Turkey yesterday said it was assisting Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga to cross its border and join the battle against extremists for the Syrian town of Kobane, in a major shift by Ankara, which until now had blocked Kurdish fighters.
Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey had no desire so see Kobane fall to the Islamic State (IS) militants who have been battling Syrian Kurdish fighters for more than a month for control of the town.
The influx of the well-trained peshmerga fighters into Kobane could be a major boost for the Kurds, who are now being helped by US-led air strikes and air drops.
Photo: AFP
“We are assisting peshmerga forces to cross into Kobane,” Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara in televised comments, without giving further details on the assistance given.
“We have no wish at all to see Kobane fall” to the militants, he added.
The Kurdish Rudaw news agency reported earlier that Turkey had approved a request from Massoud Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, to allow peshmerga forces to pass through Turkish territory.
Photo: AFP
The switch came after the US military dropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to the Syrian Kurdish fighters who have been battling IS militants for Kobane for more than a month.
Cavusoglu did not comment directly on the air drops, saying only that Turkey was now “evaluating” the latest move by the US.
However, he also did not give any indication that Turkey was angered by the air drops, as many commentators had expected.
“We have been in full cooperation with the coalition. We want to be rid of all the threats in the region,” the minister said.
Turkey has until now refused to allow Kurdish fighters to cross its border to join the battle against IS militants for Kobane, fearing the creation of a powerful Kurdish fighting force straddling the border.
Turkish security forces have been waging a 30-year conflict with the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), whose battle for self-rule in the southeast has left 40,000 dead.
However Turkey in recent years has built up strong relations with the Kurdish authorities in the Kurdistan region of Iraq who control the peshmerga forces.
It appears that despite the agreement over the peshmerga, Turkey will still block any PKK fighters from entering Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had at the weekend rejected calls for Turkey to arm the main Kurdish party in Syria, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), saying: “Just as the PKK... it’s a terrorist organization.”
Cavusoglu reiterated that Turkey would not give support to the PYD, saying that “like IS, the PYD wants to control a certain region of Syria” and therefore posed a threat to Syria’s future.
“The PYD and other groups affiliated with it need to change their policies in Syria and give up these ambitions,” he said.
Turkey has long made no secret of its animosity toward the PYD for seeking to create a Kurdish region in northern Syria and refusing to show sufficient hostility to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
However, Idris Nassen, an official from the Kobane region, said Turkey was wrong to harbor such suspicions about the PYD.
“The PYD is working for the Kurdish areas and the country of Syria as a whole,” he said.
Turkey has come under increasing pressure over the last month to step up its support for the international coalition fighting IS.
However, Ankara has so far refused to use its own troops or even let US forces launch their bombing raids on IS from the Incirlik air base in nearby Adana Province.
Turkish television, citing foreign ministry sources, said that Turkish air space had not been used for the US air drops.
Erdogan wants the US to commit to implementing a security zone inside Syria and create a strategy for bringing down al-Assad before Turkey plays a full role in the coalition.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique