''It is also possible that Russia will impose tough sanctions on the energy
sector and initiates cyber attacks to critical infrastructure in Turkey, such as
electricity and water,'' he also warned.
Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan chaired a security meeting immediately
after the jet was shot down to discuss the issue, while NATO urgently called an
extraordinary meeting of its ambassadors.
"We stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the territorial integrity of our
NATO Ally, Turkey,'' NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in his
statement following the meeting, and added: "I look forward to further contacts
between Ankara and Moscow and call for calm and de-escalation.''
Similarly, during a joint press conference at the White House on Tuesday, U.S.
President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande urged Russia and
Turkey to avoid any kind of escalation that would be extremely damaging.
History of escalation
This was not the first time that Russian military incursions reached a dangerous
level in the region and raised the prospect of a direct confrontation between
Turkey and Russia, a NATO member with the Alliance's second biggest army.
On October 3 and 4, Russian warplanes had violated Turkey's airspace along its
southern province of Hatay bordering Syria, and they were intercepted by Turkish
fighter jets before they exited. And ten days after, the Russian air force
officially had informed the Turkish military that measures would be taken to
prevent any repetition of violations of Turkish air space again.
Turkey and Russia have been already at odds regarding Syrian conflict,
particularly due to Russia's military backing for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The location of where the plane crashed was also close to the region where
Russian and Syrian aircrafts have been allegedly targeting Turkmen fighters - a
highly sensitive issue for Turkey who has repeatedly declared its readiness to
intervene in helping Turkmen rebels in Syria.
Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who now chairs the Istanbul-based Centre
for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), believes that Russia's
violation of Turkish airspace was an intentional and conscious move for testing
the determination of Turkey in applying its rules of engagement.
''In recent times, Turkey hasn't strictly applied its rules of engagement over
similar breaches. Following intense contacts with a high-level Russian
delegation that visited Turkey, Russians had apologized and promised it will
never happen again,'' Ulgen told Al Arabiya News.
According to Ulgen, taking a firm stand on this issue was important for Turkey
to sustain the credibility of these rules.
''I don't expect that this incident would result in a long-term confrontation,
because Turkey has concrete evidence and maps showing the violation of airspace.
Russia's response would determine whether there will be an escalation over the
bilateral ties,'' he added.
No ISIS In Bayırbucak Turkmen Region Bombed By
Russians, Only Civilians, Erdoğan Says
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday dismissed Russia's
claims and underscored that there are no Daesh (i.e ISIS) terrorists in
Bayırbucak region of Latakia Governorate in Syria and underscored that Turkmen
civilians were there.
"Some say there is ISIS in that area. There are no ISIS terrorists in Bayırbucak
region of Latakia, ISIS is in Jarablous" Erdoğan said at a meeting of the
Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization
of the Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC).
With regards to the downing of the Russian warplane by Turkey on Tuesday,
President Erdoğan said that the jet was shot in Turkish airspace but crashed
inside Syria.
He noted that Turkey did not know about the identity of the jet before shooting
it down
President Erdoğan also underscored that Turkey does not want any escalation with
Russia over the downing of the warplane on the Syrian frontier, while he pledged
that Turkey would always defend its borders.
"We have no intention to escalate this incident. We are just defending our
security and the rights of our brothers," he said, and added that no one should
expect Turkey "to remain silent" when its border security is being violated. He
reiterated once again that Turkey is against all types of terrorist
organizations and the Assad regime, while noting that Turkey will do its best to
ensure peace and security for the people of Syria.
Erdoğan noted that parts of downed Russian warplane landed inside Turkey,
injuring two Turkish citizens.
He said that Ankara had previously conveyed its sensitivity regarding the
violations and had done its best on its part to avoid such an incident. "The
only reason that such an incident did not take place before is Turkey's good
faith and its restraint. Turkey is not on the side of tension, crisis and
animosity," he said.
During his address, the president called ISIS, al Qaeda, Boko Haram and al-Shabaab
shadowy structures and criminal networks. "Their priority is to kill those
Muslims who do not share their views. They damaged Muslim countries, our values,
the best work of our culture, libraries, scholars and schools," Erdoğan said,
calling for a united front against these terrorist networks.
On Tuesday, Turkey shot down a Russian SU-24 warplane that violated Turkish
airspace at the Turkish-Syrian border after repeatedly ignoring warnings
according to the Turkish military, in line with the rules of engagement.
Downing Of Russian Jet Hardly A Surprise:
Putin's Plot To Regain Russia's Lost World Stage Is Falling Apart Fast
By Justin Bronk
The shooting down of a Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 jet by Turkish F-16
fighters after it reportedly violated Turkish airspace is a dangerous escalation
in the context of Russia's continuing confrontation with NATO in Eastern Europe
and Syria.
However, it should not come as much of a surprise.
Turkish authorities claim that the Su-24 fighter bomber ignored repeated
warnings over the course of five minutes on Tuesday and was then shot down after
violating Turkish airspace near Yayladagi, Hatay.
Russia claims that the Su-24 did not cross the Syria-Turkey border and was,
therefore, illegally attacked.
This version of events, however, does not fit with an established pattern of
repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian military aircraft over the past
18 months.
In October 2014, and in June and July this year, for example, Russian military
aircraft repeatedly violated Estonian airspace and since 2013 have also violated
the airspace of NATO-partner nations Sweden and Finland.
On October 3 and 4, Russian Su-30SM and Su-24 jets violated Turkish airspace
repeatedly in the same Hatay province where Turkey claims the Su-24 entered its
airspace on Tuesday, before it was shot down.
During these October airspace violations, which Russia admitted to, a Russian
Su-30SM fighter actively locked on to the Turkish F-16s sent to intercept it
with its radar for over five minutes - an aggressive action outside of the
accepted military procedures for such encounters.
Despite the provocative action, the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that the
violations of Turkish airspace on consecutive days in early October were an
accidental result of pilots getting lost.
This is not a credible explanation since modern combat aircraft such as the
Su-30SM have sophisticated navigation systems and the Russian Air Force crews
sent to Syria will be highly trained and selected, precisely because the
operational environment is so congested and highly sensitive.
In terms of Tuesday's incident, the multiple pieces of footage showing the Su-24
falling in flames show a clear blue sky which would further aid navigation by
visual means.
Russia has, in other words, been probing Turkey's airspace and patience since
October this year, and NATO airspace for much longer than that.
However, it should not come as a surprise that further violations would result
in a plane being shot down.
Turkey has consistently responded to Syrian incursions by using its modern
US-supplied F-16 fighters to shoot down intruders.
In 2013, a Syrian Air Force Mi-17 helicopter and a Mig-23 fighter bomber were
destroyed in two separate incidents after they entered Turkish airspace.
The Turkish Air Force shot down another Syrian Mig-23 in March 2014 after it
ignored repeated warnings.
Furthermore, on October 16, a small drone of unknown nationality but suspected
Russian origin was shot down in a similar fashion.
Syria has also previously shot down Turkish military aircraft which have entered
Syrian airspace.
In other words, the airspace on the Syrian-Turkish border is a known
high-tension front line where lethal force is regularly employed if warnings are
ignored.
Within this context, the aggressive Russian Air Force actions in probing Turkish
airspace and locking onto its fighters last month were treated with significant
restraint by Turkey.
However, Turkey and NATO made it clear that such violations must stop and that
any repetition would be "highly dangerous".
If, as Turkey claims, the Su-24 shot down on Tuesday did violate Turkish
airspace and ignore repeated warnings, it should not come as a surprise to
either side that it was shot down, however destabilising the results may be.
Much will now depend on how convincingly Turkey and NATO can show whether the
Russian jet did indeed enter Turkish airspace, and how the tightly
Kremlin-controlled Russian media chooses to spin the story for the Russian
public.
Putin most likely knows that a routine provocation has, for once, been met with
force and he has only his own policies to blame.
However, he cannot be seen to admit any such thing in public.
Therefore, he must continue to claim publicly that Turkey is villainously
stabbing Russia in the back in the midst of her heroic battle against the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
The fact that there are no ISIL forces near that portion of the Syrian-Turkish
border, and that the Su-24 was most likely engaged in continued Russian air
strikes against Turkmen rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad as part of the
Free Syrian Army, will doubtless stay off the Russian script.
In any case, it is vital in the coming days that leaders on both sides try to
avoid more inflammatory rhetoric and avoid further escalation.
With so many military forces pursuing their own, often conflicting, agendas in
Syria and the wider region; the world cannot afford to risk brinkmanship over
this incident.
Justin Bronk is a Research Analyst in Military Sciences at the Royal United
Services Institute.
Al-Jazeera, Agencies, EsinIslam.Com
& Several News Outlets
Russia Says One Pilot, Rescuer Killed In
Downing Of Fighter Jet
A Russian pilot was shot dead from the ground after Turkey
downed a Russian fighter jet in Syria and another soldier died during the rescue
operation, Russia's military general staff said on Tuesday.
A helicopter that was searching for the crew of a shot-down warplane in Syria
was shot down by rebel fire and one serviceman was killed, Russian military
sources said.
A spokesman for the general staff, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, was quoted by
Russian news agencies as saying Tuesday that the Mi-8 chopper was one of two
taking part in the search operation. The rest of its crew were evacuated and
taken back to the air base used by Russia in Syria.
The Russian Defense Ministry has suspended military contact with Turkey over the
incident and a Russian warship will be deployed to waters off Syria's western
Latakia province, Russian news agencies reported.
Earlier in the day, Turkish media sources reported that two pilots were alive
and Ankara is in contact with Syrian opposition for the release of the pilots.
Russian Helicopter Shot Down By Syrian Opposition, Makes
Emergency Landing Close To Latakia
Syrian fighters destroyed a Russian helicopter with a missile,
shortly after they forced it to make an emergency landing in a nearby
government-held area in Syria's Latakia province on Tuesday, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said.
A Syrian insurgent group, recipient of U.S. Tow missiles, said its fighters hit
the helicopter with an anti-tank missile while it was in the air and put out a
video showing the helicopter being blown up after one of its fighters struck it
with another missile.
Rami Abdulrahman from the Observatory, which tracks the conflict in Syria though
a wide network of sources, said at least ten people were on the helicopter when
it was hit by the fighters but they were all evacuated when it landed and before
the missile destroyed it.
The Russian defense ministry did not answer calls from Reuters seeking comment
on the reports about the helicopter.
Obama Insists Early Russian Airstrikes Did Not Target ISIS;
Assad Must Go
During a press conference on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
U.S. President Barack Obama said Russian airstrikes appear to be aimed at
opposition forces instead of DAESH.
"Russia needs to make a strategic decision to go after the ISIS [DAESH] group,
not the moderate opposition forces trying to topple Syrian President Bashar
Assad," Obama said, adding "Assad has to go."
"Nearly two dozen nations including Turkey have taken action against ISIS so
far, we will ultimately destroy them," Obama said, emphasizing that the U.S. led
coalition is determined to eradicate DAESH.
The almost five years of fighting between the Assad regime and rebels created a
vacuum that has allowed DAESH to thrive in both Syria and Iraq. The terrorist
group is now setting its sights on targets outside its stronghold, including the
attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more.
The U.S. and its international partners would not relent in their fight against
the terrorist organization, Obama said, insisting that the world would not
accept attacks by extremists on civilians anywhere in the world.
The U.S. held firm to its calls for Assad's departure, with Obama insisting that
the war could not end unless the Syrian leader steps down.
"I do not foresee a situation in which we can end the civil war in Syria while
Assad remains in power," Obama said.
Top diplomats from 17 countries met in Vienna Saturday to discuss a way out of
Syria's nearly five-year conflict, which has left more than a quarter of a
million people dead.
They produced a two-year timetable: a transitional government would be formed
and a new constitution written within six months, to be followed by
internationally monitored elections within 18 months after that.
But in a recent television interview with Italy's Rai television, Assad said
there could be no transition schedule for elections while swathes of Syria
remained out of government control.
"This timetable starts after starting defeating terrorism. You cannot achieve
anything politically while you have the terrorists taking over many areas in
Syria," he said.
"If we talk after that, one year and a half to two years is enough for any
transition."
Middle East Chaos, Violence Will Not End With ISIS Defeat
The chaos and violence gripping the Middle East are not likely
to evaporate even if the forces arrayed against DAESH manage to crush the brutal
army and its drive to establish an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria and
beyond.
The national structures and boundaries created by European colonial powers after
the Ottoman Empire was dismantled at the end of World War I are collapsing or
already have disintegrated. That has unleashed powerful centrifugal forces that
are melting the glue that was holding together increasingly antagonistic
religious and ethnic populations. The mix of Muslims Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites
Christians and the big ethnic Kurdish populations in the north of both Syria and
Iraq are a stew of ancient discontent, sectarian frustration and flagrant
injustice. Those social explosives were detonated by the upheaval unleashed by
the U.S. war in Iraq and the civil war in Syria. "The level of damage that has
been done by the United States in Iraq and the civil war in Syria is probably
irreparable," said Wayne Merry, senior associate at the American Foreign Policy
Council.
In Iraq, Saddam Hussein and his fellow Sunni Muslims a minority in that country
ruled brutally over the majority Shiite Muslims. The United States removed
Saddam and eradicated his Baath Party structures, most famously the army.
Washington then oversaw the establishment of a new government that is
fundamentally controlled by the Shiites. That new structure subsequently
disregarded the needs and rights of the Sunnis.
While the U.S. military still controlled the country, radical Sunnis came
together under the banner of al-Qaida in Iraq in a force arrayed against
American forces, moderate Sunnis and the Shiites majority. Shiite militias
formed to attack from the other side and a civil war erupted. That was only
tamped down when Washington instituted the surge of more troops and began paying
Sunni tribal leaders and their fighters to turn their guns on fellow Sunnis in
al-Qaida. With the departure of U.S. forces in 2011, al-Qaida regrouped in the
Sunni regions of Iraq and became DAESH, the terrorist organization that also
spread into the void created in neighboring Syria by the civil war there, now in
its fifth year. Estimates have put DAESH control of territory as much as one
third of both countries. Particularly important is the terror organization's
control over the cities like Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
For months, the United States has bombed DAESH positions with some success and
now France and Russia have joined that effort. Russia turned its attention to
DAESH after a bomb, claimed by DAESH, brought down a Russian airliner over
Egypt. The French reacted after DAESH attacks in Paris. Military and
intelligence experts had said, before the airliner bombing, that Russia had
primarily targeted opponents of Syrian leader Bashar Assad who are not allied
with DAESH but deeply involved in the civil war, fighting to overthrow Assad.
The Obama administration insists Assad must be removed. Russia and Iran say he
must be part of a political solution, at least temporarily. Regional powers
Saudi Arabia and Turkey want him gone.
Many analysts saw Russian involvement in Syria as an attempt to save the Assad
regime. Syria was a last outpost of Russian influence in the Middle East, home
to Russia's only Mediterranean port and a big customer for Russian weapons. The
appeal of DAESH in Syria grows from the same root as it does in Iraq. And that
is the sense of Sunni disenfranchisement.
In Syria, unlike Iraq, it is longstanding. Assad is an Alawite Muslim, a subset
of Shiism. He and his father before him ruled brutally over the Sunni majority
in Syria, much as Saddam killed and brutalized the Shiite majority in Iraq. And
none of that deals with the complication added to the chaos in both countries by
the ethnic Kurdish drive for a homeland. The Kurds have big populations in
northern Iraq, Syria and Iran. And they have periodically been at war with
Turkey, where they live in huge numbers in the southeast of that country.
The Kurds have been the strongest American partners in the fight against DAESH,
battling often with significant success as a U.S.-allied ground force against
DAESH. They also have created a virtually autonomous, self-governed region in
Iraq and control significant Iraqi oil reserves. U.S. backing for the Kurds puts
the United States at odds both with NATO ally Turkey, which is also an enemy of
Assad in Syria and the Shiite-dominated U.S.-backed Iraqi government in Baghdad.
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on CNN's "State of the Union" on
Sunday that a military victory over DAESH will not end the chaos in the Middle
East unless the United States, other countries in the region, Russia, Europe and
Iran join together to create a "platform of political stability." But how can
such a platform be created in a region that has been unable to overcome a
1,300-year schism in Islam, the Kurdish drive to create a country that the
ethnic group has never had and the attendant complications mixed in by a
plethora of other religious and ethnic minorities.
The defeat of DAESH, if it happens, will not solve those deep and underlying
divisions. A final political solution likely will require the resettlement of
large populations driven from their home territories by the Iraq war, the Syrian
civil conflict and the expansion of DAESH. It will require compromises that
haven't been made for centuries. It is a huge mission that will take a long time
to accomplish if it ever can be.
Russia, Assad Strike At Turkmens, Giving ISIS A Free Hand In
Syria
Russia continues to bomb Turkmen villages in the Bayırbucak
Turkmen area in northern Syria to bolster the Damascus regime, which it has been
a staunch ally of since the beginning of the crisis, and Turkish officials are
alarmed with the intensified airstrikes on the Turkmen-populated region, which
was previously under the control of moderate Syrian opposition groups. Following
the developments, a closed-door security meeting was held at Çankaya Palace
headed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Sunday. Turkish officials continue
to keep in touch with U.S. officials, who had an opposing stance since the
beginning of Russia's air campaign.
Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar, Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu,
Interior Minister Selami Altınok and National Intelligence Organization (MİT)
Chief Hakan Fidan together with several senior bureaucrats attended the meeting.
Moscow claimed that the airstrikes, which started after receiving parliamentary
approval and followed a military buildup in Syria, aimed to support the forces
of Syrian President Bashar Assad against DAESH. However, Turkey and the West
have accused Russia of targeting moderate fighters opposed to Assad, many of
which are supported by Turkey and the U.S.
There have been reports of many casualties from the attacks on the area, while
the sound of explosions coming from the region was heard in the border town of
Yayladağı in Turkey's Hatay province.
Previously, Sinirlioğlu called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Friday night
to discuss the airstrikes.
The Foreign Ministry summoned Russia's ambassador to Ankara over the bombings
and requested that Russia promptly end the operation.
The late night phone conversation in which the two top diplomats evaluated the
situation after the offensive on the Turkmen region came on orders from
Davutoğlu.
Ankara also sent a letter to the term president of the U.N. Security Council to
demand that the issue be handled immediately.
Sources added that Davutoğlu was informed by Akar by phone regarding the latest
situation in the region.
At the Prime Ministry, Fidan also briefed the Davutoğlu on the issue. Ankara had
requested that Russia promptly end this operation, Foreign Ministry spokesman
Tanju Bilgiç said on Friday, adding: "Our warnings and request have also been
communicated to the Russian deputy foreign minister and special presidential
representative for the Middle East, Mihail Bogdanov."
"If any attack is mounted against civilians on Turkey's border, even with
cluster munitions shelling, so as to draw the people living there toward Turkey
and lead to a further refugee flow, all involved will be held responsible,"
Davutoğlu told the media in Istanbul on Friday.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency on Sunday, Khaled Khoja, the head of the Syrian
National Council opposition group underlined that Russians must stop its
offensive against opposition groups and civilians, saying: "If Russia wants a
political solution, it should force the regime to sit at the negotiation table.
Moreover, it should allow the political solution to be negotiated between the
regime and the opposition, but especially the application of the U.N. Security
Council's Resolution 2165 in which delivering humanitarian aid to besieged areas
is stipulated."
He said: "This situation shows that Russians have no serious intention to
contribute to a political solution and that they are an occupying power."
Almost 40,000 Syrian Turkmens fled from their homes to safer villages near the
Turkish border Saturday following attacks by Syrian and Russian forces.
Bayırbucak Turkmen area is in the immediate vicinity of Turkey's Yayladağ border
crossing.
After the offensive, a number of Turkmens also entered Turkey at the Yayladağı
border crossing in southeastern Hatay province. The Disaster and Emergency
Management Authority (AFAD), the Turkish Red Crescent and other humanitarian aid
organizations began sending humanitarian aid including tents, food and
mattresses to displaced Turkmens.
A mobile bakery in Yayladağı also started producing bread to be delivered to
Turkmens fleeing to safer villages near the Turkish border. Muhammed Komurcu, a
Syrian Turkmen Association official, told Anadolu Agency that the number of
internally displaced people has doubled. Mokhtar Fatih Mohamed, head of a
Turkmen doctors group in the Bayır Bucak region, told Anadolu Agency on Friday
that the Turkmen-majority area is about to fall to regime forces, which may
cause 15,000 Turkmen to flee to Turkey.
Turkmens are a Turkic ethnic group based with minority populations in Syria and
Iraq where they live alongside large Arab and Kurdish populations. The Turkmen
community in these countries includes both Sunnis and Shiites and shares
cultural ties with Turks.
Syria's devastating civil war, now in its fifth year, has left at least 250,000
people dead, according to the U.N.
France Hits Back At Russia Over Syria Bombing Campaign
France dismissed Russian suggestions on Friday its air strikes
against oil installations in Syria were illegal, saying they were ''an
appropriate and necessary riposte'' to attacks by Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS).
President Francois Hollande will travel to Moscow on Nov. 26 as part of an
effort to create a grand coalition to fight ISIS, despite differences over the
future of Syrian President Bashar al-Asaad, whose key backers are Russia and
Iran.
Paris launched air strikes against the militant group's Syrian stronghold in
Raqqa this week following attacks that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.
It has previously targeted oil installations under the control of ISIS and said
it aimed to cut the group's main revenue stream.
Russian Foreign Ministry official Ilya Rogachev earlier on Friday criticised
France's justification for the attacks, that they were self-defense according to
Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. He said that was misplaced because
Paris had not sought approval from the Syrian government.
''We cannot support such actions because they are being carried out without an
agreement of the Syrian government,'' he told Kommersant daily.
''The bombing of oil infrastructure is based on ... quite different reasons and
they are not justified by self-defense,'' he added.
''As Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State (ISIS) are equal priority enemies for
them, they inflict damage to both of them by such hits. Please note, the French
do not bomb the same targets in Iraq.''
France has called for Assad to step down after a political transition, and its
Western allies have criticized Moscow for mostly focusing its raids in Syria
against Western-backed rebel groups.
''The French strikes against oil sites controlled by Daesh (ISIS) are part of
legitimate self-defense,'' French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told
reporters on Friday.
''They are a necessary and proportionate response to the attacks carried out by
Daesh,'' he said.
Russia this week launched massive strikes on Raqqa in response to confirmation
that the group had blown up a plane full of Russian tourists over Sinai in
Egypt.
On Wednesday Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said if the West wanted an
international coalition against ISIS, it must drop its demands for Assad's
ouster.
Russia 'Must Change Strategy' In Syria If It Wants To Join
US-Led 'Anti-ISIS' Coalition - State Dept.
Russia is not welcome to join the US-led coalition in Syria, as
France has proposed, until it changes its ''focus'' and stops ''propping up''
Assad, the US State Department said.
''If other nations not in the coalition [the US-led coalition] want to join it
and become part of it and focus on the fight against ISIL [Islamic State/IS,
formerly ISIS/ISIL] that's a conversation we're certainly willing to have,'' US
State Department spokesperson John Kirby said.
An appeal to expand the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State came from French
President Francois Hollande three days after deadly attacks in Paris a week ago.
Stating that ''France is at war,'' Hollande called for the creation of a ''large
coalition,'' which could unite forces with Russia ''to achieve a result that has
taken too long.''
The grand coalition is going to be the focus of separate talks President
Hollande will have with his American and Russian counterparts in coming days.
The French leader is expected to hold talks in Washington on November 24 and in
Moscow on November 26.
However, the US State Department says that Russia's involvement in the coalition
would depend on Moscow's ''commitment.''
''But in order for that to work, every member of the coalition has to have the
same focus on defeating ISIL, and thus far we, talking about Russia, haven't
seen that same commitment,'' Kirby said, referring to Russia's support for Assad.
''It's inconsistent with the goals of the coalition, which is to defeat ISIL, if
you're also propping up the Assad regime.''
Washington has reiterated that there would be no discussions until Moscow
changes its strategy: ''If Russia is serious about this, about going after ISIL,
and changing the calculus of military activities it's conducting inside Syria,
then it's great and we will be willing to have a discussion with them about how
they might be able to contribute to the coalition operations.''
The statement has prompted Said Arikat, Washington Bureau Chief for Al-Quds, to
ask Kirby to clarify what the coalition's priority actually was, because ''the
issue of Assad keeps coming up all the time.''
''So what's the core goal? To beat Assad or ISIS? On a scale of one to ten - is
one larger than the other?'' Arikat asked Kirby.
Despite, as is claimed by the State Department, the main goal of coalition being
defeating Islamic State and curbing terrorism, President Assad remains a serious
concern for Washington.
''There is nothing in the coalition's mandate to remove Assad from power,''
Kirby responded, adding that removing the current Syrian government would be
''mutually supportive'' in beating IS and ''keeping them out.''
''But militarily, specifically militarily, the goal of the coalition to counter
ISIL is about countering ISIL,'' the State Department spokesman said.
'We want to make no mistake'
Part of Friday's press briefing was dedicated to the US-led mission's efforts in
and around Syria.
''We started the coalition last year, and didn't focus on foreign fighters and
other issues initially,'' Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to
Counter ISIL, Brett McGurk, said. The US is now going to focus on putting
pressure on the''heartland of ISIL'' and its links with Raqqa and Mosul.
Syria: 25 Assad Troops Killed In Battles Near Damascus As U.S.
Eyes Russia-Iran Split in Bid to End Syria Conflict
Dozens of Assad troops have been killed and wounded in recent
attacks staged by Syrian rebels near Damascus, Orient TV reported.
25 Assad troops were killed and a number of others wounded during an attack by
the rebels in the town of Dir Salman.
Assad's forces had launched a three-front attack yet the rebels were able to
surprise the Assad forces and surround them in Dir Salman, killing dozens of
them. A large number of Syrian Army armored vehicles were also destroyed.
U.S. Eyes Russia-Iran Split in Bid to
End Syria Conflict
The Obama administration and European and Arab allies are seeking to peel Russia
away from its alliance with Iran, a partnership that has bolstered Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad, said senior diplomats involved in efforts to end
Syria's lengthy conflict.
The efforts, which have unfolded quietly through meetings involving Russian
President Vladimir Putin and Middle Eastern leaders, are meant to coax support
from Moscow for a limit on Mr. Assad's time in power. Such a step would solidify
an emerging international coalition and help clear the way for a more concerted
military effort to counter Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Iran is seen as a brake on those efforts because of its more staunchly pro-Assad
position, which it wants the Kremlin to support. If Russia holds fast to Iran
and Mr. Assad, it would undermine hopes for an international consensus.
A senior U.S. official on Tuesday said Washington has seen ''increased tensions
between Russia and Iran over the question of the future of Syria.''
U.S. and European officials also said they believe Iran's elite military unit,
the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has withdrawn some troops from Syria in
recent weeks, because of a strain on its resources. A number of senior IRGC
officers have been killed in Syria in recent months.
Sinai: Where Cowardly Putin Running Chicken -
Russian Government Suspends All Flights to Egypt On Attacks Advice
Russia's Putin has ordered
suspensioin of all passenger flights to Egypt on Friday after a deadly plane
downing by the Sinai group affliate of ISIL at the weekend as Western
intelligence officials rallied aroubd their “chatter” to support their
assessments that the jet was brought down by an external attack or a force on
board.
Analysis believe Pax Americana might be unravelling in the Middle East, but
Russia's indiscriminate bombing shows that outside powers will continue to use
violence and dictators for regional hegemony.
Russia mourned the victims of its biggest ever air disaster after a passenger
jet full of Russian tourists crashed in Egypt's Sinai, killing all 224 people on
board.
The Airbus A321-200, operated by the Moscow-based Metrojet airline, was downed
in a remote mountainous part of the Sinai Peninsula 23 minutes after taking off
from Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday morning.
Information intercepted by U.S. and British spies suggested a bomb may have been
carried onto the Russian plane that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula last week,
The Times reported in its Friday edition.
The Times newspaper reported the information came to light after a joint
U.S.-British intelligence operation “used satellites to uncover electronic
communications” between Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants in
Syria and Egypt, without giving a source for the information.
“The tone and content of the messages convinced analysts that a bomb had been
carried on board by a passenger or a member of the airport ground staff,” the
newspaper reported.
The British and U.S. governments have said it is possible an explosive caused
the Saint Petersburg-bound jet to crash in the Sinai Peninsula after taking off
from the red sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.
New intelligence
British and U.S. spies intercepted “chatter” from suspected militants and at
least one other government suggesting that a bomb, possibly hidden in luggage in
the hold, downed the airliner, Western intelligence sources said.
The intelligence sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the
sensitivity of the situation, said the evidence was not categorical and there
was still no hard forensic or scientific evidence to support the bomb theory.
Britain, which said a bomb planted by an Islamic State affiliate may have caused
the crash, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, had already suspended regular
flights to Sharm al-Sheikh where the downed Russian airliner originated. Turkey
said on Friday it was also cancelling flights to the Egyptian resort.
Britain temporarily suspended flights between Sharm el-Sheikh and Britain due to
the intelligence, and warned against all but essential travel by air to the
resort due to new intelligence.
Flights from Sharm el-Sheikh to Britain are due to resume on Friday, with
airlines laying on extra routes to get stranded travelers home, but passengers
will only be allowed to fly with hand luggage due to a request from the British
government.
The Telegraph reported that “crucial intelligence” came to light after British
and US intelligence services “went back over communications of known fanatics in
the region”.
“Their trawl revealed ‘chatter’ in the days before the crash pointing to an
imminent attack,” the Telegraph reported, without giving a source for the
report.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the disaster, but the idea has been played
down by Russia and Egypt, which is keen to protect its valuable tourism industry
and has urged patience until the results of an investigation into the crash are
known.
US President Barack Obama also said he believes there is a "possibility" a bomb
brought the plane.
"I think there is a possibility that there was a bomb on board and we're taking
that very seriously," Obama says in a radio interview.
Russian intervention in Syria could be the biggest threat in decades to Pax
Americana in the Middle East - although the alternative on offer appears to be
equally as damaging.
Following talks on Thursday in London with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi,
Cameron defended his decision to suspend flights to Sharm el-Sheikh and make
public his belief, based on intelligence reports, that a bomb was the likely
cause of last week's crash, which killed 224 people.
Russia’s decision may be the first sign that Moscow, which launched air strikes
against Islamist fighters including Islamic State in Syria more than a month
ago, is attaching credibility to the theory that militants put a bomb on the
aircraft.
Putin acted after Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s FSB security
service, recommended that Russia suspend all passenger flights to Egypt until it
knew exactly what caused the crash.
“The head of state agreed with these recommendations,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s
spokesman, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
He said the government would find a way to bring Russians back home and would
open talks with Egyptian authorities to improve flight safety. Peskov later told
reporters the suspension would remain in place until such time as the Kremlin
was satisfied that security had been sufficiently improved.
“I think that since Putin made the decision to cancel flights, most likely there
is a genuine suspicion that it was a terrorist act. And of course, then it is
correct to cancel the flights because it means it is dangerous to fly there,”
said Maria Solomatina, 27, an IT consultant who has a ticket to travel to Egypt
in mid-November.
A Sinai-based group affiliated with Islamic State, the militants who have seized
swathes of Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the crash, which, if
confirmed, would make it the jihadist organisation’s first attack on civil
aviation.
The fate of Egypt’s tourist industry, a vital source of hard currency for a
struggling economy, is at stake as well as the credibility of President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi’s claims to have brought under control the militants fighting to
topple his government.
The crash has put Egypt’s airport security measures in the spotlight.
KLM introduced new security measures on its trips from Cairo to Amsterdam.
Passengers will only be allowed to take hand luggage onto the flight, Egyptian
airport security sources said on Friday.
Several passengers instead opted to take different flights. KLM Flight 554 left
Cairo on Friday morning with only 115 passengers out of its 247 registered ones
as a result.
Agencies, EsinIslam.Com,
Al-Araby al-Jadeed & Several News Outlets
Heavy Assad Regime Losses in Hama Despite Russian Supports Of Ceaseless
Killings Of Syrian Civilians
By Anas al-Kurdi
Syrian opposition forces recaptured two villages in the Hama countryside,
west-central Syria, on Friday, after they were seized by government troops as
part of a major offensive that began last month in face of Russia's relentless
aggresions and brutes against the Syrian civilian population.
"Opposition fighters captured the villages of Atshan and Um Hartain in the
northern and eastern Hama countryside this morning, a month after they were
seized by the regime with the assistance of Russian airstrikes," the director of
the Hama Media Centre, Yazan Shahdawi told al-Araby al-Jadeed.
The London based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 16
pro-regime fighters were killed in the fight for the two villages.
Meanwhile, the media office of Ajnad al-Sham, one of the rebel groups that took
part in the battle, has claimed that 50 regime troops have been killed.
Rebel fighters also seized two regime tanks and a Kornet missile system from the
village of Um Hartain, Shahdawi said.
The villages are situated in a strategic location overlooking a number of
pro-regime villages and on the route between the northern and eastern
countryside of Hama. This development will enable rebel forces to cut off the
regime's supply route in the Hama countryside.
Rebel forces have recently captured a number of other villages in the Hama
countryside allowing them to ensure their supply lines and movements.
Meanwhile, the Hama Media Centre reported that over 100 regime forces were
killed and many others captured in the strategic town of Morek, north of the
city of Hama, which was seized by rebel factions on Thursday.
The recent rebel advances in Hama have been the largest since the regime
launched its offensive on the area last month with the assistance of Russian
airstrikes.
Agencies, EsinIslam.Com,
Al-Araby al-Jadeed & Several News Outlets
THE SOLDIERS OF THE KHILAFAH
WERE ABLE TO DOWN A RUSSIAN PLANE OVER WILAYAT SAYNA
ISLAMIC STATE SAYNA'
17 MUHARRAM 1437
THE SOLDIERS OF THE KHILAFAH
WERE ABLE TO DOWN A RUSSIAN PLANE OVER WILAYAT SAYNA'. IT WAS CARRYING MORE THAN
220 RUSSIAN CRUSADERS. ALL OF THEM WERE KILLED, AND PRAISE IS FOR ALLAH. THIS IS
TO SHOW THE RUSSIANS AND WHOEVER ALLIES WITH THEM THAT THEY SHALL HAVE NO SAFETY
IN MUSLIM LANDS OR AIRSPACE, AND THAT THEIR DAILY KILLING OF DOZENS IN SHAM VIA
THEIR AIRSTRIKES SHALL RESULT IN THEIR DEMISE. AS THEY KILL, THEY WILL BE KILLED
BY THE PERMISSION OF ALLAH. ALLAH IS IN CONTROL, THOUGH MOST PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW.
Russian Metrojet's Airbus A-321 Downed As The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) Egyptian Affiliate Group Welcome Putin To Hell In Their Own Fashions And
Terms
ISIS has released several high profile evidences
to assert their claim of responsibility for the Russian plane crash which
claimed the lives of some 220 Russian passengers and crew confirming their
action was in response to Russia's decision to bomb Islamic fighters in Syria in
a bid to prop up Basher al-Assad's murderous regime.
THE SOLDIERS OF THE KHILAFAH WERE ABLE TO DOWN A RUSSIAN PLANE OVER WILAYAT
SAYNA'. IT WAS CARRYING MORE THAN 220 RUSSIAN CRUSADERS. ALL OF THEM WERE
KILLED, AND PRAISE IS FOR ALLAH. THIS IS TO SHOW THE RUSSIANS AND WHOEVER ALLIES
WITH THEM THAT THEY SHALL HAVE NO SAFETY IN MUSLIM LANDS OR AIRSPACE, AND THAT
THEIR DAILY KILLING OF DOZENS IN SHAM VIA THEIR AIRSTRIKES SHALL RESULT IN THEIR
DEMISE. AS THEY KILL, THEY WILL BE KILLED BY THE PERMISSION OF ALLAH. ALLAH IS
IN CONTROL, THOUGH MOST PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW.
ISLAMIC STATE SAYNA'
17 MUHARRAM 1437
As security forces discovered the wreckage in a remote mountainous area in an
area containing many ISIS-affiliated groups yesterday afternoon, German airline
Lufthansa said they will no longer fly over the Sinai peninsula 'as long as the
cause for [the] crash has not been clarified'. Air France later said the same.
Impacts Of ISIL Attacks On Putin:
German airline Lufthansa has said they will no longer fly over the Sinai
peninsula 'as long as the cause for the crash has not been clarified'.
A spokeswoman for the airline said 'security is our highest
priority', adding that it would use detours to service airports in the region.
Air France has also confirmed that it will not be flying through the restive
area until the reasons behind the crash become clear.
Meanwhile, British Airways has reportedly ordered its pilots to avoid low flying
over Egypt in the wake of the deadly crash.
Hundreds of flights, carrying British passengers to tourist hot spots such as
Sharm el-Sheikh, will continue to fly over the region.
But pilots have been secretly told to be more cautious about their altitude amid
concerns of a terror attack,The UK
Sun reports.
The maximum height a surface-to-air missile could strike is thought to be 25,000
feet.
Did the Americans expect the Putin's actions against the Syrian population to be
punished this early and at this scale of life wasting. It certainly looks so,
especially, that Obama likes to position himself an expert in
war games anytime Putin tries to show he's calculative in his rivalry
with the American leadership in the world stage.
