Fighting between Kurdish forces and Islamic State (Isis) militants for the Syrian border town of Kobanî fuelled rising tensions inside Turkey on Tuesday as thousands of protesters took to the streets to voice anger and frustration about the inaction of the Ankara government.In a graphic illustration of the domestic and regional impact of the deepening crisis, demonstrations turned violent and Turkish police used teargas and water cannon. Curfews were imposed on several towns in the province of Mardin.
‘’Since the start of the war in Syria in early 2011, the number of people fleeing the country has swelled to more than 3 million – half of them children. But the US has accepted only a miniscule few – just 36 in 2013’’.
Turkey — The Islamic State group is about to capture the Syrian border town of Kobanî, Turkey’s president said Tuesday, as outgunned Kurdish forces struggled to repel the extremists with limited aid from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.
Islamic State fighters using tanks and heavy weapons looted from captured army bases in Iraq and Syria have been pounding Kurdish forces in the town of Kobanî for days. Since the extremists’ offensive began in mid-September, more than 400 people have been killed in the fighting, activists said.
Erdogan said more than 200,000 people have fled the fighting in and around Kobanî in recent weeks. Their flight is among the largest single exoduses of the three-year Syrian conflict.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists across Syria, said Tuesday that 412 people have been killed since the Kobanî fighting began.
On Tuesday morning, occasional gunfire could be heard in Kobanî. A flag of the main Kurdish force known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, was seen flying over a hill in central Kobanî..
Following a warning from the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, that Kobanî was “about to fall”, one man was reported to have been killed by a bullet to the head in Varto in the eastern province of Mus when police allegedly fired live ammunition.
Erdoğan, speaking in the eastern city of Gaziantep, said that a ground operation was needed to defeat Isis – side steping accusations that he is unwilling to allow Kurds in Turkey to help their embattled kinfolk in Syria or to deploy the army across the border to fight Isis because of the country’s historic enmity towards Kurdish separatists – in addition to ongoing peace negotiations with them.
Burak Dimli
Akdeniz University
SOURCES
The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/07/isis-kurds-syria-kobani-turkey
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/07/syrian-kurds-isis-militants-kobani
Radikal And New York Times
http://www.radikal.com.tr/dunya/turk_konsolosluguna_saldiri-1217469
http://time.com/3476929/isis-syria-kobani-is-isil/Kaynakbakmasaati :07.10.2014 21:48
