World Peace “Lennon Ivan Style” – Part 244

World Peace “Lennon Ivan Style” – Part 244 

During the week ending on Sunday, April 30, 2017, TURKEY retreated from their days of aggressive sieges of CIZRE, SILOPI, DIYARBAKIR and NUSAYBIN, predominantly KURDISH, which TURKEY had converted into a suburban war zone area as TURKEY was on the defense as they were subject to an internal military “Coup D’État” that failed as gunfire and explosions erupted in which 265 people died, 161 of them civilians during July of 2016. As a result of the failed “Coup D’État”, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency, extended the period during which suspects can be detained without charge to 30 days, closed more than 1,000 private schools and closed more than 1,200 associations. A wide scale purge led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his governing AKP re-escalated this week as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused his attention on another purge of the Fethullah Gulen opposition movement supporters on the heals of celebrating the victory of the YES side in the referendum that was held on Sunday, April 16, 2017 whereby the majority of the TURKISH population voted in favour of TURKEY’s parliamentary system to be converted into a presidential system effectively consolidating power into one executive branch with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as its primary executor. Therefore, those opposing the vote say the proposed constitutional changes will give “Free Reign” to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has already been pushing the boundaries of his power as his governing AKP has been utilizing an increasingly authoritarian style since the failed “Coup D’État” attempt which led to an intense crackdown leading to the arrests of over 47,000 government critics, academics, journalists, military officials and civil servants. Nonetheless, TURKEY ignored all criticisms from foreign powers and went straight ahead this week with detaining more than a thousand additional people suspected of having links to US based cleric Fethullah Gulen. The overnight crackdown was one of the largest operations in months against the Fethullah Gulen network that Turkey blames for orchestrating the failed “Coup D’État” in July of 2016. The operation was launched in all of TURKEY’s 81 provinces and targeted Fethullah Gulen’s structure in the police force that were described by TURKEY as an important step towards TURKEY’s aim at bringing down the Fethullah Gulen movement. As a friendly reminder, FETHULLAH GULEN is the leader of a widespread and influential religious movement known as HIZMET, which owns foundations, associations, media organisations and schools in TURKEY and abroad who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999. Meanwhile, U.S. officials said they were deeply concerned after TURKEY carried out a series of airstrikes against U.S. KURDISH allies fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq. It appears that the U.S. was given about one hour’s advance notice of the strikes by the TURKISH military although no U.S. or coalition advisers were in the vicinity at the time of the airstrikes. Turkish warplanes struck targets in northern SYRIA and the area of SINJAR in northern IRAQ whereby the TURKISH armed forces claim to have killed 70 KURDISH PKK terrorist fighters consisting of 40 in northern IRAQ and 30 others in northeastern SYRIA. It is important to note that although the TURKISH government has been at war for more than 40 years with the PKK, a KURDISH separatist group that has carried out terrorist attacks in TURKEY, KURDISH YPG forces, America’s primary SYRIAN and IRAQI allies in the fight against ISIS suffered casualties as well as a result of the TURKISH airstrikes. 

Moving on to IRAQ, IRAQI and US-led ALLIANCE forces continued with their offensive against ISIS on MOSUL as IRAQI and ALLIED forces managed to push ISIS militants back from MOSUL, their last major stronghold in IRAQ, whereby IRAQI special forces appear to have liberated the eastern half of MOSUL from ISIS in its entirety. As a friendly reminder, MOSUL is divided by the Tigris River with both east and west sides respectively making up about half of the population of MOSUL. Elite ALLIANCE forces managed to fight through an elaborate defense system formed by ISIS over the past two years, that kept ALLIANCE forces out while contemporaneously keeping the residents of MOSUL trapped in as captives, by recapturing east MOSUL in its entirety while being at the cusp of controlling west MOSUL in the short-term. On a positive note, this week in a series of lightning fast advances, ALLIANCE forces seized further control of most of western MOSUL from ISIS, including the ancient city of HATRA, after fierce clashes with ISIS. Although the full extent of the damage to HATRA was not immediately clear, it is believed to have been destroyed by ISIS militants based on ISIS propaganda videos showing ISIS bulldozing, blowing up and looting pre-ISIS controlled sites that ISIS deemed idolatrous. Although UNESCO has clearly stated that the deliberate destruction of IRAQ’s cultural heritage constitutes a war crime, ISIS has never showed any restraint, remorse or regret in the destruction of heritage sites such that it would not be surprising to see that HATRA’s heritage sites have been completely destroyed. Meanwhile, IRAQI forces continued with their street-by-street battles with ISIS for the remaining parts of western MOSUL as casualties continued to mount as ISIS militants continued to contest every move by IRAQI forces by making full use of armoured car bombs and the hundreds of thousands of civilians still trapped in ISIS strongholds. 