Thursday October 8,
2015, US defence secretary Ashton Carter predicted reprisal attacks on Russian
soil over Vladimir Putin’s military campaign to prop up Bashar al-Assad’s
regime.
Moscow will soon start paying the price for its escalating military intervention
in Syria in the form of reprisal attacks and casualties, the US defence
secretary has warned, amid signs that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are
preparing to counter the Russian move.
Ashton Carter was talking at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels on
Thursday during which the ministers agreed to increase a Nato response force
intended to move quickly to flashpoints.
Riyadh’s anger over Vladimir Putin’s intervention was reflected in a statement
by 55 leading clerics, including prominent Islamists, urging “true Muslims” to
“give all moral, material, political and military” support to the fight against
Assad’s army as well as Iranian and Russian forces.
“Russia has created a Frankenstein in
the region which it will not be able to control,” warned a senior Qatari source.
“With the call to jihad things will change. Everyone will go to fight. Even
Muslims who sit in bars. There are 1.5 billion Muslims. Imagine what will happen
if 1% of them join.”
In his remarks, Carter said that the Russian military campaign, including
airstrikes and ship-launched cruise missiles, were not targeting Isis but
represented a Russian decision “to double down on a longstanding relationship
with Assad”.
“They have initiated a joint ground
offensive with the Syrian regime, shattering the facade that they are there to
fight Isil [Isis],” he added. “This will have consequences for Russia itself,
which is rightly fearful of attacks. In coming days, the Russians will begin to
suffer from casualties.”
Carter said that Russian missiles had been fired without giving notice to other
states in the region and came within a few miles of hitting a US drone over
Syrian airspace.
“We’ve seen increasingly unprofessional behaviour from Russian forces. They
violated Turkish airspace ... They shot cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea
without warning,” the defence secretary said.
Russian Metrojet's Airbus A-321 Downed As The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) Egyptian Affiliate Group Welcome Putin To Hell In Their Own Fashions And
Terms
Russians have started counting their body bags in hundreds as Egyptian
affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group managed to have
downed a Russian passenger jet that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, killing all
224 people onboard.
Russia's transport minister Maksim Sokolov lost in sorrow as he struggled to
find words to qualify the accuracy of the latest information in comments cited
by Russian news agencies.
''We are in close contact with our Egyptian colleagues and aviation authorities
in the country. At present, they have no information that would confirm such
insinuations,'' he added.
Meanwhile, Egypt has recovered the black box of a Russian airliner that crashed
Saturday in the restive Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, the
prime minister's office said.
According to the office of Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said, he black box was
recovered from the tail of the plane and has been sent to be analyzed by
experts, and that rescuers had recovered 129 bodies from the site of the crash.
The prime minister confirmed that it was impossible to determine the cause of
the Russian plane has not been drowned until the black box was examined,
pointing out that no ''irregular'' activities were believed to be behind the
perish of the Metrojet's Airbus A-321 with registration number EI-ETJ that
crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula as Reuters reported.
The ISIS affiliate, which is very active in the Sinai, had circulated a
statement on social media claiming responsibility for the crash, saying it
brought down the aircraft in revenge for Russian air strikes against militants
in Syria.
''The soldiers of the caliphate succeeded in bringing down a Russian plane in
Sinai,'' its statement said.
News agencies have reported significance in the movements of the Egyptian groups
and their abilities depsite several military experts contacted by AFP said
playing down the likeliness of ISIS militants in Sinai possessing missiles
capable of shooting down a plane flying at 30,000 feet without other powerful
supports from the region.
But they did not discount the possibility that a bomb may have been planted on
the plane, or that it could have been hit by a rocket or missile as it lost
height due to technical problems.
The plane - an Airbus A321-200 operated by Russian carrier Kogalymavia - also
known as Metrojet - had reportedly split in two. Other bodies had been found
strapped to their seats.
An Egyptian security officer at the site told Reuters by telephone that his team
extracted "at least 100 bodies and the rest are still inside," the officer, who
requested anonymity, said.
Most of the passengers on board are believed to be Russian tourists. But
analysts say the passengers are likely to include a large pack of Russian army
personels and their family assigned to tasks including undecover and
participation in Russia's ondoing slaughters of the Syrians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian what he described as rescue
teams to visit the site of the crash, while Egypt's prosecutor general has
ordered an investigation.
Russian officials began searching the Moscow offices of Kogalymavia, and have
seized documents, Russian state TV reported.
"Military planes have discovered the wreckage of the plane... in a mountainous
area, and 45 ambulances have been directed to the site to evacuate dead and
wounded," a cabinet statement said earlier.
Putin declared a day of mourning after the incident in Egypt.
Turkey Shoots Down Drone At Syria Border: The Russians Have Been Warned
Turkish jets shot down an unidentified drone
that had violated Turkey's airspace at the border with Syria, the military said.
The alien, unmanned aerial vehicle which entered the country's airspace on
Friday from Syria continued to advance despite three warnings, the Turkish
military said.
The plane "was shot down by Turkish planes patrolling the border in line with
the rules of engagement", a statement said.
Earlier in October, Turkey complained about Russian warplanes violating its
airspace, intrusions that also drew strong condemnation from Turkey's NATO
allies.
On Friday, Russia said it has agreed all technical questions for Syria flight
safety with the United States after Turkey downing the plane.
Turkey's NTV television, without citing its sources, said the object was a
drone, and it had fallen three kilometers (1.85 miles) inside Turkish territory.
Television pictures showed the military examining the crash site. The location
was not specified.
Turkey had earlier this month bitterly complained about two violations of its
air space by Russian warplanes operating in Syria.
Russia's air strikes in Syria mean that Russian and NATO planes are now flying
combat missions in the same air space for the first time since World War Two,
heightening concern that the Cold War enemies could fire on each other.
The Russian air force officially informed the Turkish military on Thursday about
the violations by Russian jets earlier this month, and about steps it would take
to prevent a repetition.
Turkey has also reported unidentified aircraft and Syria-based missile air
defence systems harassing its warplanes several times in recent months.
Since 2013, Turkey has shot down a Syrian military jet, a helicopter and an
unmanned surveillance drone that have strayed into Turkish airspace. The
incidents occurred after it changed its rules of engagement following the
downing of a Turkish fighter jet by Syria.
Turkey has also reported numerous incidents of harassment of its F-16 jets
patrolling the Syrian border by Syrian fighter planes or Syria-based
surface-to-air missile systems locking radar on them.
To ease tensions with Russia, a high-level Russian delegation led by the
country's deputy air force commander held talks on Thursday with Turkish
military officials in Ankara. The military said the sides had discussed measures
Russia was taking to avoid further incidents.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Moscow that it would lose a lot if
it destroyed its friendship with Ankara, adding that his country would not
remain patient in the face of violations of its air space by Russian warplanes.
Turkey on Thursday said it summoned the Russian ambassador to Ankara for a
second time after a new incursion by a Russian fighter jet on Sunday.
The first reported violation of Turkish airspace took place on Saturday,
prompting a sharp warning from Turkey that future violations could lead to an
implementation of the rules of engagement and condemnation from NATO.
Turkey is a member of the alliance.
The Russian embassy confirmed that "such an incident took place", according to
the Interfax news agency.
Russia last week began bombing what it says are Islamic State in Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) group targets in the Syria, though the air strikes seem to be
largely hitting different opposition groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
The strikes seem to be focused on frontline areas where Assad's forces are
facing losses to the rebel factions, especially in the provinces of Idlib and
Hama in the north.
These areas have no ISIL presence.
Russia is a firm backer of Assad, while Western nations and Turkey say Assad has
lost the legitimacy to continue in power over the longer term.
Russia has also been accused by Western officials and activists on the ground
that many of the targets since the beginning of its campaign on Wednesday were
civilian.
Turkey warns Russia over airspace
violation
Turkey's prime minister says Russia has described its warplane's violation of
Turkey's airspace as a "mistake" while calling the country's entry into the
conflict in Syria as an escalation.
Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking in a live interview on HaberTurk TV on Monday, said
that Turkey's rules of engagement were clear, whomever violates its airspace.
A Russian aircraft entered Turkish airspace near the Syrian border on Saturday,
prompting Turkey to scramble two F-16 jets to intercept it and summon Russia's
ambassador in protest.
"The Turkish armed forces are clearly instructed. Even it is a flying bird it
will be intercepted," Davutoglu said.
He warned Turkey's enemies and allies not to infringe its air space but he
dismissed the notion of tensions with Russia.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general, said he was convening a meeting of the
military alliance's ambassadors on Monday afternoon to discuss Russia's
"unacceptable violations". Turkey is one of NATO's 28 member states.
Feridun Sinirlioglu, Turkey's foreign minister, contacted his Russian
counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, warning him not to repeat similar incidents.
US Military Chief Says Russian Measures
Intensify Syria Civil War
The United State has warned that Russia's
decision to join forces with Syria in air strikes against ISIS will only help to
intensify the instability in Syria and make the civil war there more vicious,
RTT reports indicate.
During a Pentagon news conference in the wake of these
developments, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the Russian position of
supporting the regime of Bashar al-Assad and its desire to take on extremist
groups such as the Islamic State represent a contradiction.
'Fighting ISIL without pursuing a parallel political
transition only risks escalating the civil war in Syria - and with it, the very
extremism and instability that Moscow claims to be concerned about and aspire to
fighting,' he said. 'So that approach is tantamount … to pouring gasoline on the
fire,' according to Carter.
The secretary restated the American position, saying that a lasting defeat of
ISIL and its terrorist allies can be achieved only in parallel with a political
transition in Syria. 'We will continue to insist on the importance of
simultaneously pursuing these two objectives,' he said.
But Russian aircraft struck targets around Homs in Syria
Wednesday and Thursday. A Russian officer notified personnel in the U.S. Embassy
in Baghdad of the strikes an hour before they launched. No coalition aircraft
were in the region at the time, and Carter said he doubts any ISIL terrorists
were in the area struck.
Russian and coalition officers will meet in the next few days
to 'deconflict' air operations. The meeting will allow a flow of information
between coalition forces and Russian elements to maintain the safety of U.S.
personnel in the region, Carter said.
The meeting also will be an opportunity to ensure that any
additional Russian actions do not interfere with the coalition's efforts to
degrade and defeat ISIL, he added.
The secretary stressed that the more-than-60-nation coalition
is battling ISIL 'across the physical, virtual and ideological battle space,'
conducting more than 7,100 air strikes at ISIS' operational core and logistics
arm. 'The coalition will continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria as
planned, as we did today, in support of our international mission to degrade and
destroy ISIS.'
Carter said the U.S. talks with the Russians over Syria do not
indicate a lessening of America's strong condemnation of Russian aggression in
Ukraine, nor do they change U.S. sanctions and security support in response to
those destabilizing actions.
Carter made it clear that if Russia wants to end its
international isolation and be considered a global power, it must stop its
aggression in eastern Ukraine and its occupation and attempted annexation of
Crimea, and live up to its commitments under the Minsk agreement.
Putin Admits Russia Aiming To Help Assad In Trouble As Syria Rebels Using More
Forces, Equipment In Front Lines
The Russian leader confirmed the allegations that his main goal in intervening
in Syria was to prop up embattled leader Bashar Assad, The Hill reported.
'Our task is to stabilize the legitimate government and to create conditions
for a political compromise ... by military means, of course,' Russian President
Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Russian state television, according to
a translation from CNN.
'The units of international terrorists and their ilk have no desire to
negotiate with the Syrian government, who is almost sieged in its own capital.'
Putin’s comments will come as little surprise to watchers of the region, who
have noted Moscow’s recent support for Assad, a longtime ally.
In recent weeks, Russia has begun and dramatically increased a military
campaign to support Assad — at the expense, according to reports, of CIA-backed
rebels and other groups trying to force him out of power.
The Kremlin has insisted that any rebels fighting against Assad’s government
are “terrorists” the term Putin used to describe enemies of his friend Assad
and Tehran. The White House has opposed that narrative, though its attempts to
support moderate rebels in the region have been decidedly unproductive.
The Obama administration has said that “greater than 90 percent” of Russia’s
airstrikes have been against opposition groups, not the Islamic State in Iraq
and Syria (ISIS).
Human Rights Watch has echoed accusations by Syrian activists that Russia was
behind the use of new advanced cluster munitions in Syria by dropping them from
warplanes or supplying them to the Assad government.
The Pentagon says the vast majority of Russian strikes have been against
opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have made gains since
Russian military intervention on September 30.
Government forces have pushed to regain the Sahl al-Ghab plain, which is
adjacent to Latakia province, the heartland of Assad's regime. Now the Syrian
army is focusing its fight on the village of Kafr Nabudeh.
Capturing Kafr Nabudeh would cut off a major highway, giving the pro-government
forces access to the northwestern province of Idlib.
Syria rebels using more forces,
equipment in front lines
Syrian fighters are dispatching more men and arms to the front lines, Reuters
reported on Tuesday, including a significant number of anti-tank missiles.
Their goal is to confront and defeat ground attacks by Assad’s forces and its
allies as they are backed by Russian airstrikes.
With support provided by the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian proxies, the Assad
regime is attempting to force the rebels out of the western areas of Syria,
Reuters added. However, its forces have suffered heavy casualties so far.
At least 25 Assad troops were killed in Hama recently.
US-led coalition forces have parachuted ammunition to Syrian rebels fighting
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, according to a US
official.
Elissa Smith, a spokesperson for the US defence secretary, said on Monday that
the airdrop took place in northern Syria on Sunday.
"This successful airdrop provided ammunition to Syrian groups whose leaders
were appropriately vetted by the United States and have been fighting to remove
ISIL from northern Syria," she said.
"The airdrop includes small arms ammunition. Due to operational security we
will not have any further details about the groups that received these
supplies, their location, or the type of equipment in the airdrop."
Meanwhile, Russia - which believes it is wrong of US to arm the groups that
Washington calls "moderate" - intensified its air strikes on Monday in central
Syria.
Assad, Iran And Russia Are Losing: Over 150 Assad Army Soldiers, Russian Officer
Killed Near Hama
The first Russian officer was killed in heavy clashes erupting in the
battlefronts of Murk, located north of the city of Hama in Syria, between Assad
soldiers and members of the Free Syrian Army, Orient TV reported.
Over 150 Assad troops were also killed in this intense fighting on Thursday, the
Hama news network reported. A number of Assad army officers were also amongst
those killed.
Pro-Assad regime websites admitted to the death of 55 of these military
soldiers.
Russia helicopter shot down, 4
passengers killed near Hama
Syrian armed opposition forces were able to shoot down a Russian military
helicopter in northern Hama Province on Thursday, killing 1 Russian officer and
three Russian soldiers, Orient TV reported.
Around noon on Thursday four helicopters were flying over the battlefronts and
they were seeking to transport a number of Assad regime commandoes to the area.
Syrian fighters targeted these choppers flying at low altitude, shooting down
one of the helicopters.
US official: 4 Russian cruise missiles
fired from Caspian Sea landed inside Iran soil
Various US officials on Thursday revealed four of the cruise missiles launched
by Russia on Wednesday from the Caspian Sea landed in Iran, while they were
actually targeted for Syria.
These US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it is not clear
how much damages these missiles have left inside Iran.
The Russian Defense Ministry has refused to make any comment regarding these
reports in international news agencies. Kremlin announced on Wednesday its
forces launched 26 cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea on targets located in
north and northwestern Syria.
Iran has also refused to
show any response to the landing of Russian missiles inside its soil. However,
on Wednesday the mayor of the town of Takab in West Azerbaijan Province
(northwestern Iran) reported an unknown object landing and windows of some homes
in this area shattering due to the impact. A local website in Iran reported
similar incidents occurred in the city of Saghez in Kurdistan Province.
ISIL Advances On Aleppo Despite Russia Airstrikes As Obama Calls Russia Action In Syria 'Recipe For Disaster'
ISIL fighters have seized villages close to the northern city of Aleppo from
rival insurgents, a monitoring group said on Friday, despite an intensifying
Russian air-and-sea campaign that Moscow says has targeted the militant group.
News of the advance came as the United States announced it was largely
abandoning its failed program to train moderate rebels fighting ISIS and would
instead provide arms and equipment directly to rebel leaders and their units on
the battlefield.
The Obama administration is grappling with a dramatic change in the
four-year-old Syrian civil war brought about by Moscow's intervention in support
of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Pentagon said on Friday it expected to hold new talks with Russia's military
on pilot safety in Syria's war as soon as this weekend, as the former Cold War
foes seek to avoid an accidental clash as they carry out rival bombing
campaigns.
Russian air strikes
The Russian defense ministry said stepped-up air strikes on rebel positions in
Syria killed 300 anti-Assad rebels and that it hit 60 ISIS targets over the last
day. There was no independent confirmation of the death toll.
About 200 insurgents were killed in an attack on the Liwa al-Haqq group in Raqqa
province while 100 died in Aleppo, the defense ministry said. Two ISIS
commanders were among the dead in Russia's most intense raids since it launched
strikes in Syria 10 days ago. In previous updates Russia has reported hitting 10
targets daily.
However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the fighting,
said there had been no significant advances by government forces backed by
allied militia in areas where ground offensives were launched this week. ''It's
back and forth,'' said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Observatory.
Iran commander killed
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps said separately that one of its generals
had been killed near Aleppo, once Syria's most populous city. Iran, like Russia
an Assad ally, says it has advisers in the country.
ISIS is now within 2 km of government-held territory on the northern edge of
Aleppo, which has suffered widespread damage and disease during the civil war
that erupted in the wake of protests against Assad.
Syria's military, backed by Russia, Iran and allied militias, has launched a
major attack in Syria's west to recapture land lost to non-ISIS rebels near the
heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect. That area is considered vital to
Assad's survival.
Obama: Russia action in Syria is
'recipe for disaster'
US President Barack Obama has warned Russia that its bombing campaign to support
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will suck Moscow into a quagmire that will be
hard to get out of.
Obama said Russia was also failing to distinguish between Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL) fighters and more moderate rebels in Syria.
"An attempt by Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and try to pacify the population
is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire and it won't work," Obama told a
White House news conference on Friday.
"From their perspective, they're all terrorists. And that's a recipe for
disaster."
Russia continued bombing Syria on Friday for a third straight day. Targets have
included ISIL's main stronghold in Raqqa, but also the provinces of Hama, Aleppo
and Idlib where few ISIL fighters operate.
Obama said he would not turn the Syrian civil war into a "proxy war" between the
US and Russia. "This is not some superpower chessboard contest," he said.
Activists and residents of the city said ISIL had cancelled Friday prayers and
emptied mosques there, fearing further attacks.
