Turkish Invasion of Syria, Day 9: Erdogan Trashes Trump's 'Don't be a Fool!' Letter - UPDATE: Ceasefire Deal Reached! Turkey to Halt Op For 5 Days

RT
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 16:10 UTC

© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque

US President Donald Trump urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to make a deal with the Syrian Kurds in a letter, warning history will condemn him as "the devil" and the US will destroy Turkey's economy if he refuses.

"You don't want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don't want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy - and I will," Trump threatened in the letter, dated October 9.

The US president implores Erdogan to "make a great deal" with the Syrian Democratic Forces, noting Kurdish General Mazloum Kobani Abdi is "willing to make concessions that they never would have made in the past."

Don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool!

"History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way," Trump promises, accompanying that carrot with another stick. "It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don't happen."

Trump has repeatedly threatened Turkey with the destruction of its economy, warning that if Ankara does anything Washington considers "off limits," his wrath will be unleashed. The threats against the NATO ally have carried forward as Vice President Mike Pence prepares to meet with Erdogan on Thursday - if the meeting is unsuccessful, "sanctions and tariffs and other things" will follow.

Turkey has insisted its quarrel is not with the Kurds as a people but with the Kurdish militias it considers to be terrorist groups. Erdogan has thus far ignored the pleas of the US and its European allies, several of whom have curtailed weapons sales to Turkey in protest of its military operation in Syria, pressing forward to create a so-called "safe zone" 30km within its neighbor's territory.

While the Kurds - those fighting for the SDF, at least - are considered US allies, Trump has called the Kurdish separatist militia PKK "more of a terrorist threat in many ways, than ISIS," echoing Ankara's assessment. Referring to the matter as "a semi-complicated problem," he acknowledged "paying a lot of money to the Kurds" and said he warned a Kurdish general not to "let ISIS out to create havoc" - but seemed to want to wash his hands of the whole thing, leaving Turkey to work out who were terrorists and who were not.

Comment: Erdogan reportedly threw the letter into the trash:

The treatment of the missive, which sparked quite an uproar both in the US and Turkey, was reported by what the BBC described as "Turkish presidential sources."

"President Erdogan received the letter, thoroughly rejected it and put it in the bin," sources were cited as saying.

A similar account was reported by the Middle East Eye, which cited anonymous Turkish officials. Some Turkish journalists reported the letter being treated in that fashion.

Two Russian officials commented on the letter:

The Senator from Perm Krai Aleksey Pushkov has called the contents of Trump's letter to Erdogan 'weird', adding that the inauguration procedure in the US, the publication of letters from world leaders, and former Vice-President Biden's demands to remove the Prosecutor General of Ukraine from office show that "the US administration cannot deal with its own problems, let alone with the global ones."

Earlier today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the language of US President Donald Trump's letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shortly before Turkey's operation in Syria was "unusual."

"Such a language is rarely found in the correspondence of state leaders. A very unusual letter," Peskov told reporters.

Turkish troops (and their jihadist mercenaries) are already behaving like barbarians. Here they are executing two unarmed prisoners on the side of a road. (Here are some Turkish soldiers beheading some Kurdish fighters sometime within the last 2 years.) This is the same sort of behavior the "moderate rebels" have been guilty of for the entirety of the Syrian war. But only now are the Western MSM taking notice, "because Trump." Better late than never. Maybe their hatred of Trump can cause them to muster some support for the Syrians and Russians, who have been fighting these crazies for years. They're the ones "protecting the Kurds" now, after all. Moon of Alabama comments:

Turkey still insists on a corridor of some 20 kilometers depth to prevent a PKK build up in the area near its border. At that depth Turkey would occupy the M4 highway which is a main economic corridor in the northern area. Under the Adana agreement from 1998 Turkey is allowed to make temporary incursions at the border up to a depth of 5 kilometer to fight any PKK concentration. Anything beyond that infringes on Syria's sovereignty and can not be tolerated.

Under the same treaty Syria is obligated to prevent any PKK camps or training areas in Syria. The U.S built 'Syrian Democratic Forces' are nothing but the PKK with a few drafted Arabs mixed in. The SNC will soon be dissolved into the Syrian Arab Army and the autonomous Kurdish administration will be removed. All that will alleviate the Turkish concerns and remove its justification for any occupation of Syrian land.

The mainstream borg is up in arms that Turkey uses Jihadis to attack their beloved anarcho-marxist PKK terrorists group. They have conveniently forgotten the history of the U.S. war on Syria, its arming of those Jihadis and its pampering of al-Qaeda.

The U.S. did not betray the Kurds any more than it betrayed Turkey and the Jihadis which the Obama administration armed throughout the war. Those were also U.S. 'allies' that were left hanging. Raina Khalek made a good video narrative that debunks much of the false Syria narrative the main stream media is now using.

Here are the Turks moving some jihadis from Idlib to southeast:

Trump again promised "devastating" sanctions if the meeting with Pence isn't successful: "I think they will have a successful meeting. If they don't, the sanctions and tariffs and other things that we're going, we will do and are doing to Turkey, will be devastating to Turkey's economy," Trump stated. Turkey says they will respond reciprocally to any sanctions: "We see that Trump, under the pressure of domestic factors, undertakes certain steps against us. No sanctions and no threats are acceptable. We will undertake reciprocal steps in response to these sanctions, we will respond," Cavusoglu said in an address to the Turkish parliament.

The thing is, Trump is not wrong in what he's been saying and doing:

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

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

...
"If Russia wants to get involved with Syria, that's really up to them," Trump said. "They have a problem with Turkey. They have a problem at a border. It's not our border. We shouldn't be losing lives over it."
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"No, President Erdogan's decision didn't surprise me because he's wanted to do that for a long time. He's been building up troops on the border with Syria for a long time, as you know," Trump said to reporters.

"And I say: 'Why are we protecting Syria's land?' Assad's not a friend of ours. Why are we protecting their land?' And Syria also has a relationship with the Kurds, who by the way, are no angels."
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"By the way, everybody hates ISIS," Trump said. "Some were released just for effect to make it look like, 'Oh gee, we gotta get back in there,'" he added, making light of reports that some ISIS members had escaped from captivity.
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In response to Trump's comments Wednesday morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of Trump's closest allies in Washington who has also emerged as an outspoken critics of his Syria decision, said that the move could be "a complete and utter national security disaster in the making."

Trump later addressed Graham's criticism at a press conference, telling reporters that Graham "would like to stay in the Middle East for the next thousand years," and applauding himself for not caving to party pressure, noting that it was "probably just politically better for me" to leave U.S. troops in Syria.

Trump boiled it all down to keeping his 2016 campaign promise.

"I campaigned on bringing our soldiers back home, and that's what I am doing," he explained.

This is rich:

Democrats and 129 of the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to pass a non-binding resolution disapproving of President Donald Trump's pullout of US troops from Syria - never authorized by Congress to be there.

The House Joint Resolution 77 describes the presence of US troops in northeastern Syria as "certain... efforts to prevent Turkish military operations against Syrian Kurdish forces," and formally voices opposition to their withdrawal, but does not offer an alternative. Instead, it demands the White House present a "clear and specific plan for the enduring defeat" of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
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The House resolution asks the White House to continue providing "humanitarian support" to the Kurds and ensure that Turkey "acts with restraint," while also demanding of Ankara to stop its "unilateral military action" in Syria.
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Congress has never voted to authorize the US troop presence in Syria, which is not sanctioned under international law and is based only tenuously on old resolutions allowing military action against Al-Qaeda terrorists following the 9/11 attacks. Damascus considers the US presence a violation of its sovereignty, unlike the Russian force that was invited back in 2015.

While the resolution does little to change the situation in Syria, the fact that so many Republicans chose to back Democrats against the sitting president from their party is being held up as a possible barometer for the Democrat-led impeachment process, even though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly refused to hold an actual floor vote on the matter.

Here's footage of the Syrian army entering Kobani (Ayn al-Arab), thus blocking the Turks from occupying the city:

French troops are at risk of being surrounded. As pointed out yesterday, the Americans made a hasty retreat. The following videos are quite the treat:

The Russians have moved in to take over the bases abandoned by the Americans:

More from MoA:

Everyone involved recognizes that this is a win-win-win-win situation. Erdogan could show that he was fighting against the PKK terrorists and prevented their attempts to become a proto-state. Trump could hold his campaign promise of removing U.S. troops from useless foreign interventions. Syria regained its northeast and the important economic resources of that area. Russia gained global prestige and additional influence in the Middle East.

Everyone is happy but the PKK Kurds. They are the biggest losers of this game but only in the sense that they are back to where they started. They had entered into a cooperation with the U.S. to eliminate ISIS. When that was done they got greedy and tried to rule over Arab land. It was always an unsustainable situation. After the defeat of ISIS the U.S. had no strategic reason to further pamper them. Only some wannabe imperialists in Washington DC and in Israel were urging to continue the relation.

For more analysis and commentary, see:

• Does Trump's withdrawal from Syria mean that the 'interventionist' era is over for good?
• House condemns Trump's pullout of US troops they never bothered to authorize to be in Syria
• US official: 50 US nuclear bombs at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey essentially 'hostage'
• Turkish invasion creates better conditions for Islamic State terrorists as it creates chaos, Assad's key adviser tells RT
• ABC News airs authentic footage of Godzilla rampaging through Syria

For all previous updates, see:

• Turkish invasion DAY 8: US jets & helicopters threaten Turkish-backed fighters who came close to American troops in Syria - UPDATES
• Turkish invasion DAY 7: Syrian Army enters Manbij - Trump says US pulling out of Syria, will only stay at al-Tanf - UPDATES
• Turkish invasion DAY 6: US troops 'leave' Kobani as Turkish incursion advances and Kurds make deal with Damascus - UPDATES
• Erdogan aims to push 35km into Syria regardless of arms embargoes - Kurds reach DEAL with Damascus, Syrian Army will enter northeast - UPDATES
• Turkey 'accidentally' shells US special forces in Syria - UPDATES
• War, sanctions or deal: Trump says US has 'three choices' with Turkey in Syria - UPDATES
• US begins withdrawing troops from Syria, Trump announces end to Cheney's 'endless war', Turkey prepares operation, Russia sends in reinforcements - UPDATES

UPDATE 20:30 CET

VP Pence says Turkey and the U.S. have reached an agreement:

Turkey has agreed to temporarily halt its military operation against Syria's Kurdish-led militias, allowing them to withdraw from the country's border, US Vice President Mike Pence said during a visit to Ankara.

"Today the United States and Turkey have agreed to a ceasefire in Syria," Pence said during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The ceasefire between the Turkish military backed by affiliated militants and the Kurdish-led fighters is set to last 120 hours, according to Pence. This time will be spent on the withdrawal of the Kurdish forces from the 20-mile strip along the Syrian border, where Turkey wants to set up a "safe zone."

The agreed stop of hostilities has been described as a "temporary" one. When a "permanent" one comes in place, US President Trump will cancel the executive sanctions against Ankara, VP explained.

The process of the Kurdish militias withdrawal will be "facilitated" by the US, Pence stated without elaborating.

Trump is pretty pleased with himself:

A ceasefire is one thing, but Syrian, Turkish, Russian, American and French troops - and irregular forces allied with or against them - are all on the move. We'll just have to wait and see who's left without a chair when the music stops...