Moving on to SYRIA, a ceasefire across SYRIA appears to be broken after its brokers, RUSSIA, TURKEY and IRAN obtained approval of the plan from the UN Security Council overriding all previous failed peace proposals and finally ending the six-year conflict. Although these talks represented the most serious diplomatic efforts in months, U.S. President, Donald Trump’s authorization of the firing of 59 TOMAHAWK cruise missiles at the SYRIAN Armed Forces in response to what the U.S. believes was a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 100 people authorized by President Bashar al-Assad has derailed the entire peace process. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson could not agree on who was responsible for the chemical attacks. Although the 80 plus deaths from the chemical attacks have been widely blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, RUSSIA has denied the SYRIAN regime carried out the chemical attacks. Therefore, the U.S. and RUSSIA agreed for the moment to disagree as the war raged on this week as ISRAEL got involved and deployed its PATRIOT missile defence system as the media reported that the target was a drone over the Golan Heights. However, in an even more devastating blow, ISRAEL initiated a missile strike at a military site near DAMASCUS international airport that appears to have been an arms depot run by Lebanon’s HEZBOLLAH movement. ISRAEL said the explosion was consistent with its policy but stopped short of confirming ISRAEL was responsible while the explosions highlighted ISRAEL’s shadow war in SYRIA. That is, Israel has repeatedly declared its neutrality in the struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) while at the same time ISRAEL has been carrying out a covert campaign to prevent the transfer of sophisticated weapons from SYRIAN territory to HEZBOLLAH. As a friendly reminder, HEZBOLLAH is the militant Lebanese Shiite organization that is aiding President Bashar al-Assad in SYRIA but who also is ISRAEL’s arch nemesis with which ISRAEL fought a fierce month-long war in 2006. While ISRAEL has made no secret of its policy of acting to prevent such transfers of weapons to HEZBOLLAH, ISRAEL has thus far refused to confirm or deny involvement in any particular strikes preferring to maintain ambiguity in the hope of lowering the pressure on the other side to retaliate. Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that ISRAELI military strikes on his army showed that ISRAEL was supporting terrorists in SYRIA. Meanwhile, air force fighter jets believed to be either RUSSIAN or SYRIAN struck two hospitals in rebel-held IDLIB province following several other strikes on medical facilities in northwestern SYRIA in recent weeks. Rescue workers said one strike hit a hospital in DEIR AL SHARQI, killing at least three medics and injuring others. The second strike hit a cave hospital in MAAR ZITA village in southern IDLIB province where medics said at least five were killed. However, SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly denied that his forces targeted hospitals or other emergency facilities and RUSSIA, whose air force joined the war on President Bashar al-Assad’s side in 2015, also denies targeting civilian infrastructure. 

In my opinion, TURKEY’s participation in the military battle against ISIS is a positive addition to the ALLIANCE albeit TURKEY’s negative stance against the PKK that in my opinion is currently unwarranted and deteriorating. However, with the majority governing AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it appears that TURKEY’s future is heading for more war and bloodshed. Unfortunately, the governing AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have chosen the path of war with the PKK as opposed to diplomacy via the KURDISH HDP political party which secured close to 11% during the last TURKISH elections. Therefore, in my opinion, the governing AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will learn the hard way that nobody on the outside world looking in is stupid but rather everyone chooses to close their eyes and allow TURKEY to continue with its ethnic cleansing campaign of the KURDS in exchange for TURKEY signing a deal with the European Union (EU) to stem the flow of refugees arriving in GREECE. In exchange for reducing human trafficking and improving living conditions for 2.5 million refugees within its borders, TURKEY was supposed to receive Euro 3 billion in financial aid in return, the possibility of visa-free travel for its citizens, and a reopening of EU membership talks. In my opinion, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the governing AKP will learn the hard way that the failed “Coup D’État” exposes the deep discontent within the TURKISH military ranks as the governing AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan persist with their quest to annihilate the HDP and the KURDS as the AKP is converting itself into a majority fascist regime with its house cleaning exercises whereby virtually all dissidents have been fired. In my opinion, the European parliament vote to halt TURKEY’s EU accession backed by a resolution condemning the TURKISH government’s disproportionate repressive measures after the failed “Coup D’État” in July was long overdue as TURKEY has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt, with its repressive measures over all opposition, that TURKEY does not share common values, morals, principals, ethics and views as the EU such that TURKEY does not fit into the EU mould. However, in my opinion, TURKEY still represents a major player on the European economic stage such that the EU will nonetheless have to negotiate deals with TURKEY as an independent NON-EU member country regarding the huge refugee crisis. In my opinion, in exchange for reducing human trafficking and improving living conditions for 2.5 million refugees within its borders, TURKEY should only receive Euro 1.5 billion, half of the initial proposed 3 billion, in financial aid along with visa-free travel for its citizens who do not pose any significant risks outside of TURKISH borders. 