"The residents are very afraid, especially if the Russians are going to operate
like regime planes by targeting civilians," said activist Abu Mohammad from
Raqqa.
On Thursday, Russian jets hit areas in the suburbs of Hama and Idlib, all areas
under the control of loose coalitions of rebel groups, including the
Western-backed Free Syrian Army.
52 Saudi Clerics, Scholars Call To Battle Russian Forces In Syria
By Huda Al-Saleh
Fifty two Saudi inciters, both academics and clerics, have called on the public
to ''hurry'' to Syria where they should be fighting Russian forces.
The clerics, some of which are members of the International Union of Muslim
Scholars, called on ''all those who are able, and outside of Saudi Arabia, to
answer the calls of jihad'' and to fight alongside one of the extremist groups
facing Russian forces.
According to experts, by issuing this statement, inciters seek to implicate
Saudi, Gulf, and Muslim youths in the fight against Russian forces, mirroring
Al-Qaeda's and the Taliban's recruitment of young fighters during the
Afghan-Soviet war.
The statement also called for Syrian opposition fighters to ''unify their front''
and urged those with capabilities to fight and expertise to remain in Syria and
not leave.
The statement comes after the Saudi Ministry of Interior raided a house where
its residents manufactures bombs in a residential area in Riyadh. The house was
run by a Syrian man with the help of a Filipina woman who prepared and sowed
explosive belts.
The statement also comes days after authorities found and detained Islamic State
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) cells, mostly comprised of militants who returned from
areas of conflict.
The invitation to join the conflict conflicts with a Saudi decree announced in
March 2014 which listed ISIS and the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, the Muslim
Brotherhood, the Saudi Hezbollah, the Houthi group, AQIP, and Al-Qaeda in Yemen
and Iraq.
The decree also criminalizes taking part in combat outside of Saudi Arabia, or
belonging to extremist groups or groups designated as such by the regional or
international arena.
Some of the clerics who signed the statement previously issued fatwas on the
events in Syria and providing guidance to fighters under extremist groups in the
embattled country.
A relationship with the son of Abdullah Azam
The
direct relationship between a number of the signatories to the statement without
Abdullah al-Azam, who is the son of Palestinian Abdullah al-Azam living now in
Jordan, was also noticeable.
Al-Hazifa did not hesitate to show its direct relationships with the fighting
factions in Syria and its attempts of making reconciliation between them. He
even interfered to release the mother of one of the female broadcasters in an
Arab channel in rural Damascus after it was arrested by the Army of Islam. He
said: ''If there was in any way a bypass from the Army of Islam's side, I am
ready to fix it and would provide any other service you might require from the
Army.''
Through the follow-up of one of the signatories, Dr. Mohammed Musa al-Sherriff,
the size of the special relationship he has with one of the heirs of Abdullah
Azam who was the professor al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appears too.
On the other side, the International Union of Muslim Scholars released a similar
statement calling for ''the support of the fighting in Syria and providing it
with money and any other means of cooperation each according to his abilities
and jihad spirit as support can be provided too with money and prayers.''
Putin's Attempts to Save Assad Slammed As East
Ghouta Protest Against Russia's Military Intervention in Syria
Member of the Syrian Coalition George Sabra said that the Russian aggression
against civilians in Syria is a military and political counter-attack designed
to impede reverse the course of political solution.
Sabra pointed out that ''the Russians are trying to rehabilitate the Assad
regime, engage him in a political solution and then assign him a role in the
future of Syria. The international community however will not accept the idea
because Assad has so far adhered a military solution, while his main backer Iran
have not yet recognized the Geneva I Communique.''
Sabra wonders ''how can a political solution be built on the survival of Assad
who is responsible for the most heinous crimes against the Syrian people?"
He also said that ''Russian President Putin's attempts to rehabilitate the Assad
regime are doomed as it has allowed the surge of extremist groups and summoned
extremist militias such as the Hezbollah militia, Iraqi militias, and the
Revolutionary Guard Corps. The rise of ISIS obviously came obviously as a
response to the regime's brutal war on the Syrian people.''
''After all this bloodshed, there can be no return to the status quo ante of the
outbreak of the revolution, and this is what Russia is seeking to do in Syria."
East Ghouta Protest Against Russia's Military Intervention in Syria
The Syrian Coalition's office in East Ghouta and a number of revolutionary and
civil bodies organized a sit-in in besieged east Ghouta a protest against the
Russian intervention in Syria.
Protesters held placards condemning and denouncing the massacres committed by
the Russian air force began against civilians and rejecting all forms of foreign
intervention in Syria.
Member of the Syrian Coalition Mohammed Khair al-Wazir said that the direct
Russian intervention along with Assad's wholesale crimes are a stain at the
forehead of the UN Security Council which has so far failed to bring peace to
Syria and punish the Assad regime.
Al-Wazir described the Russian intervention is a direct occupation of Syria,
adding that it violates international law which is supposed to achieve security
and peace around the world and prohibits foreign occupation of independent
countries.
Head of the Syrian Coalition's Office in east Ghouta Saed Flitani stresses that
the Russian intervention came to fight against the Syrian people and their
revolution and to fight ISIS which Assad allowed to grow and surge in the
region.
President Khoja Calls on UNSC to Condemn Russia Airstrikes in Syria
President Khoja calls on the international community to condemn the Russian
aggression on Syria inflicting many casualties among the civilian population,
killing over 60 people including women and children.
In a letter addressed to the president of the UN Security Council, the Spanish
Ambassador Roman Oyarzun, Khoja calls for taking immediate action to stop
Russia's brutal air raids on Damascus, Homs, and Hama, where civilian homes,
hospitals, and mosques are destroyed by these attacks.
''Under the false pretence of engaging in counter-terrorism operations, Russian
forces indiscriminately bombed civilian areas, killing innocent men, women and
children,'' Khoja said.
He added that ''these indiscriminate aerial attacks are part of an overt and
calculated attempt by Russian forces to aid and abet the Syrian regime's war on
civilians. They are designed not to counter terrorist extremist groups like
ISIS, but to support the Assad regime's indiscriminate slaughter of civilians.''
''By involving itself so directly in the killing of innocent Syrians, Russia
makes itself a direct party to the Syrian conflict and risks implicating itself
in war crimes. Russia's actions violate not only the Fourth Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War but also the
Security Council resolution 2139, which demands that all parties to the conflict
distinguish between civilian populations and combatants and refrain from
indiscriminate attacks and attacks on civilians.''
The letter went on: ''Russia's actions will have consequences-not merely for
Russians inside Syria, but for the fight against ISIS. Russian forces'
indiscriminate slaughter of civilians will fuel extremism and exacerbate the
refugee crisis. Like Assad's barrel bombs, Russia's unwanted invasion will serve
as a recruiting tool for ISIS and will make Syria-and the world-less safe.''
''On behalf of the people of Syria, I appeal to Member States of the Security
Council to work with urgency to condemn in the strongest terms Russia's illegal
military aggression in Syria and pursue all means necessary to stop the
indiscriminate aerial bombardment in Syria, including through the enforcement of
a ban on aerial bombardment: a no-bombing zone. If Russia-as party to the
conflict-will not allow the Security Council to act, Member States must
themselves ensure the protection of civilians.''
Syrian Coalition, Agencies, EsinIslam.Com
& Several News Outlets
Russian Strikes Kill At Least 50 Syrian
Civilians, Including Five Children
Syria's main opposition group said Russian air strikes killed at least 50
civilians, including five children, Radio Free Europe reported on Thursday.
Khaled Khoja, head of the National Coalition, which includes
opposition groups supported by the West, said local activists have identified 36
people who died in the central province of Homs.
'All of the casualties were civilians,' Khoja said on the sidelines of the
United Nations General Assembly.
'So it was very obvious that the Russian intervention was to
support the regime, to support more killings inside Syria, and will create a
more chaotic atmosphere.'
The strikes also hit a base for the Free Syrian Army, but
resulted in no casualties, he said.
US President Barack Obama took the podium at the UN General
Assembly on Monday to denounce those who support leaders like Syria's Bashar Al-Assad,
accusing him of slaughtering children.
The barb, a direct attack on Russia and Iran for their ongoing
military backing for Syria's beleaguered regime, came shortly before Moscow's
President Vladimir Putin was to speak.
Obama said some states prefer stability over the international
order mandated by the UN Charter, and try to impose it by force.
''We're told that such retrenchment is required to beat back disorder, that it's
the only way to stamp out terrorism or prevent foreign meddling,'' he said.
In accordance with this logic, we should support tyrants like Bashar al-Assad
who drops barrel bombs to massacre innocent children, because the alternative is
surely worse.
France investigates Syria's Assad for
crimes against humanity
France is investigating Bashar al-Assad over alleged crimes
against humanity, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Wednesday, launching a
case that highlights divisions among major powers over relations with the Syrian
leader.
The investigation, which is also examining claims of torture
and kidnapping by Assad's forces, was opened "on the basis of indications
received from the foreign ministry" on Sept. 10, an official at the prosecutor's
office said.
An estimated 250,000 people have been killed in Syria's
four-year civil war between Assad's troops, rebel groups and Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, and a further 11 million displaced.
The ministry's dossier drew on some 55,000 photographic images
smuggled out of the country by a former Syrian army officer, showing 11,000
alleged victims of forces loyal to Assad, according to various media reports.
The competence of French courts to try those held responsible
may hinge on the identification of French nationals among the victims. Even in
that event, the prospect of a trial in France would appear remote.
In the face of sustained Russian support for the Syrian
president, France recently joined other western powers in softening earlier
demands that Assad leave office as a precondition for peace talks.
US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Monday
to look for a diplomatic end to the war but clashed over whether Assad should
retain power.
US military chief says Russian measures intensify Syria civil war
The United State has warned that Russia's decision to join forces with Syria in
air strikes against ISIS will only help to intensify the instability in Syria
and make the civil war there more vicious, RTT reports indicate.
During a Pentagon news conference in the wake of these developments, US Defense
Secretary Ash Carter said the Russian position of supporting the regime of
Bashar al-Assad and its desire to take on extremist groups such as the Islamic
State represent a contradiction.
'Fighting ISIL without pursuing a parallel political
transition only risks escalating the civil war in Syria - and with it, the very
extremism and instability that Moscow claims to be concerned about and aspire to
fighting,' he said. 'So that approach is tantamount … to pouring gasoline on the
fire,' according to Carter.
The secretary restated the American position, saying that a lasting defeat of
ISIL and its terrorist allies can be achieved only in parallel with a political
transition in Syria. 'We will continue to insist on the importance of
simultaneously pursuing these two objectives,' he said
But Russian aircraft struck targets around Homs in Syria
Wednesday and Thursday. A Russian officer notified personnel
in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad of the strikes an hour before they launched. No
coalition aircraft were in the region at the time, and Carter said he doubts any
ISIL terrorists were in the area struck.
Russian and coalition officers will meet in the next few days to 'deconflict'
air operations. The meeting will allow a flow of information between coalition
forces and Russian elements to maintain the safety of U.S. personnel in the
region, Carter said.
The meeting also will be an opportunity to ensure that any additional Russian
actions do not interfere with the coalition's efforts to degrade and defeat ISIL,
he added.
The secretary stressed that the more-than-60-nation coalition
is battling ISIL 'across the physical, virtual and ideological battle space,'
conducting more than 7,100 air strikes at ISIS' operational core and logistics
arm. 'The coalition will continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria as
planned, as we did today, in support of our international mission to degrade and
destroy ISIS.'
Carter said the U.S. talks with the Russians over Syria do not
indicate a lessening of America's strong condemnation of Russian aggression in
Ukraine, nor do they change U.S. sanctions and security support in response to
those destabilizing actions.
Carter made it clear that if Russia wants to end its
international isolation and be considered a global power, it must stop its
aggression in eastern Ukraine and its occupation and attempted annexation of
Crimea, and live up to its commitments under the Minsk agreement.
Syrian Coalition Appeals to the Free World to
Protest Against Russia Aggression
The Syrian Coalition appeals to Syrians, Arabs and the free world to raise
their voice high and protest in front of the Russian embassies of against its
aggression on the Syrian people.
Secretary-General Mohammed Yahya Maktabi said that Syrian Revolution turned from
a revolution against an authoritarian regime to the national liberation movement
against the Russian and Iranian invasion of Syria.
''Today Syrians are facing multi-faceted invasion and terrorism; the
Russian-Iranian invasion and the terrorism practiced by the Hezbollah militia,
ISIS and other sectarian foreign militias.''
He stresses that every Syrian has a great responsibility to face the hard
circumstances Syria is going through, praising the Syrian rebels who are
countering the invaders. ''Though outnumbered and under-equipped, the faith
Syrian rebels have in their cause is matchless and is enough to provide with the
courage and determination till the liberation of all Syrian territory.''
Khoja to De Mistura: Russia Aggression
Undermines Political Solution
President Khoja that Russia's aggression against Syria undermines political
settlement based on the Geneva I Communique during a meeting with UN envoy
Staffan de Mistura in New York yesterday.
At meetings held with Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen and
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Coordinator of Emergency
Relief Stephen O'Brien, President Khoja said that the regime's attacks on
civilians would further exacerbate the refugee crisis.
Khoja stresses that the escalating regime's atrocities require greater and more
effective response from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, particularly as the Assad regime violates all
international agreements on delivery of humanitarian aid in Syria.
Vice-President Hisham Marwa and member of the political committee Fuad Aliko met
with political director at the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Assistant Secretary in the Multilateral Policy Office in the Australian Foreign
and Trade Ministry.
Marwa and Aliko expressed appreciation for Lithuania's positive position at the
UN Security Council in defense of the people of Syria, specifically its paying
of the attention to the humanitarian crisis and the need for accountability.
They discussed the refugee crisis during the meeting with the Australian
official, pointing for the need to a comprehensive approach by all members of
the European Union to bear equal responsibility in the reception of refugees.
They also discussed the tragic humanitarian situation in Syria, while Marwa
praised the role of Australia at adopting the UN Security Council Resolution
2139. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
Russia, US clash at UN over parallel Syria air campaigns
Russia and the United States faced off at the United Nations on Wednesday over
parallel air campaigns in Syria, with both sides claiming legitimacy for their
actions but differing over the role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Russia launched its first air strikes in Syria since the Middle Eastern
country's civil war began in 2011, giving only an hour's notice to the United
States, which has led a coalition of Western allies and regional states that has
been flying missions there for a year.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Security Council that Moscow
would liaise with the U.S.-led coalition, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
later said military-to-military talks could begin as early as Thursday.
But a joint media appearance by the two could not paper over their differences,
with Moscow saying it was hitting Islamic State militants and Washington
questioning this and suggesting Russia's aim was to prop up Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad.
The United States, France and other allies questioned whether the Russian planes
had hit Islamic State positions, saying they were in fact aimed at
Western-backed rebels who have fought both Islamic State and Assad's forces.
Kerry told the Security Council that the U.S.-led coalition would keep flying,
saying it had done so on Wednesday. ''These strikes will continue,'' he said.
The Russian attacks occurred before Moscow and Washington had begun agreed talks
on averting clashes between different militaries in the theater of battle. U.S.
President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, meeting at the
United Nations on Monday, had agreed that such consultations would take place.
Putin, speaking in Moscow, said the air strikes would be limited and said he
hoped Assad was ready for political reform and a compromise for the sake of his
country and people.
Growing big-power tension
Reflecting growing tension between the big powers, Kerry phoned Lavrov early on
Wednesday to tell him the United States regarded the strikes as dangerous, a
U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Homs area attacked by Russian planes is crucial to Assad's control of
western Syria.
Insurgent control of that area would bisect the Assad-held west, separating
Damascus from coastal cities where Russia has military facilities.
''We must not and will not be confused in our fight against ISIL with support for
Assad,'' Kerry said, using an acronym for Islamic State. ''ISIL itself cannot be
defeated as long as Bashar al-Assad remains president of Syria.''
But he said if Russia was genuinely committed to fighting Islamic State, ''we are
prepared to welcome those efforts and to find a way to deconflict our operations
and thereby multiply the military pressure on ISIL and affiliated groups.'' The
head of the Syria opposition, Khaled Khoja, said the Russian air strikes had hit
four districts, killing 36 civilians, but no rebel fighters.
''Russia is intervening not to fight ISIL, but to prolong the life of Assad and
support the continuous killing on a daily basis of civilians,'' Khoja told
Reuters in an interview, adding that the areas targeted were where opposition
groups had defeated Islamic State a year ago.
Russian draft
Russia circulated a draft Security Council resolution that Putin has said would
be ''aimed at coordinating the actions of all forces that confront Islamic
State.'' Lavrov said it would be discussed over the next month.
The draft, seen by Reuters, welcomes efforts of countries fighting Islamic
State, al Qaeda, Nusrah Front and other linked groups and calls upon them ''to
coordinate their activities with the consent of the States, in the territories
of which such activities are conducted.''
The U.S.-led coalition informed Syria when it began air strikes a year ago but
did not seek permission. Coalition members say they are acting in collective
self-defense at the request of neighboring Iraq. Russia has justified its
strikes by saying Syria requested its military assistance.
The Russian draft resolution also asked states combating extremist groups in the
region to submit periodic reports to the council on their activities.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris would only support the
proposal if three conditions were met. He said Russia needed to state clearly
who the enemy was, push Assad to stop indiscriminate barrel bombing of
civilians, and make clear that Assad would not be in government after a
political transition.
Russian Airstrikes Are a Bold Aggression, Fuel Terror, and Undermine a Political
Solution
Press Release
Syrian Coalition
September 30th, 2015
The Syrian Coalition strongly condemns the brutal bombing carried out by Russian
warplanes on civilian targets in rural Homs and rural Hama, causing civilian
casualties; including women and children.
While this aggression by Russia is not justified, violates Syria's sovereignty
and is illegal, it calls to question Moscow's international commitments,
including the commitment to the Geneva I Communique, which prohibits the
escalation of violence and calls for taking action to reduce violence.
The Russian air strikes, which killed about 40 people today, together with
reports about Russia deploying special military units to military facilities and
airbases in Syria in preparation for ground operations, represents bold
aggression against the Syrian people in all its components. While they reinforce
the belief that Moscow has become a partner to the Assad regime in committing
war crimes and crimes against humanity and against Syrians, they undermine
Russia's claims about seeking a political solution and about commitment to
international law. Russia is in fact popping up a crumbling regime that has lost
all legitimacy to rule.
We in the Syrian Coalition hold Russia legally and morally responsible for
civilian casualties in Syria, an aggression that was carried out in partnership
with the Iranian regime. We stress that Syrians have the right to
internationally sue Russia for this aggression.
The Arab League must condemn this aggression, and convene an emergency session
to discuss its implications. The UN Security Council must also act to oblige
Moscow to immediately stop its aggression and fully withdraw its forces from all
Syrian territory.
The world should realize that the Russian government's aggressive behavior
directly fuels the forces of terror, especially as it follows in the footsteps
of the Assad regime in the targeting of civilians to kill and displace them.
Putin sees the Middle East as another region on his global chessboard that can
serve as a spoiler of Western policy.
In the late 1970s, the Soviet Union sent dozens of "advisers" to Afghanistan. By
the early 1980s, these advisers turned into hundreds of thousands of troops who
fought in a war that, in part, brought the Soviet Union to its knees.
Today, Russia makes no secret of the fact that it has "advisers" in Syria. Even
more, Russian warships have been called into Syrian ports, and Russian warplanes
and helicopters can be spotted on Syrian airfields. Social media accounts have
shown Russian soldiers on the ground in Syria. There have even been reports that
Russia is building a military base in Syria.
The actual number of Russian troops and the extent of their involvement in
day-to-day combat in Syria are not yet clear. If there is a large number of
Russian soldiers on the ground, their presence will not be kept a secret for
long.
The Kremlin's soldiers in Syria are bound to stick out like a sore thumb. Even
in eastern Ukraine - which shares so many similar cultural, linguistic, ethnic,
and religious traits with Russia - Moscow has failed spectacularly at keeping
the presence of its troops a secret.
Russia's goals in Syria
When US President Barack Obama said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has
to go", he did nothing to back up his words; when Russian President Vladimir
Putin said that Assad will remain in power, he did everything to back up his
words.
Obama's weakness and Putin's willingness to show strength have led us to the
situation we find in Syria today.
Russia's ultimate goal in Syria is the preservation of the Assad regime. If
Assad goes, Russia stands to lose its only naval base in the Mediterranean Sea
at the port city of Tartous. As Russia's only port in the Mediterranean - and
its only toehold in the Middle East - this would be a major blow to Moscow.
Even if Assad hangs onto power, he will never control all of Syria as it once
was. Putin knows this. Therefore, it is likely Moscow will help shore up Assad's
defences in the region around Latakia - where he maintains his strongest
support. Luckily for Putin, this is also where his naval base is located.
Middle East spoiler
Putin sees the Middle East as another region on his global chessboard that can
serve as a spoiler of Western policy. Deep down, Putin does not care if the
Middle East burns or if thousands die. For Putin, the perception of the US
failing in the Middle East is a victory for him. Keeping a naval base for Russia
is merely an added bonus.
Assad is happy to play host to the Russians, no matter what the cost.
There has been a lot of focus on Iran being the primary guarantor of the Assad
regime's survival. Though Tehran plays an important role in this regard, it
should not be overstated.
While Iran can fund a war in Syria using proxies, it is only Russia that has the
national resources and the expeditionary military capability to intervene in a
meaningful way to prop up the regime.
More importantly, for Damascus, only Moscow has the right to veto on the UN
Security Council that can delay, block, or frustrate international efforts that
could result in the removal of Assad.
Russia acts, the West reacts
Obama believes that saying something is the same as doing it - that delivering a
speech is the same as implementing policy. This is the main difference between
Obama and Putin, and between the West and Russia.
Russia acts and then the West reacts.
This is a common theme between the West and Russia all over the world: With
recent developments in eastern Ukraine, the testing of NATO, the Iranian nuclear
deal, and now, Russian ground troops in Syria, it is clear that Russia has a
strategy to achieve its national objectives. The West does not.
Until there is real leadership in the West, clear goals are defined, and a
coherent and unified strategy is developed to achieve those goals, Russia will
continue to run rings around the West in places like Ukraine and Syria.
How much Russian blood and treasure Putin is willing to spend to prop up Assad
and keep its naval base in Syria remains to be seen; but one thing is for
certain: Russia is playing a deadly game in Syria.
Although the situation in Syria is, in many ways, different from Afghanistan in
the late 1970s and '80s, there are some notable parallels between the Soviets'
incremental escalation in Afghanistan and what Russia is doing today in Syria.
Before the Russian people realise what is going on, "advisers" quickly turn into
soldiers, and soldiers quickly come home in body bags.
With the Russian economy in tatters, oil prices down, and the frozen conflict in
eastern Ukraine, can Putin really afford another military adventure abroad?
The answer is he can, but the poor Russian people cannot.
Luke Coffey is a research fellow specialising in transatlantic and Eurasian
security at a Washington DC-based think-tank. He previously served as a special
adviser to the British defence secretary and was a commissioned officer in the
United States Army.
'Russian raids in Syria harming civilians, not Daesh'
DUBAI: Russian airstrikes in Syria had caused civilian casualties while failing
to target the hard-line Daesh militants, a top Saudi diplomat said on Thursday
as he sought an end to the raids.
In remarks at the United Nations in New York, Saudi Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi
suggested that both Russia and Assad's other main ally Iran cannot not claim to
fight Daesh ''terrorism'' while at the same time supporting the ''terrorism'' of the
Bashar Assad regime.
Al-Mouallimi expressed ''profound
concern regarding the military operations which Russian forces have carried out
in Homs and Hama today, places where ISIS forces are not present. These attacks
led to a number of innocent victims. We demand it stop immediately and not
recur.''
''As for those countries that have claimed recently to join in
the fight against ISIS terrorism, they can't do that at the same time as they
support the terrorism of the Syrian regime and its terrorist foreign allies like
Hezbollah and the Quds Force and other terrorist sectarian groups,'' he added in
comments broadcast by Al-Arabiya television.
ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIL. It
is also widely known among Arabs as Daesh.
Lebanon's Hezbollah Shiite militia openly fights on behalf of
Assad's government, and the Quds Force, part of Iran's elite Revolutionary
Guards, is also widely believed to be aiding Damascus.
Russia on Wednesday launched its first air strikes in Syria
since the country's civil war began in 2011, giving an hour's notice to the
United States, which has led a coalition of Western allies and regional states
flying missions for a year.
Russia's move looks likely to chill a tentative detente begun
this year between Russia and Saudi Arabia despite their backing for opposing
sides in Syria's conflict and their differences over the issue of Iran's nuclear
program.
In June, the atmosphere appeared to improve when Deputy Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman led a delegation of Saudi officials to Moscow and
signed military and energy agreements.
The trip raised speculation about closer ties between the two
countries. But that prospect now appears in question.
In an interview with Al-Hayat newspaper published on Thursday,
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said the two countries had many common
interests on which to develop ties, but he noted continuing ''lack of agreement''
on Syria.
''I visited Russia, as did other Gulf officials. You know of
the (positive) atmosphere that prevailed two months ago,'' Jubeir was quoted as
saying. ''But all of a sudden Russia stepped up its military role in Syria and
announced its political position backing Assad.''
Russia and China vetoed in February 2012 a UN Security Resolution drafted by
Saudi Arabia and backed by the West that Assad should step down.
It remains unclear whether Gulf Arab states would want the
Syrian rebels they fund to engage Russian forces in battle — a prospect that
would further upset the regional balance of power.
''The solution (in Syria) does not depend on Russia,'' Jubeir
told Al-Hayat. ''The principle is, firstly, that there is no role for Bashar
Assad in Syria's future. The second principle is to maintain the civil and
military institutions in Syria in order to avoid chaos.''
A third point was to form a transitional council of all
Syrians to help Syria move to a new stage, he said.
Obama Urges World To
Unite Against Russian Aggressor
On the Russian problem, he said the following (we
quote from the full script of his speech):
- "Hi, everybody. America is leading the effort to
rally the world against Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Along with our allies, we will support the people of
Ukraine as they develop their democracy and economy.
And this week, I called upon even more nations to join
us on the right side of history".
We would like to note from our part, that it is an
empty rhetoric. America still has not started
bombardments of Russian military and economic targets
in Russia.
Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Germany Steinmeier
also spoke on Saturday in the framework of an empty
democratic rhetoric, instead of bombarding Moscow. He
called the Russian annexation of Crimea a crime - this
characteristic is shared by America and EU consisting
of 28 countries.
Steinmeier accused Moscow of unilaterally changing the
existing borders in Europe and pointed out that thus
Moscow broke international law, reports the propaganda
Voice of America.
Meanwhile, the departing NATO Secretary General
Rasmussen published in a London newspaper of the KGB-FSB
general, Russian patriot Lebedev, The Independent, an
article.
Rasmussen writes about Russia, in addition to now
prevailing in all Western media anti-Islamic
propaganda in support of American bombardments of
Syrian Mujahideen, which is ignored by the media in
Eastern Europe due to the lack of interest:
- "We never agreed with Russia on missile defence.
Russia's aggression against Ukraine has challenged our
vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace... Unless
Russia changes course, there can be no business as
usual, and I expect that engagement with Moscow will
remain a considerable challenge for the foreseeable
future".
Meanwhile, American ambassador to Ukraine, Pyatt, said
in a Kiev newspaper "Den/Day" that America would lift
sanctions against Russia only if Russia returns Crimea
to Ukraine. However, statements of American
ambassadors, not backed by statements of their
presidents, mean little.
More than once, Mikhail Zub was driven to the verge of
failure in his attempts over the past 20 years to
transform a rotting Soviet fish processing plant in
the Arctic city of Murmansk into a viable business.
Yet things have never looked so bleak as they do now.
The factory lost access to supplies from Norway
overnight when Russia banned western food imports last
month in retaliation against Ukraine-related
sanctions.
Mr Zub is trying to save his company by suing the
government over the ban. “He is a stubborn man, but we
don’t think it will work. The plant is going to die,”
says Tatyana, a Murmansk resident whose husband was
sent home because the plant is idling.
Things look grim not only in Murmansk. In its sixth
month under western sanctions, the Russian economy is
starting to show the strain. The World Bank has warned
in a new report that if sanctions remain in place, the
economy could contract 0.9 per cent next year and 0.4
per cent in 2016.
Fixed-asset investment, which was already stagnant
last year, has fallen 2.5 per cent in the first eight
months of this year. BCS Prime, the largest
independent broker on the Moscow Stock Exchange,
forecasts inflation to reach 8 per cent by the end of
the year.
This toxic mix has slowed consumer demand, which had
long supported at least some growth. Due to inflation
and slower loan expansion, real income growth has
slowed sharply in the first eight months of this year.
“I expect to see a drop in real incomes in 2014 and a
small growth in 2015,” Vladimir Tikhomirov, BCS
Prime’s chief economist, predicts.
The automobile market has been one of the most drastic
indicators. New car sales dropped 26 per cent in
August compared with the same month last year,
according to the Association of European Business in
Russia. New car sales are down 12 per cent this year
compared with the first eight months of 2013.
While luxury brands had been somewhat insulated from
the drop, that appears to be changing. Last month,
only two Bentleys were sold in all of Russia, compared
with 27 in February, according to industry executives.
Some observers believe the souring sentiment among
ordinary Russians could eventually reach beyond the
economy. The last time real incomes nearly ground to a
halt was in 2011, the year when thousands of
Muscovites took to the streets to protest against
President Vladimir Putin.
According to independent pollster Levada Center, the
five top things Russians fear most according to an
August poll are economic: rising prices, poverty, a
growing income gap, an economic crisis and
unemployment. Evgeny Gontmakher, an economist and
political commentator, warns that worsening trends in
all these areas are calling Russia’s social and
political stability into question.
Turning the ship round will be difficult. “A return to
higher growth in Russia will depend on solid private
investment growth and a lift in consumer sentiment,
which will require creating a predictable policy
environment and addressing the unresolved structural
reform agenda,” the World Bank concluded in its
report.
None of that is happening. Rather than pressuring Mr
Putin to change course on Ukraine - as western policy
makers had hoped - the sanctions have so far prompted
the president’s inner circle to close ranks.
Vladimir Yevtushenkov, one of the country’s leading
industrialists, is being kept under house arrest in a
case believed to be driven by the desire of state oil
company Rosneft to gain control of Bashneft, one of Mr
Yevtushenkov’s assets. Separately, the government has
pledged to concentrate its response to western
sanctions on supporting those hit by the punitive
measures.
“The investment climate in Russia has actually
improved,” says Alexander Lebedev, a former
billionaire, with bitter irony. “The Russian economy -
that’s increasingly state companies, and they are
being taken care of.”
First in line are the major state banks Sberbank, VTB
and Vnesheconombank, and the country’s largest energy
firms, all now almost completely barred from western
capital markets.
The central bank has been instructed to use its
monetary reserves to refinance maturing hard-currency
debt of Sberbank, VTB and VEB. Other groups are also
asking for help, led by Rosneft with a request for
Rbs1,500bn. That is almost half of the entire National
Welfare Fund, the oil revenue-fed rainy day reserve.
These bailout requests are triggering comparisons with
the 2009 financial crisis, to which Moscow responded
with a $ 36bn bank bailout and yet still suffered a
severe recession that year. “Looking at it from the
angle of how much state support is needed, this could
become at least as bad as 2008/2009,” a senior
Sberbank executive says.
In an assessment paper on the Russian economy, EU
economic officials in Moscow warn that the three big
banks alone will need $ 75bn from the central bank
over the next 18 months, draining its reserves
.
Combined with the requirement to keep at least $ 180bn
of foreign exchange reserves to cover six months of
imports, that would leave the central bank with just $
115bn to defend the currency in case of speculative
attacks or sudden capital flight. In early March, the
bank converted $ 11.3bn into roubles in a single day.
“It therefore cannot be excluded that Russia’s
macro-financial situation over time could become one
of financial distress,” the paper concludes.
It seems unlikely, then, that Mr Zub will see any
relief to his troubles, since Mr Putin has bigger fish
to fry. Last week, the president warned private
companies not to jump on the bailout bandwagon: “They
have to understand that they must bear the burden of
all issues arising not as a result of political
developments, but in the course of their economic and
financial activity alone.”
Real Terrorists Are
The Russians, Lithuanian President Says
In an interview to the influential mainstream American
daily, President Grybauskaite said that there was a
vacuum of leadership in Europe, which was why Vladimir
Putin, president of Russia, was allowed to do what he
pleased.
"Russian troops are still on the territory of Ukraine.
That means that Europe and the world are allowing
Russia to be a country which is not only threatening
its neighbors but is also organizing a war against its
neighbors. It is ...international terrorism,"
Grybauskaite said.
"The problem is that Putin’s Russia today is ready and
willing to go to war. Europe and the West are not
ready and not willing to go to war. There is no
leadership in Europe or in the world able to stop
Putin. Afterwards, we will be surprised that new
territories are taken, that new countries are
partitioned, and it will be a lot more costly and too
late maybe to solve it."
Unless Putin is stopped now, he will go further, the
Lithuanian president thinks. And, she adds, Article 5
of the NATO treaty is not enough to deter him.
"Everybody declares that NATO’s Article 5 will take
place. But it will not stop Putin from his plans if he
does not see real actions from the European and world
leaders. They are only talking. We need to stop him in
Ukraine. And until now, that is not understood. That
is why I am saying that in Europe today, leadership is
taken by Putin, not by the West."
Russia's policies are nothing short of terrorism,
Grybauskaite tells The Washington Post: "Russia is
terrorizing its neighbors and using terrorist
methods."
A Bilderberg Group veteran, senior associate at the
Moscow Carnegie Center and author of 'Putin’s Russia’
Lilia Shevtsova published an article in The Financial
Times on a forthcoming defeat of Russia's tyrant Putin.
The article says:
Tactical victories often end in strategic defeats.
That is what Putin is in for. The Russian president’s
calculations appeared correct at first: the west
swallowed the annexation of Crimea, and the Ukrainians
did not resist for fear of all-out war. That put
Russia on the path of military-patriotic mobilisation,
enabling Putin to claim absolute power without
resorting to mass repressions. Yet by turning Russia
into a war state, Putin has unleashed the process he
cannot stop and made himself hostage to suicidal
statecraft.
He cannot now exit the war paradigm without risking a
loss of power. For now he makes deals and wears a
peacemaker’s hat, but he will inevitably return to the
besieged fortress. He can rule only by subjugating the
nation in a way that only war can justify. Russians
will remember their economic problems soon enough.
Putin has dismantled the post-cold war settlement that
allowed him to engage economically with the west in
the interests of the Russian petrostate, while keeping
Russian society closed to western influence. His
aggression has ensured Russia’s Ukrainian neighbour
will forever look west.
The peace plan Putin announced in September, which was
instrumental in securing a ceasefire, is an attempt to
formalise the new status quo. The alternative, the
Kremlin makes clear, is continued bloodshed. It will
not relinquish the occupied territories, and its offer
of a deal is backed by dark threats from a country
that still possesses one of the world’s biggest
nuclear arsenals.
The west dare not call the Russian incursion an act of
aggression. They talk euphemistically of a “political
solution” to the Ukrainian crisis, which means that
the Kremlin’s interests should be taken into account.
The Nato summit held in Wales this month demonstrated
that the alliance is not prepared to do much more than
condemn Russia.
The promises of lethal aid for Ukraine that have
apparently been made by some Nato countries will not
shift the military balance - though both sides have an
interest in pretending otherwise. Western sanctions
will not force Putin to backtrack. The west has proved
that it is neither ready to include Ukraine in its
security umbrella, nor to live up to their commitments
under international law as guarantors of Ukrainian
territorial integrity. A New Russia (or “Novorossiya”)
on the territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists
is on its way to becoming a reality. The partition of
Ukraine is silently being ratified by the rest of the
world.
Does this mean that Putin is winning? Just the
reverse: he is again miscalculating. He thinks he can
do what other Russian leaders have done before -
subdue his subjects by putting Russia in a state of
permanent confrontation with the outside world. But
the propaganda that plays endlessly on Russian
television channels will not mesmerise them for long.
Russian society will only accept short and victorious
war. It is not prepared for bloodshed.
Few are willing to die for Putin’s regime. News that
hundreds of Russian soldiers had been killed in
Ukraine and their bodies secretly buried in Russia has
already begun to undermining the patriotic mood.
Soon, declining living standards will also begin to
chafe, and Russians will start asking why they are
suddenly so much worse off. Already, 37 per cent of
Russians believe that the interests of individuals
should trump the interests of the state. Putin is not
the new Stalin. He cannot mobilise Russia for a great
war.
The irony is that "Novorossiya" will soon become a
problem for the Russian president. The Kremlin will
have to contend with heavily armed separatists,
embittered by their failure to secure a stipend from
Moscow, just as the tide of protest begins to rise at
home.
Moscow will have to keep its heroes at arm’s length.
Those who are bravely fighting for a “Russian world”
could quickly become a threat to Putin if they were
allowed into Russia proper. They are welcome there,
but only in coffins.
Address of Emir of
Islamic Emirate of Caucasus to scholars of Muslim
Community
Praise be to Allah, who sent His messenger with the
instruction and the religion of Truth, to exalt it
above all other religions, and Allah is sufficient as
a witness. And Who in each time period when there is
no messengers, left scholars among peoples, who are
upgrading those features of this religion that are
gradually lost by the people.
I testify that there is no true deity besides Allah,
the One having no partner or associate, and I bear
witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
This is the message to the scholars of the Muslim
Community in general, and in particular, to our
sheikhs, to our crowns, to delight to our eyes, to our
beloved brothers Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi,
Hani al-Sibai, Tariq Abdul Halim, Abu Qatada al-Filistini,
Abu al-Munzir al-Shinqiti.
Peace of Allah be to you and His mercy and blessings.
In the beginning we want to declare and testify before
Allah, that we love you for the sake of Allah and
recognize your high dignity.
And we ask Allah, may He be Exalted and Glorified,
that He brought us together with you on the couches of
the truth near the Almighty Lord.
It is a great blessing and a huge beautiful gift, that
in these times when over most people took over
ignorance, passion and aversion to light and truth,
Allah has made you one of those, who instruct to the
straight path, and from sincere persistence scholars,
made you the exemplars for this Community.
And we praise Allah for this grace.
I swear to Allah, O our sheikhs, only Allah Almighty
knows how much pride and joy you brought to us and to
the youth of the Community, and how you restored hope
in our hearts, exalting this religion and fighting its
enemies by your governing speeches and your fatwas,
for that you are not afraid of anyone's accusations,
as long as they lead to the contentment of the Lord,
may He be Exalted and Glorified and help His religion
We did not know what faith and doctrine of Oneness
was, and could not distinguish between truth and
falsehood until we read your books, your research, and
fatwas, especially about recent events.
I personally do not miss anything of what write
sheikhs Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi
from books, studies and articles, published on the
Internet, as well as addresses and lectures, and those
fatwas and issues that are present on the website
Minbar at-Taw?id wa'l-Jihad.
And I got a lot of benefit from the lessons, lectures
and sermons of Sheikh Hani al-Sibai, and I have not
missed any of it, which was published on the Internet
and on the website Al-Maqrizi.
Allah alone knows how all this has helped me in
understanding the texts of previous generations of
imams and understanding of the current situation.
May Allah reward you for us and for Islam with the
best reward.
You are the true heirs of the prophets and the example
for this Commnity. We believe you so - and your
account is with Allah.
We in our jihad rely on you and follow you, and so do
not forget us, do not leave us without your advice,
instruction and guidance, if it is possible and not
too difficult for you.
You will find in us, if Allah wills, ears of listeners
and hearts who hear the truth, to which they are
called upon.
We ask Allah, may He be Exalted and Glorified, to
strengthen us and you in the manifested truth, and use
us to help His religion and to fight against His
enemies, and that He has completed our business with
martyrdom on His way.
And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
From i-qooqaz, Agencies, Kavkaz Center, EsinIslam.Com
& Several News Outlets
Dagestani Muslims
Exposed To Russkies' Terror For 6 Days
In the settlement of Vremenny, located near the
village of Gimry, Muslims have been subjected to
Russkies' terror in a so-called anti-terror operation
for 6 days already.
Mass searches, threats, robbery are common place. All
that is carried out under the pretext of a "search for
militants".
On the first day of the invasion, Russkies seized 4
locals. Their fate is still not known. Relatives were
first told that they were taken to the provincial
capital of Shamilkala (former Makhachkala), and then
that their relatives "escaped".
This statement of infidels alarmed relatives very
much. They fear that the hostages were simply killed.
Local residents report that at night there were
several explosions and then a shooting, but the
shooting was one-sided. Relatives of the kidnapped do
not exclude that the corpses of their beloved ones
could be throw somewhere near the village and then
declared militants that “resisted”.
All the men are middle-aged. Their names are
Magomedzagid, Sultanbeg, Murtazali and Haji, 40, 30,
60, and 60 years old, respectively.
The night before, Russian invaders broke into the
houses of the kidnapped locals and destroyed all the
furniture. Terror and violence in the village is
ongoing. Vremenny is under siege.
Russian Agriculture
Struggles To Meet Self-sufficiency Challenge
The harvest workers at Sovkhoz Lenina carry the apples
to the trailer one bucket at a time. Soon the ripe
load piles up under the balmy sun, ready for customers
in nearby Moscow, who are hungry for fresh, healthy,
homegrown produce, writes The Financial Times.
Since the Russian government banned food imports from
western countries earlier this month in retaliation
for sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, Moscow has been
trying to persuade consumers that domestic produce is
better and telling farmers that Russian agriculture’s
time has come.
“We are a country that can and must feed itself - and
not only feed itself but supply other countries,” said
Dmitry Medvedev, prime minister, last week.
But this goal appears elusive. Although the Russian
Federation has one of the largest areas of arable land
per capita in the world, the country relies on imports
for up to 40 per cent of its food supplies. Farmers
say it would take years of hard work and huge,
wide-ranging investments to change that - a feat few
believe will be achieved.
“That Polish apple farmers are pulling their hair out
over the import ban does not help us - the embargo
will not last long enough for us to benefit,” says
Pavel Grudinin, director of Sovkhoz Lenina, a former
state farm. “Instead of Poland, we will now compete
with Chile. And compete we can’t.”
Despite the upbeat message about forthcoming
self-sufficiency hammered home by state media,
government experts agree.
“Today in Russia we have the unique situation that
good, ecologically-grown apples can’t fetch nearly the
same price as imported ones,” says Dmitry Yuriev,
deputy minister of agriculture. “Up to half of the
fruit production from small farms and 20 per cent of
industrial vegetable production just rots away.”
The root of the problem lies in the country’s long,
tortuous transformation from its communist past. While
the Soviet Union prided itself in self-sufficiency, it
was achieved with low yields and little choice for
consumers. Since the USSR’s collapse in 1991, the
total area under cultivation in the country has
dropped from over 90m hectares to just 73m ha.
When Russia discovered capitalism in the 1990s, its
new entrepreneurs focused on quick profits in trade,
mining and financial services. State farms were broken
up, but few could raise the money needed to modernise
their production methods and systems bringing goods to
market. Many peasants left their land to find work in
booming Moscow.
The government has had some success in addressing
these problems. With subsidised financing through
state banks and leasing companies, it has helped
rebuild some of the pork and poultry production
capacity lost since the fall of communism. Between
2008 and 2012, poultry production grew 60 per cent and
pork production 36 per cent.
But Moscow is wary of moving too fast. Mr Yuriev says
boosting grain or pork production too quickly might
trigger price drops, creating financial difficulties
for the investors the government is trying to
encourage.
Instead, the government now wants to modernise the
fruit, vegetable and milk sector. The main reason for
the big losses and low yields in fruit and vegetable
production is the absence of a nationwide modern
logistics and storage infrastructure.
Mr Yuriev says the restive North Caucasus republic of
Dagestan could supply a wide range of high-quality
fruit and vegetables that are now imported. But much
of Dagestan’s produce is processed instead - into
juice concentrates, for example - because there is no
infrastructure for storing and transporting fresh
products.
The agriculture ministry is developing plans for a
nationwide wholesale logistics system, which could
consist of about 15 hubs and be operated with state
participation. But this is unlikely to be in place
quickly.
Another new programme will focus on organising milk
farms into co-operatives that can help with quality
control, logistics and marketing. It will not be a
quick fix either - Mr Yuriev says transforming the
sector will take up to eight years.
“We are very happy that the state is finally paying
attention to us,” says Andrei Danilenko, president of
the National Union of Milk Producers. “The question is
not whether demand for milk products can be met but
whether we can build a viable industry - that is not a
question of national pride but economics.”
The industry body complains that Russia’s agricultural
subsidies per hectare are a fraction of those in the
EU and demands that Moscow double its subsidies.
While the low level of subsidies is recognised across
the industry and even by the government, many small
farmers believe that even big, new government pledges
for support will be useless.
“The government has never done anything for
agriculture other than put obstacles in our way,”
complains Vasily Melnichenko, who heads a small farm
in the Urals. A veteran former state farm manager, Mr
Melnichenko has seen agricultural enterprises he
headed been broken up twice by what he says were
bandits.
The small vegetable and rabbit farm he now runs cannot
get bank loans and pays three times more for
electricity than the aluminium plant nearby, which
belongs to the group of Oleg Deripaska, one of the
country’s richest oligarchs.
Such troubles are common for small farms, as they are
for private businesses across most industrial sectors.
Mr Melnichenko is pessimistic that anything will
change. “The government does not want to help us
survive, in fact they want us to vacate the land so
big business can come and extract resources from our
land as well,” he says. “That is what Russia will
always do: export oil and gas.”
A pilot on Russian national airline Aeroflot used a
cockpit message to passengers to brand Ukrainians
'filth' while flying over their country. The KGB-run
carrier did not apologise for the outburst.
A Slovak diplomat tweeted a complaint on 9 August
about the extraordinary language from the plane's
unnamed pilot on a flight from Moscow to Vienna.
'En route by Aeroflot to VIE, captain to passengers:
'We fly over remnants of Ukraine, where Banderovtsi
and other fifth lives,' wrote Martin Kaco, Counsellor
at the political department of Slovak embassy in
Moscow.
The pilot's words referred to Stepan Bandera,an
official Ukrainian national hero who bravely fought
against Russian invaders of the country in 1940s and
1950s.
In 1959, in Munich, Germany, Mr Bandera was
assassinated by Russian KGB thugs as they did with Mr.
Litvinenko in London in 2006.
According to VDagestan, a fighting took place with
strong explosions in Untsukulsky district, in the
settlement of Vremenny, adjacent to the village of
Gimry.
The fighting occurred in the "orchard" of Russian
invaders who also settled in Gimryafter being sent to
the settlement of Vremenny. Nothing is known about the
losses on both sides.
We would like to recall that two years ago, invaders
deployed their military gangs in the Untsukulsky
district, in the village of Gimry. Forcing all Muslims
to leave their homes and move into tents, erected in
the nearby settlement of Vremenny, they plundered the
property of Muslims, blew up some houses, destroyed
livestock and crops, leaving dirt and damage behind
them. They placed weapons when nobody saw them and
mined empty houses. They kidnapped many Muslims and
fabricated cases against them.
Among other things, the Russkies destroyed a mosque
and desecrated sacred books.
In less than three years later, the scenario was
repeated. This time in the settlement of Vremenny from
which Muslims were forcibly evicted to Gimry, and
demanded to leave their houses for devastation by the
invaders.
There are photos and videos showing traces of looting
by the Russkies. The first damages are seen there, and
apparently that's only the beginning.
In Chechnya Puppets'
Chief Thugs Kidnap A Girl In Headscarf, Beat And Rape
Her
In recent days, thugs of the Russian puppets' chief
Kadyrov increased repressions and terror against girls
in hijabs/headscarves. According to reports coming
from Chechnya, Russian minions carry out real raids on
girls wearing "wrong" headscarves. Another surge of
anti-Islamic terror has been going on for several
days.
The "suspicious" are halted in the street, their cell
phones, bags are checked, and they are immediately
interrogated under duress.
A few girls, who according to Kadyrovites, were
dressed "the Wahhabi way" were caught during another
raid on Monday afternoon. They were taken to one of
police dens, where they were subjected to beatings and
humiliation.
One of the girls was specifically disliked by Russian
henchmen, because in addition to the headscarf, clips
with Islamic preaching of Islam were found in her cell
phone.
The girl was subjected to most brutal beatings and
sexual abuse. As a result of severe torture and abuse,
the girl fell into coma. She was taken to an intensive
care unit of the city hospital, where she died last
night.
Women in headscarves are kidnapped by Kadyrovites in
broad daylight in front of hundreds of people. No one
dares to stand up for Muslim women.
It is to be mentioned that the minions have a long lead in their brutal war
against the headscarf, banning "dressing Arab way". So Chechen girls and women
were warned on undesirability of wearing black, and covering of the chin is
regarded by minions as propaganda.
The politician, who is often dubbed the Putin's
mouthpiece, threatens Poland and the Baltic States
with carpet bombings.
According to him, Putin has made a decision to start
the WWII, and whatever plans NATO and Brussels have
and whatever directives Barack Obama signs, they won't
have any power. “All questions of war and peace in
general and in particular those relating to Ukraine
will be solved by one person, like previously by Tsar
Nicolas II and Josef Stalins in World Wars 1 and 2, by
a Russian Ruler, this time the head of the Russian
Federation,” he said.
He made the statement on the air of Russia 24 TV
channel. The vice speaker of the Russian Duma,
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, commended on tensions between
Russia and the West and began to threaten the Free
World admitting that it is the Putin's Plan.
Zhirinovsky promised carpet bombings and complete
destruction of Poland and the Baltic States.
“The Baltic States and Poland are doomed,” he said.
“They will be wiped out. Nothing will remain there.
The heads of these dwarf states should think who they
are. Of course, nothing threatens America, because it
is far, but Eastern European countries risk to be
destroyed completely. This is their fault, because we
cannot accept planes and missiles to be launched to
Russia from their territories. We need to destroy them
30 minutes before the launch.”
Russian Pope Thugs
Threaten Humanity With WWIII
A leading pope thug in the KGB
gang of "Russian Orthodox Church" has told a Moscow
newspaper that he "believes" the world is on the brink
of a third world war.
“The current situation is increasingly reminiscent of
that in the run-up to the First World War,” said a KGB
Metropolitan General Hilarion, the chairman of the
"Russian Orthodox Church’s Department of External
Relations".
“Various countries create and maintain, through mass
media, an image of the enemy,” the KGB general added.
“And that is one step away from a declaration of
global war", the Russian thug said pretending to
forget a 40-year long Cold War which was far from any
military action and helped much to contain Russian
Bolshevism, and saved the world from Russian slavery.
The past week has been nothing but a string of bad
news for Putin. In the wake of the downing of
Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, almost certainly by
Russia-backed and Russian-led insurgents in Eastern
Ukraine, the United States and the European Union have
mustered the will to impose sanctions that have some
real bite.
Meanwhile, the slow-grinding wheels of justice are
catching up with Putin over old crimes and
misdemeanors. In a landmark decision Monday, the
Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague,
Netherlands ordered Russia to pay $ 50 billion to
former shareholders of Yukos, the oil giant
dismembered and sold off by the Russian government
after its owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, ran afoul of
Putin by refusing to stay out of politics. On
Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights in
Strasbourg, France hit Russia with an additional 1.9
billion euros—over $ 2.5 billion—in compensation to
Yukos shareholders. (If Russia does not start paying
up, its assets abroad can be targeted.) Adding a minor
but stinging insult to injury, the Strasbourg court
also awarded almost $ 40,000 in damages and legal
expenses to Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov
over an improper arrest at a 2010 rally. The money is
a drop in the bucket, but the symbolism matters.
Also on Thursday, Putin’s very own version of Banquo’s
ghost came back to haunt him from England, where a
judge opened a high-level official inquiry into the
2006 radioactive poisoning death of ex-KGB agent
Alexander Litvinenko. (The suspects are Russian
agents, one of them now a member of Putin’s toy
parliament.) British authorities claim the timing has
nothing to do with current events; yet, only a year
ago Home Secretary Theresa May admitted that the
inquiry was stalled partly due to concerns about
“international relations.” International relations
aren’t what they used to be.
There is widespread agreement that Putin stumbled
badly with his plans for “Novorossiya”—the archaic,
Tsarist-era term for Eastern Ukraine that he and his
propagandists have dusted off. After the quick success
in Crimea, met with toothless and fairly muted outrage
from the West, Putin apparently hoped to use the same
modus operandi in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions:
having a motley crew of disaffected locals and Russian
“volunteers” seize power by taking over city and
regional government buildings, hold referendums and
declare independence. His goal may not have been
annexation—a bit too much even for the accommodating
international community to swallow—but gaining enough
leverage to keep Ukraine cowed, demoralized, and unfit
for European Union partnership.
Right now, Putin has several choices:
(1) Ditch the insurgents, seek compromise, and risk
losing face in front of the Russian public whose
nationalist fervor he has whipped up: from
world-defying Protector of Russians Everywhere to
craven sellout on bended knee before the West. (What’s
more, the betrayed insurgents could come back to
foment nationalist unrest within Russia.)
(2) Openly invade Eastern Ukraine on a “peacekeeping”
mission—a scenario rife with obvious potential for
disaster.
(3) Continue unofficially aiding the “Donetsk
Republic” with manpower, firepower and other support,
creating a long-term “frozen conflict” in Eastern
Ukraine. While this would not be as disastrous as open
war, it would still risk even stronger international
backlash, including more sanctions that could severely
hurt not only Russia’s economy but the personal
fortunes of Putin and his crony capitalists. It could
also become a non-option if the Ukrainian army manages
to rout the insurgency.
Meanwhile, there are many signs that Putin’s
billionaire pals are already chafing at the costs of
his adventurism. Even before the latest sanctions,
there were reports, based on German intelligence
sources, of a power struggle in the Kremlin between
hardliners and business leaders.
With his stunning 86 percent approval rating, Putin
may seem to be riding high. But this patriotic and
imperialist fever may prove to be the start of
Putinism’s final crisis.
American magazine Politico published an article
entitled "The End of Vladimir Putin". The author of
the article Ben Judah writes:
- The rebels blew up more than a plane. They blew up
Russia’s winning position in Brussels against
sanctions.
Europeans like to think they play games with others,
but the truth is that for years Russia has been
pulling strings inside the European Union. The boys in
Brussels like to boast about the EU. But they are
ashamed to admit how far the Kremlin had gamed them:
playing them off each other with energy, armaments and
oligarchs.
None of the heavy hitters in Europe were willing to
give these up big, juicy bribes for Ukraine. This is
why serious sanctions have taken so long.
Because for all the fighting talk from the Eurocrats,
Russian money has run rings around its interests, its
cash aiming to cripple any common foreign policy.
Russia is Europe’s third-biggest trade partner.
Moscow’s investments in the continent are enormous:
Russia does over 40 percent of its trade with the
European Union, supplying the bloc with roughly a
quarter of its gas, while receiving more than $ 310
billion in loans from its banks.
Kremlin tactics were simple: use this money to divide
and rule. That’s why Russian diplomats no longer sound
like KGB agents. They never talk ideology; they always
talk about money. Putin’s best diplomats now sound
like clever businessmen:
Does Germany want its own personalized pipeline?
Excellent. Now, we only want Berlin to be a little
more understanding on human rights…
Would France, or Italy, like special military and
energy deals? Fabulous. This could be arranged, but
please, no more lectures on how to behave.
Would Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania or perhaps Austria
like our latest pipeline routed through sovereign
territory? Wonderful. But remember, we need you to
stand up for us in Brussels.