Finally, the wide scale purge led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his governing AKP re-escalated this week as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused his attention on another purge of the Fethullah Gulen opposition movement supporters on the heals of celebrating the victory of the YES side in the referendum that was held on Sunday, April 16, 2017 whereby the majority of the TURKISH population voted in favour of TURKEY’s parliamentary system to be converted into a presidential system effectively consolidating power into one executive branch with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as its primary executor. Ironically, FETHULLAH GULEN who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999 seems to be behind this new AKP paranoid schizophrenic ideology that I refer to as the “GULEN BI-POLAR DISORDER”. In my opinion, given that FETHULLAH GULEN was once a strong ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the AKP’s struggle to end the military’s influence in TURKISH politics in the late 2000’s that went sour, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the governing AKP have been psychologically traumatized by the potential for FETHULLAH GULEN to come to power. Furthermore, there is still bad blood between the AKP and FETHULLAH GULEN from a corruption investigation in December 2013 that saw renowned business people and senior bureaucrats close to the AKP arrested by FETHULLAH GULEN loyal police officers that gave way to an all-out war between the AKP government and the FETHULLAH GULEN HIZMET movement. In my opinion, this AKP paranoid schizophrenic ideology that I refer to as the “GULEN BI-POLAR DISORDER” has resulted, as of today, with more than 47,000 people arrested since the failed Coup D’État, including over 10,700 police officers and 7,400 military personnel, while 120,000 others from a wide range of professions including soldiers, police, teachers and public servants have either been fired or suspended over alleged links with what TURKEY's government considers to be terrorist groups. In regards to TURKEY carrying out a series of airstrikes against U.S. KURDISH allies fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq, it is deeply concerning that TURKEY conducted such airstrikes without proper coordination either with the U.S. or the broader global coalition to defeat ISIS. In my opinion, given the extraordinarily complex and tight battle spaces in these areas, it is vital that TURKEY and all partners in the anti-ISIS effort coordinate their actions closely and work together to maintain maximum pressure on ISIS while insuring the safety of all ALLIANCE forces whom in this case also suffered casualties in the form of KURDISH YPG units. In my opinion, the loss of five KURDISH YPG fighters plus the wounding of another nine due to the TURKISH air raids because of the nearby presence of PKK fighters is unacceptable and demonstrates that TURKEY has a difficult time differentiating between KURDISH PKK and KURDISH YPG units such that TURKEY does not seem to show any restraint when there is a risk of collateral damage to the KURDISH YPG forces. Therefore, in my opinion, TURKEY now seems to be heading in the dangerous direction of a totalitarian regime whereby the system of government is centralized and dictatorial and thus requires complete subservience to the governing TURKISH AKP. 