Would London like to be the destination of choice for
our lovely oligarchs? Superb. Now, let’s not look too
closely at offshore finance.
Russian diplomats have been creating covert allies,
especially out of the weaker Eurozone states such as
Italy, Portugal and Spain. These recession-battered
governments wanted nothing more than millions more
Russian tourists or cheaper energy discounts. In
exchange, they have been more than happy to make the
case for Moscow inside the EU.
They were not alone. Russian diplomats went shopping
around southeastern Europe with the proposed South
Stream pipeline - using the proposed route to buy
friends and favors in Brussels out of Austria, Greece,
Hungary, Italy and Slovenia.
But nowhere were they as successful as in Athens and
Nicosia. The European Council on Foreign Relations, a
think-tank network, even went as far as labeling both
Greece and Cyprus as Russian “Trojan horses”.
This should come to little surprise: The Kremlin has
turned Athens into a military partner and Nicosia, the
Greek Cypriot capital, into a money laundering hub,
with roughly $ 150 billion flowing in annually from
Russia.
And surely enough, both Greek and Cypriot delegations
in Brussels have consistently argued the Russian case
on all matters to do with the Black Sea and the South
Caucasus - even vetoing EU proposals to send border
monitors to disputed frontiers in South Ossetia,
Abkhazia and Moldova.
This is why nothing big happened on sanctions before
the downing of MH17. Kremlin sweeteners had divided
the big three players: Britain was refusing to lose
its business with Russian banks; France was determined
not to lose billions in military contracts; and
Germany, which gets 40 percent of its natural gas from
Russia, refused to budge on anything to do with
energy.
The MH17 changed everything. That one rebel error
means Vladimir Putin has gone from unpleasant neighbor
to monster in the court of European public opinion.
Russia’s rebels have achieved what American diplomats
failed to do. Russia’s European diplomacy now lies in
the wreckage of the MH17.
Russia’s economy is already teetering on the edge of
recession. The move to restrict the access of Russian
state banks to Western financial markets will hurt not
only the Kremlin’s coffers, but also the Russian
oligarchs whose companies are tied into them. American
diplomats have now got what they wanted. European
sanctions have spooked Russian elites. They may try
and laugh it off, but behind the scenes they have been
busy calculating how much they stand to lose.
Agencies, Kavkaz Center, EsinIslam.Com
& Several News Outlets
Russian invaders reported that during the storming of
a private house in the village of Kichi-Gamri,
Sergokala district of Dagestan, a Mujahid was
martyred. He allegedly refused to surrender and opened
fire.
The private house in the village of Kichi-Gamri was
cordoned off at about 7 am on Friday.
Minions said the Mujahid was a member of Sergokala
unit of Mujahideen. The enemy claimed there are no
casualties among the minions.
The village of Kichi- Gamri remains cordoned off.
House-to-house searches are conducted. Russkies'
invaders and minions from police and intelligence
gangs act together. During the searches, they look for
"extremist literature", i.e. Islamic books that have
been banned in Russia.
Meanwhile, according to VDagestan, on the eve, a CTO
regime was imposed by the Russkies in Kirov region of
Shamilkala (former Mahachkala).
The Russkies claim "they are looking for unknown
persons who killed five hunters."
It is to be recalled that bodies of five men with
gunshot wounds were found in a wooded area in the
village Shamal of Kirov district of Shamilkala on
September 3.
"All victims were under 35 years old. They were
hunters", a Russian invader claimed.
Invaders are confident that the hunters have been shot
dead by Mujahideen. In turn VDagestan recalls that the
KGB often use hunters to spy on Mujahideenin forests.
On September 2, in the village of Samandar (a suburb
Shamilkala), Russkies from death squads martyred a
local resident, Rajab Mustafayev, born in 1978.
Apparently, Mustafayev was killed as a result of an
anonymous tip-off. His car was shot at in an ambush.
Infidels claimed he had helped the Mujahideen. As
usual in such cases, the Russkies' "story" said that
the car did not stop, when requested, for a standard
check-up of the ID and that the first fire came from
the car.
224 Corpses of
Russia's Minions Sent Back From Ukraine To Dagestan
Sources from Dagestan reported that a few days ago,
224 corpses of Dagestani minions from various special
gangs were sent back from Ukraine to the Caucasus.
Most of them were so-called contractors that have
previously held "a service" in Chechnya - in Shali and
Khankala.
Before they were sent to Ukraine, they were formally
dismissed from their units. Now relatives complain
that authorities do not pay for insurance or benefits
the families.
Two days ago, a funeral took place in the village of
Shagada, the coffins were closed. Eyewitnesses say
that the "load # 200" (official Russian word for
transport of dead bodies) arrived in a terrible
condition. A mother fainted on the spot, ambulances
and "officers in plain clothes" were on duty. At the
funeral, a KGB officer or someone from "government
agencies" was also present to "minimize the leakage of
information".
The sources report that up to 400 Dagestani minions
were sent to Ukraine in total. Almost all of them were
successfully neutralized by Ukranians. Since the
visual identification was impossible in most cases,
and Lugansk and Donetsk are sealed off by Ukrainians
(these are principal areas of Dagestanis'
dislocation), mostmof the thugs were buried in a
nearby park as homeless dogs.
It is reported from Ukraine that hospitals and morgues
in Yenakievo, eastern Ukraine, are full of wounded and
dead bodies of Russian terrorists. There are simply no
places in refrigerators, and corpses are placed in
courtyards or just left on the street. The fact is
that there are only two medical institutions, and the
number of dead militants has already exceeded 500
thugs!
Doctors have to work around the clock, but despite the
fact that all medical staff is involved, it was not
possible to save the lives of all the wounded, and the
number of dead bodies is increasing.
Now the bodies outside the freezers are poured with
cold water to prevent their rapid decomposition and
the spread of different diseases in the city.
Since the city is blocked, it is impossible to take
the dead bodies of mercenaries out of it, and their
comrades are not particularly eager to be engaged in
their burials because they constantly need to flee
from the attacks of the Ukrainian army. Many Russian
terrorists are trying to escape to Gorlovka.
Crimean Muslims
deported by bloody Russians rally against Putin in
Ukraine
"Where are the separatists?" demanded the Crimean
Tatar protester as he stamped his wooden stick on the
ground after bursting into the region's parliament,
reports Bloomberg News.
As calls from the Russian majority in the southern
Ukrainian region of Crimea for incorporation into
Russia grow louder, the Muslim Tatar minority is
growing militant too.
Deported from Crimea in 1944 by the Russians, with
almost half dying from hunger, thirst and disease, the
Tatars support the pro-European opposition that
toppled Kremlin-backed thuggish "president" Yanukovych
after three months of protests.
Their opposition to Russia is already sparking ethnic
conflict as the chief Russian thug Putin sees an
opportunity to play the Crimean secessionist card.
"The Ukrainian people paid with their blood to get rid
of one dictator," said Nebi Sadlaev, 60, another
protester. "We don't want another one." The
demonstrator with the stick, who had a Ukrainian flag
wrapped around himself, rushed up the stairs to the
assembly chamber.
Russian terrorists occupied parliament and the
government building on Thursday in Simferopol, the
regional capital, and raised the Russian flag as
lawmakers in Kiev met to approve a new cabinet after
last week's ouster of Yanukovych. The terrorists
invited lawmakers to hold an emergency session,
Crimean Prime Minister Anatoliy Mogilev's spokeswoman,
Violetta Lisina, said on her Facebook page today.
Expanding
Autonomy
Deputies were let into the legislature in Simferopol
and agreed to hold a May 25 referendum on expanding
the territorial powers of Crimea within Ukraine, the
parliament's spokeswoman, Lyudmila Mokhova, said by
phone. A vote in favor of the new status would mean
that Crimea, home of Russia's pirate Black Sea fleet,
would no longer send its tax revenue to Ukraine's
national budget, she said.
Any attempt to hold a local referendum on Crimea's
status would be illegal under Ukrainian law, which
requires a national plebiscite to declare the
secession of any region, Hatidzhe Mamutova, a lawyer
who is head of the League of Crimean-Tatar Women, said
by phone.
Russia is moving troops and equipment to its western
and central military districts near Ukraine as part of
military exercises, the Russian defense ministry said
in a statement on its website. As many as 90 planes
and 880 tanks are taking part in drills that began
yesterday to test military readiness, according to the
statement.
Armored Trucks
Seven armored personnel carriers belonging to Russia's
pirate Black Sea fleet were seen several kilometers
from Simferopol at about 10 a.m. today, according to
Irina Galinskaya, spokeswoman for Crimean Security
Service. The vehicles turned around and there was "no
conflict," she said by phone.
Several thousand flag-waving protesters from both
sides faced off yesterday outside parliament in
Simferopol. One man died from a heart attack at the
scene and seven others were injured, according to the
Crimean Health Ministry.
The rights of Russian-speakers in Crimea and eastern
Ukraine are already being used as a tool of Kremlin
policy aimed at putting pressure on the Western-backed
interim government, according to Alexander Kliment, an
analyst at New York-based Eurasia Group.
"The Russian authorities and state-controlled media
are portraying the current government in Ukraine as
illegitimate and beholden to fascist groups that
played a lead role" in the protests, and representing
"a threat to the rights of Russian-speakers in
southeastern Ukraine," Kliment said in an e-mailed
research note yesterday.
Unity Strained
Divisions between the Ukrainian-speaking west and
center and the pro-Russia east and south are straining
the country's unity. While the European Union and NATO
have urged leaders to preserve Ukraine's integrity,
Crimea, part of Russia until 1954 and home to its
pirate Black Sea fleet, has become the focus of ethnic
tension.
"I'm concerned about developments in Crimea," North
Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders
Fogh Rasmussen said in a Twitter posting today. He
later told reporters in Brussels: "We have no
information indicating that Russia has any plans to
intervene militarily."
Pro-Russian thugs in Simferopol want a referendum on
Crimea joining Russia. Demonstrators yesterday outside
the parliament chanted "Crimea! Russia!" as they held
up Russian flags.
Ukraine's acting prosecutor-general, Oleg Mahinitskiy,
opened an investigation into the encouragement of
secession in Crimea, Ukrainskaya Pravda reported.
Black Sea
In Sevastopol, site of an illegal naval base for
Russia's pirate Black Sea fleet, the city is in the
hands of pro-Russian thugss which appointed their own
mayor, Russian crook and thief Chaly, at a rally on
Feb. 24. He took office yesterday.
Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said in
a speech today in parliament in Kiev that Russian
forces on Ukrainian territory mustn't break laws and
that he would consider any movement of Russian troops
outside the Black Sea bases as acts of aggression.
Hundreds of Russians massed outside the Sevastopol
city hall building, declaring allegiance to Putin's
KGB Moscow. Militants set up a roadblock with an
armored personnel carrier on the approach to the city
from Simferopol.
"In one minute we became Ukrainian citizens and no one
asked for our opinion" about Ukraine's break from the
Soviet Union in 1991, said Galina Sosluk, 60, the
widow of a Russian thug, naval captain who served 33
years Communism in the Black Sea fleet. "We aren't
immigrants (they are invaders - KC). We were born and
raised here. Neo-fascists are taking over the
government in Ukraine.": the Communist lamented
Deported
Children
Such talk alarms Refat Chubarov, head of the Council
of the Crimean Tatar People, who was born in Samarkand,
Uzbekistan, where his father was deported when he was
aged 13, and his mother when she was 10.
While the Crimean Muslims are still fighting for their
rights, such as more representation in government and
parliament and schooling in their native language,
Ukraine offers more security than Russia, Muslim
representatives say.
"Over the past 250 years, all the misfortunes that
befell the Crimean people came from Moscow. We have an
allergy toward Russia," Chubarov said in a phone
interview from Simferopol.
Tatars returned to their native land only in 1989
after Stalin, who accused them of collaboration with
the liberating German Army, deported them to Russian
colonies of Siberia, the Urals and Uzbekistan.
Indigenous
People
The Crimean Tatars are the indigenous people of
Crimea. After their Turkic-speaking Muslim state was
annexed by Russia in 1783, hundreds of thousands left
in waves of emigration. The population decreased to
300,000 from an estimated 5 million during the time of
the Crimean Khanate in the 18th century, according to
the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.
Under Russian yoke, repression increased and
culminated in deportation.
When the Crimean Muslimsreturned, their former
homeland soon became part of an independent Ukraine.
They now represent 12 percent of the Crimean
population of more than 2 million, compared with more
than 60 percent Russians. Ukraine's total population
is 45 million.
Russian thugs pressing ahead with their campaign would
threaten a scenario ending in major violence,
according to Chubarov.
"Each time territory splits off from a country, you
get bloodshed," he said. "If it happens in Crimea, the
Crimean Tatars will suffer the most. We don't want
that to happen".
Agencies, Kavkaz Center, EsinIslam.Com
& Several News Outlets
War against Ukraine
will end with Russia's destruction
The Ukrainian state news agency UNIAN reported on a
future course of events after the treacherous invasion
by repressive totalitarian Russia, without declaring
war, on peaceful freedom-loving Ukraine. It reports:
"If Russia gets involved in a military conflict with
Ukraine, it will get the full war, which would be the
beginning of the end of the Putin regime and
accelerate the disintegration of the Russian
Federation in a number of states".
This was stated by Director of the Center for Foreign
Policy Studies, OPAD, Sergei Parkhomenko.
"Russia is not ready to conduct a full-scale war. It
would affect the economy of Russia, it would cause
protests, because the majority of Russians are against
the war. First, we should expect uprisings in Muslim
autonomous republics in the Caucasus, and then in
Tatarstan and Bashkortostan", he said.
Mr Parkhomenko also added that Russia will have to
face not only the resistance from Ukrainian Armed
Forces, Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian groups, but also
from volunteers from Chechnya, Georgia, Turkey, Baltic
states, Poland and a number of European countries.
"For Moscow, everything will end with collapse, the
economy will be undermined, trust will be lost. Inside
Russia, a centrifugal separatist movement will start
to act, frequent acts of terrorism (sabotage attacks -
KC) will occur, and in several years from now, Russia
will disintegrate into a number of regions - Caucasus,
the Volga Region and Far East", summed up Mr
Parkhomenko.
Agencies, Kavkaz Center, EsinIslam.Com
& Several News Outlets
International treaty
obliges U.S. and U.K. for military attack on Russia
The Mirror reported on
further developments relating to the Second Crimean
War which was caused by a treacherous attack of bloody
and aggressive Russia on peaceful Ukraine. The
newspaper writes in particular:
"A treaty signed in 1994 by the US and Britain could
pull both countries into a war to protect Ukraine if
Putin's troops cross into the country.
Technically it means that if Russia has invaded
Ukraine then it would be difficult for the US and
Britain to avoid going to war.
The revelation comes as reports suggest the Kremlin
was moving troops across the Black Sea from
Novorossiysk (the Russian conquerors' name for the
occupied Emirate city of Tsemez - KC) to their fleet
base at Sevastopol (ancient Crimean-Tatar city of
Akyar - KC).
The Budapest Memorandum was signed in 1991 by Bill
Clinton, John Major, Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma -
the then-rulers of the USA, UK, Russia and Ukraine. It
promises to protect Ukraine's borders, in return for
Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons.
President Obama has already delivered blunt warnings
to Moscow.
"We are now deeply concerned by reports of military
movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of
Ukraine, he told reporters at the White House. - Any
violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial
integrity would be deeply destabilizing".
Former British Ambassador to Moscow Sir Tony Brenton,
who served as British Ambassador from 2004 to 2008,
said in an interview with BBC radio that war with
Russian could be an option.
Kiev has demanded the Budapest agreement is activated
after insisting their borders had been violated.
In response Mr Brenton said in a BBC radio interview:
"If indeed this is a Russian invasion of Crimea and if
we do conclude the [Budapest] Memorandum is legally
binding then it's very difficult to avoid the
conclusion that we're going to go to war with
Russia"."
EU gives Russia
48-hour deadline to return troops to barracks in
Crimea
The European Union has condemned acts of aggression
against Ukraine and threatened Russia with sanctions
unless Russian troops are returned to their barracks
in Crimea before Thursday, reports Western media.
During a tense, emergency meeting of European foreign
ministers in Brussels on Monday East European
countries, led by Poland and Lithuania, pushed hard
for a strong EU commitment to take action against
Russia.
In a further development last night, Poland called an
emergency meeting of Nato ambassadors for Tuesday on
the basis of a clause in the military Alliance
allowing members to "request consultations whenever
their territorial integrity, political independence or
security is threatened".
European divisions over Russia were highlighted when
Germany watered down an EU statement condemning the
Russian seizure of Crimea as an invasion and delayed a
decision on kicking Russian out of the G8 or further
sanctions until an emergency summit of European
leaders on Thursday.
David Lidington, the Europe minister, attended the EU
meeting while William Hague, the Foreign Secretary,
led crisis talks in Kiev. He expressed concern over
reports that Russia was stepping up its military
presence and operation.
"It's very clear from today's discussions that the
situation on the ground in Ukraine is now very serious
indeed, with other reports coming through of fears of
intervention by Russia in eastern Ukraine. We
obviously hope very much that those reports prove to
be unfounded," he said.
"There is now a very narrow window of opportunity
available for Russia to de-escalate the situation."
EU foreign ministers "strongly" condemned a "clear
violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial
integrity by acts of aggression by Russian armed
forces" and held out the threat of future sanctions by
the end of the week.
"The EU calls on Russia to immediately withdraw its
armed forces to the areas of their permanent
stationing," said a statement.
"The EU and those member states who are participants
of G8, have decided for the time being to suspend
their participation in activities associated with the
preparations for the G8 Summit in Sochi in June.
"In the absence of de-escalating steps by Russia, the
EU shall decide about consequences for bilateral
relations between the EU and Russia and will consider
further targeted measures."
Without a return to barracks for Russia's forces, an
emergency meeting of EU leaders on Thursday morning
will suspend talks to ease visa requirements for
Russians and could agree sanctions, including an arms
embargo or asset freezes.
The ultimatum and 48-hour dealine will be conveyed to
Russia by Baroness Ashton, the EU's foreign policy
chief, during talks in Madrid on Tuesday with Sergei
Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister.
"Those who try to interpret the situation as a type of
aggression and threaten sanctions and boycotts, are
the same who consistently have encouraged Ukraine
refuse dialogue and have ultimately polarized
Ukrainian society," said Mr Lavrov.
EU nations once under Russian occupation, such as
Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the
Czech Republic, went into the talks demanding support
for US proposals for sanctions against Russia.
Germany, Italy and a group of other countries with
close economic ties with Russia, including a
dependency on Russia gas supplies, took a softer line
expressing EU divisions that are expected to emerge
again later in the week.
Agencies, Kavkaz Center, EsinIslam.Com
& Several News Outlets
U.S. and U.K. warn
Russia faces significant costs over Ukraine invasion
David Cameron and Barack Obama have warned Russia will
face significant costs if it does not withdraw troops
from the Ukraine tonight, reports The Mirror.
The Prime Minister said he spoke to the US President
on the phone at around 9pm yesterday evening and
agreed that Russia's occupation of an army base.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Prime Minister
and President Obama spoke at 9pm tonight.
"They agreed that Russia's actions were completely
unacceptable. They agreed on the urgent need for
de-escalation and for Russia to engage in a dialogue
directly with Ukraine.
"They agreed there must be ''significant costs" to
Russia if it did not change course on Ukraine."
Mr Cameron revealed his conversation with President
Obama in a tweet earlier this evening.
Earlier, American Secretary of State John Kerry vowed
that Moscow will pay an economic and diplomatic price
for the "incredible act of aggression".
Russia could be booted out of the G8 and turned into
an international pariah as well as hit by sanctions,
Mr Kerry said after talks with other members.
"The G8 plus some others and all of them, every single
one of them, are prepared to go to the hilt in order
to isolate Russia with respect to this invasion," he
declared.
"They're prepared to put sanctions in place, they're
prepared to isolate Russia economically, the ruble is
already going down."
Foreign Secretary William Hague was flying to the
Ukrainian capital Kiev as he spoke.
The show of solidarity came after new prime minister
Arseniy Yatsen declared that this country was on the
"brink of disaster" as Russian forces surrounded bases
in the province of Crimea.
"This is the red alert, this is not a threat, this is
actually a declaration of war to my country," the PM
declared.
Mr Yatsen added: "If President Putin wants to be the
president who started a war between two neighbouring
and friendly countries, between Ukraine and Russia, he
has reached his target within a few inches.
"We are on the brink of the disaster."
Experts have warned that the Russian-staged CWII could
push up gas prices in Britain.
There is also the looming threat that Ukraine will
default on its .549 billion debts this week in a move
that could send a shock through the global economy.
The crisis was triggered after the pro-Moscow
government in Kiev was toppled.
The new leadership has called up reserve troops and
mobilized the regular army after the Russian
parliament authorized military action in across the
east of the country, not just Crimea.
Hundreds of troops sent by Moscow have surrounded an
army base at Perevalnoe, in the province.
Russian forces in unmarked uniforms arrived in a
convoy of at least 13 troop vehicles, including four
armoured vehicles with mounted machine guns.
Other military outposts have also been surrounded by
armed men who demanded that the Ukrainians give up
their weapons.
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: "What
Russia is doing now in Ukraine violates the principles
of the United Nations Charter.
"It threatens peace and security in Europe. Russia
must stop its military activities and its threats."
Former Liberal Democrat leader and special forces
veteran Paddy Ashdown, the former European envoy to
the Balkans, said: "We are one pace away from
catastrophe at the moment.
"It would require one foolish act, a trigger-happy
Russian soldier, a Ukrainian guard who acts
aggressively at one of these institutions taken over
by Russian supporters, a foolish act now could tip us
over the edge," he told Sky News.
Lord Ashdown said the Putin had already made a power
grab in the Crimea and appeared to be preparing to go
further.
"Putin has used force, he knows that's going further
than any of us are prepared to go, he is calling our
bluff. The only response is diplomacy," he said.
Britain, the US and Russia pledged to guarantee the
Ukraine's security in return for giving up nuclear
weapons in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
Ukraine's ambassador to the UN Yuriy Sergeyev said his
country was preparing to defend itself and would ask
other countries for help.
"If aggravation is going in that way, when the Russian
troops are enlarging their quantity with every coming
hour, naturally we will ask for military support and
other kind of support," he said.
But military action by allies looks unthinkable.
Before setting off for Kiev William Hague said: "Our
response is diplomatic and peaceful and it should be.
"That is our response but it will be a very united
diplomatic response and not just from the Western
world, I think, but from many other countries in the
world and that is something that Russia will have to
think hard about."
Mr Hague urged Ukraine to honor its promise to avoid
escalating the situation.
"It very much remains our view that they should not
rise to provocations, they should not feed the
tensions and so we call on both sides to ensure that
there can be a reduction in tensions and the avoidance
of conflict," he said.
Mr Hague announced a boycott of G8 talks that were due
to take place at the Winter Olympics site in Sochi, a
move followed by the US.
David Cameron tonight said that ministers will also
stay away from the Paralympics at the Russian Black
Sea resort.
But former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said
Putin was only likely to respond to a threat of force.
"Diplomacy sounds as if it just means talking - and
talking with a man like Putin is no doubt desirable,
it has to happen, but by itself it will not carry much
weight."
Sir Malcolm said that the world faced a "defining
moment" and "the most serious crisis since the end of
the Cold War".
"He is looking to see whether he can get away
cost-free with this kind of behaviour.
"So I think it will have to be made clear unless he
takes the right action in the next couple of days...
that what he is risking is Russia's whole relationship
with the West that has built up since 1990."
Previous conflicts involving Russia have sent gas
prices soaring and the state-owned firm Gazprom has
threatened Ukraine with a rise after the pro-Moscow
government was toppled.
Industry expert Niall Trimble said costs could also
rise when markets open tomorrow morning.
But Mr Trimble, of The Energy Contract company, said
that large reserves and relatively low demand meant
that the impact could be absorbed instead.
"It could still go up but the market is fairly slack.
If you had to choose a good time for this to happen,
this is a good time in terms of the gas market."
Hundreds of British-based Ukrainians gathered outside
the Russian Embassy in London to protest at the troop
build-up in the Crimea today.
The demonstrators chanted and held banners demanding
"Hands off Ukraine".
Many of them waved placards accusing president
Vladimir Putin of being the "Russian aggressor" and
they sang: "Putin is a murderer" and "stop the
occupation".
One of the leading specialists on Russia, British
sovietologist Edward Lucas told in the Lithuanian
Info.TV, that the faith of Ukraine into the
international community may be the biggest
disappointment of all time, as the West's response to
Russia's actions is not adequate.
He said that the situation in Ukraine recalls him
events in the Baltic states in 1991.
Commentator pointed out that Russia uses the same
scenario of the conflict in all countries.
"I would not call this an invasion, this is occupation
and annexation, since there was not yet made a single
shot. But it is obvious that Russians would not stay
on Crimea. There are already provocations in other
parts of Ukraine.
Right now it is very hard for Ukrainians, if they come
out to fight, they will be defeated (from where such
confidence? - KC). If they will not do anything -
Russians will occupy their country", said
sovietologist.
He recalled that in 2004, the situation in Ukraine was
different.
"Then (in the Orange Revolution - KC) Ukrainians were
just standing on the street and waited how it will all
end. Russians could influence and get what they need,
otherwise. This time it was different, Russian behave
differently. Weak reaction of the West is also
worrying", said Lucas.
"I do not know what to advise Ukraine, what path to
choose. Ukraine still believes in the international
community, and it may be the biggest disappointment.
This may be the biggest disappointment of all time.
Crimea practically separated. Russian troops are
stationed. This is very reminiscent of South Ossetia",
he said.
"The reaction of the West is inadequate for many
years, and this is just the latest example. The West
does not understand what is happening in the East. We
have done a lot, expanded NATO and the EU, but stopped
too early. It was necessary after the Orange
Revolution to make Ukraine a serious offer. We
underestimated the desire of Russia to get Ukraine
back in 1990. Russian believe that the West is not
serious, and I fear that they are not wrong", he said.
"There are creating tension among the Russian-speaking
and local residents, we have seen it in Estonia and
Latvia. Conflicts are heating up that becomes a
springboard for Russian intervention.
From diplomatic sources, I heard that the plans to
strengthen the visibility of military forces in the
buffer countries, so do not be surprised if you see
more military aircrafts in Lithuania. And yet I think
that part of Ukraine, we have already lost, the
situation in Moldova and Georgia, is a concern. But
there was more understanding of what Russia", said the
expert.
Kerry: Putin will
come out of this ordeal as the loser
On Sunday, American foreign minister Kerry condemned
the Russian aggression against Ukraine and said that
Americ and partners are considering freezing of assets
as a possible measure of influence. Kerry told about
this NBC's Meet the Press.
He threatened brazen Moscow with very serious
repercussions.
Kerry told reporters that he believed the Russia's
invasion of Ukraine was a brazen act of aggression.
Russian leadership in this case "made a stunning, but
deliberate choice", by deciding to use military on the
territory of another country.
Kerry said Putin would come out of this ordeal as the
loser.
"It's really 19th century behavior in the 21st
century. You just don't invade another country on
phony pretexts in order to assert your interests.
There's a unified view by all of the foreign ministers
I talked with yesterday - all of the G-8 and more -
that they're simply going to isolate Russia; that
they're not going to engage with Russia in a normal
business-as-usual manner. The ruble is already going
down and feeling the impact of this.
Attack on Crimea has already happened. We believe that
president Putin should all turn back the clock".
Kerry signaled Russia would continue to get hit
economically if they don't withdraw forces from the
Ukrainian region of Crimea. He warned "there could
even be ultimately asset freezes and visa bans".
Kerry also said:
"Putin is possibly trying to annex Crimea. He may be
able to have his troops for some period of time there.
He's going to lose on the international stage, Russia
is going to lose, the Russian people are going to
lose, and he's going to lose all of the glow that came
out of the Olympics, his $ 60 billion extravaganza. He
may find himself with asset freezes on Russian
business. American business may pull back. There may
be a further tumble of the ruble. There's a huge price
to pay".
Among other things, Kerry pointed out on restrictions
on issuing visas for Russians for trips to Europe, the
United States and possibly other countries could be
imposed.
"There are plenty of ways to deal with protection of
the Russian-speaking people in Ukraine without
invading the country", he said. Kerry recalled that
during the night conversation of Putin with Obama,
which lasted half an hour, the American president
offered US mediation.
Kerry did not rule out a possibility of warning Putin
also by military means of the American army, but for
while Putin, will be warned by economic measures.
Nevertheless, Kerry hinted at a military option:
"The last thing anybody wants is a military option. We
want a peaceful resolution through the normal
processes of international relations".
"The US is considering all options, from sanctions to
military action", writes the Ukrainian state news
agency UNIAN in the title.
Putin's speaker Peskov does not comment on Kerry's
statement.
Agencies, Kavkaz Center, EsinIslam.Com
& Several News Outlets
Obama threatens
Putin with international isolation of Russia
US President Barack Obama said that a further
violation of Ukrainian sovereignty from Russia will
affect Russia's position in the international arena
and can even lead to isolation.
He stated this in a telephone conversation with Putin,
which lasted 90 minutes, according to newspaper
Ukrainian Truth with reference to the press service of
the White House.
"President Obama made clear that Russia's continued
violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial
integrity would negatively impact Russia's standing in
the international community.
In the coming hours and days, the United States will
urgently consult with allies and partners in the UN
Security Council, the North Atlantic Council, the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
and with the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum.
The United States will suspend upcoming participation
in preparatory meetings for the G-8. Going forward,
Russia's continued violation of international law will
lead to greater political and economic isolation",
said in the statement.
President Obama told Putin that, if Russia has
concerns about the treatment of ethnic Russian and
minority populations in Ukraine, "the appropriate way
to address them is peacefully through direct
engagement with the government of Ukraine and through
the dispatch of international observers under the
auspices of the United Nations Security Council or the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)".
As a member of both organizations, Russia would be
able to participate, he added.
President Obama urged an immediate effort to initiate
a dialogue between Russia and the Ukrainian
government, with international facilitation, as
appropriate. The United States is prepared to
participate.
"The people of Ukraine have the right to determine
their own future. President Obama has directed his
Administration to continue working urgently with
international partners to provide support for the
Ukrainian government, including urgent technical and
financial assistance.
Going forward, we will continue consulting closely
with allies and partners, the Ukrainian government and
the International Monetary Fund, to provide the new
government with significant assistance to secure
financial stability, to support needed reforms, to
allow Ukraine to conduct successful elections, and to
support Ukraine as it pursues a democratic future",
emphasized in the White House.
McCain demands from
Obama to say what costs Russia is to face for invasion
of Ukraine
During an emergency meeting of the UN Security
Council, US Ambassador Samantha Power demanded that
Russia stopped intervention in Ukraine, and
international observers were immediately sent to the
crisis zone.
According to her, "military intervention has no legal
grounds".
Ms Power called the decision of the Russia's illegal
"federation council", approving sending the Russian
troops to Ukraine, "dangerous and destabilizing".
Meanwhile, sen. John McCain, who has always openly
criticized Barack Obama for lack of attention to the
Ukrainian issue, issued a statement on Russia's
intervention in Ukraine. He points out:
- I am deeply concerned that Russia's ongoing military
intervention in Crimea may soon expand to eastern
Ukraine. Yesterday, President Obama said that Russia
would face 'costs' if it intervened militarily in
Ukraine. It is now essential for the President to
articulate exactly what those costs will be and to
take steps urgently to impose them.
Russian use of force in Ukraine is a clear violation
of its obligations Russia to respect the sovereignty
and territorial integrity of Ukraine, in particular,
entered into in accordance with the Budapest
Memorandum of 1994.
Russia's use of force in Ukraine is unfolding in clear
violation of Russia's own commitments to respect
Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity,
including under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
None of us should be under any illusion about what
President Putin is capable of doing in Ukraine,
especially now that he has requested, and the Russian
Duma has approved, the deployment of Russian troops,
not just in Crimea but in the country of Ukraine.
Every moment that the United States and our allies
fail to respond sends the signal to President Putin
that he can be even more ambitious and aggressive in
his military intervention in Ukraine.
There is a range of serious options at our disposal at
this time without the use of military force. I call on
President Obama to rally our European and NATO allies
to make clear what costs Russia will face for its
aggression and to impose those consequences without
further delay.
Ukraine asks NATO
assistance in fight against Russia's terrorism and
aggression
Ukraine asked ministers of NATO member states to
provide its territorial integrity in connection with
the occupation of buildings of Crimean authorities by
Russian terrorists.
A participant in the ministerial meeting of NATO
member countries in Brussels, Lithuanian vice-minister
Marius Wieliczka told reporters that it was the only
request from the Ukrainian first vice defense minister
Alexander Oleinik, who took part in a Thursday meeting
of the NATO-Ukraine commission.
"Specific measures were: NATO as an organization
recognizes that the territory of Ukraine is
indivisible and no part of it is to be separated, and
it is by far their only request, which was made
public", said Mr. Wieliczka.
In turn, Ukraine's ambassador to NATO Igor Dolgov said
in an interview with reporters after the ministerial
meeting on Thursday that he hoped that calls Russia by
international community over Ukraine would be
effective.
"We hope that all countries, especially in such a
difficult situation, will act in accordance with
international standards. There is no such
international law which would allow intervention,
especially a militarily one, over events of another
state. So we trust the international norms and also
hope that appeals to Russian authorities, which can be
heard not only from Brussels, but also from other
places, will bring results", he said.
Agencies, Kavkaz Center, EsinIslam.Com
& Several News Outlets
Russian terrorists
seize Crimea parliament and hoist Russian flag
Russian terrorists have seized the government
buildings in the capital of the Ukraine's Crimea region and hoisted a Russian
flag over a barricade.
The terrorists occupying the parliament building in the regional capital,
Simferopol, early on Thursday did not come out to voice any demands. They wore
black and orange ribbons, a Russian symbol of alleged Russian "victory" in World
War II. The thugs also put up a sign saying "Crimea is Russia."
They threw a flash grenade in response to a journalist's questions. Phone calls
to region's legislature rang unanswered, and its website was down.
Ethnic Tatars who support Ukraine's new leaders and pro-Russia separatists had
confronted each other outside the regional parliament on Wednesday.
Interfax quoted a local Tatar leader, Refat Chubarov, as saying on Facebook: "I
have been told that the buildings of parliament and the council of ministers
have been occupied by armed men in uniforms that do not bear any recognisable
insignia."
"They have not yet made any demands," he said.
About 100 police were gathered in front of the parliament building. Doors into
the building appeared to have been blocked by wooden crates.
The streets around the parliament were mostly empty apart from people going to
work.
"I heard gunfire in the night, came down and saw lots of people going in. Some
then left. I'm not sure how many are still in there," said a 30-year-old man who
gave his name only as Roman.
An "Ukrainian president" Viktor Yanukovich was ousted on Saturday after three
months of unrest led by protesters in Kiev.
He is now on the run being sought by the new authorities for murder in
connection with the deaths of around 100 people during the conflict.
Crimea was transferred from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 in the Soviet-era by then
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
With a part of Russia's Black Sea fleet based in the port of former Turkish
Akyar (Sevastopol), it is the only region of Ukraine where ethnic Russians
dominate in numbers, although many ethnic Ukrainians in other eastern areas
speak Russian as their first language.
With Crimea now the last big bastion of opposition to the new post-Yanukovich
government in Kiev, Ukraine's new leaders have been voicing alarm over signs of
separatism there.
The Tatars, a Turkic ethnic group, were victimized by Russian dictator Josef
Stalin in World War Two and deported en masse to Russian colonies in Central
Asia in 1944 on suspicion of collaborating with Germany which liberated the
peninsular from the Russian yoke.
Tens of thousands of them returned to their homeland after Ukraine gained
independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.
Amid mounting tension in the region, Russia ordered 150,000 troops to test their
combat readiness on Wednesday in a show of force that prompted a blunt warning
from the United States that any military intervention in Ukraine would be a
"grave mistake."
Putin put the military on alert for massive exercises involving most of the
military units in western Russia, and announced measures to tighten security at
the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
The manoeuvres will involve some 150,000 troops, 880 tanks, 90 aircraft and 80
navy ships, and are intended to "check the troops' readiness for action in
crisis situations that threaten the nation's military security," Putin's illegal
"defence minister" Rivlin (aka Shoigu) said in remarks carried by Russian KGB
news agencies.
Vladimir Putin's announcement of huge new war games came as Ukraine's protest
leaders named a millionaire former banker to head a new government after the
pro-Russian president went into hiding.
The new government will face the hugely complicated task of restoring stability
in a country that is not only deeply divided politically but on the verge of
financial collapse.
In Kiev's Independence Square, the heart of the protest movement against
Yanukovych, the interim leaders who seized control after he disappeared proposed
Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the country's new prime minister.
The 39-year-old served as economy minister, foreign minister and parliamentary
speaker before Yanukovych took office in 2010, and is widely viewed as a
technocratic reformer who enjoys the support of the US.
Agencies, Kavkaz Center, EsinIslam.Com
& Several News Outlets