Moving on to IRAQ, the recent successful attacks on ISIS by IRAQI security forces in MOSUL, has clearly sent the message to ISIS that it is just a matter of time until the ISIS Empire in MOSUL dies. However, the IRAQI led troops on the ground are essentially forced to fight ISIS style, which is slow and brutal for any other type of heavy artillery attack on ISIS, will result in significant collateral damage in terms of human casualties. Therefore, the ALLIANCE forces recapture of eastern MOSUL in its entirety has triggered a lightning fast momentum as ALLIANCE forces managed to seize control of major parts of Western MOSUL although in my opinion, the last of the fighting will most probably be a lot more difficult. In my opinion, ISIS will cling on to the oldest parts of MOSUL city where streets are narrow making it hard to manoeuvre military convoys and thus increasing the risk of ambushes and civilian casualties. Therefore, it is not surprising to see that ALLIANCE forces are having a difficult time to fully retake control of central MOSUL’s OLD CITY but this struggle is unfortunately necessary to secure the entire province of MOSUL such that patience is of utmost importance as ALLIANCE forces must continue with their relentless yet prudent attacks until ALL ISIS snipers have been eliminated. In regards to the recent seizure of further control of most of western MOSUL from ISIS, including the ancient city of HATRA, after fierce clashes with ISIS, it is not surprising to see ISIS fighting until death as surrender is not acceptable under ISIS’s ideology. In my opinion, the IRAQI army does not have the luxury of conducting lightning raids against ISIS terrorists in Western MOSUL, as the city is heavily booby trapped with suicide bombers and civilians functioning as human shields. Therefore, the ISIS militants’ basic strategy appears to be to focus much of their efforts on taking out the elite IRAQI counter terrorism units on the belief that if these most experienced IRAQI fighting units can be eliminated, Iraq’s remaining armed forces can be neutralized and the IRAQI government’s broader offensive can be repelled. It is important to note that the IRAQI counter terrorism units have made enormous sacrifices since 2014 in terms of human lives such that most of the experienced IRAQI fighters have already been killed in ANBAR and elsewhere throughout IRAQ. In my opinion, ISIS has proven to be one of the most resilient terrorist organizations the world has ever seen with thousands of foreign fighters brainwashed to the point of coming to IRAQ to die without the need for any basic necessities of life including a shower which is precisely why ISIS has demonstrated itself to be quite a formidable opposition holding on to power. Furthermore, ISIS’s deep rooted resentment and hate as demonstrated by the complete destruction of all heritage sites including HATRA on the basis of idolatry shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that ISIS is an organization completely consumed by rage such that any form of negotiations with ISIS are too little, too late, at this stage, as ISIS has become completely mentally and psychotically insane. In my opinion, assuming that the KURDISH peshmerga, IRAQI army, SHIITE militia and some SUNNI militia forces continue to overlook their differences and stick together, ISIS will inevitably be decimated in IRAQ, although ISIS will likely survive as an incognito terrorist organization throughout the world. In my opinion, with ISIS inevitably nearing its downfall in IRAQ, IRAQI security forces need to be prepared for a different kind of war against ISIS, shifting away from ground offensives to intelligence work and surgical airstrikes to counter an expected move by ISIS away from holding territory and back to a more terrorist role of a dispersed underground terror organization. In my opinion, ISIS is already laying the groundwork for a new terrorist strategy of hiding in remote areas, carrying out attacks in IRAQ and abroad and resorting to organized crime to bankroll future operations. 

Moving on to SYRIA, the SYRIAN government forces recapture of the entire former rebel stronghold of east ALEPPO in an offensive that left bodies in the streets and sparked global outrage managed to lead to a ceasefire across SYRIA that appears to now be broken after its brokers, RUSSIA, TURKEY and IRAN obtained approval from the UN Security Council. In my opinion, RUSSIA that invested much political time and energy in ending the fighting after bombing the opposition relentlessly for 15 months was the critical player in this ceasefire as RUSSIA managed to control the uncontrollable consisting of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, IRAN and SHIITE militias like Lebanon’s Hezbollah whereas TURKEY managed to control the Free Syrian Army (FSA) along with their affiliated rebel factions. Meanwhile, peace negotiations have stalled after TURKEY and ASSAD’s two main allies, RUSSIA and IRAN, initially backed these peace talks as guarantors of a fragile ceasefire. However, the allegations by Amnesty International that over thirteen thousand people were hanged at a SYRIAN prison in a secret crackdown on dissent by the current regime under the authority of President, Bashar al-Assad were excluded from the agenda for the fifth round of negotiations that concluded at the end of March. In my opinion, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's future should be off the agenda for now and the main focus of the talks should be governance, a new constitution and elections as the primary goal of these meetings should be to end the war in SYRIA and to implement a long-term sustainable solution for peace. 

In regards to the derailed peace talks, the derailment is obviously due to U.S. President, Donald Trump’s authorization of the firing of 59 TOMAHAWK cruise missiles at the SYRIAN Armed Forces in response to what the U.S. believes was a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 80 people authorized by President Bashar al-Assad. That being said, RUSSIA has now formally denied any involvement by the SYRIAN Armed Forces and RUSSIA in these chemical attacks and has gone so far as to accuse the SYRIAN rebels to be behind these chemical attacks on their own people. Therefore, the U.S. and RUSSIA agreed for the moment to disagree as the war raged on this week as ISRAEL got involved and initiated a missile strike at a military site near DAMASCUS international airport that appears to have been an arms depot run by Lebanon's HEZBOLLAH movement. I am surprised that ISRAEL would choose to execute such a strike during these tense times whereby ceasefires seem to be collapsing as Radical Gangster Terrorist organizations such as JABHAT FATEH AL-SHAM; HAYAT TAHRIR AL-SHAM; AL QAEDA; NUSRA FRONT; AHRAR AL-SHAM; or some other FULL OF SHIT GANGSTER SHAM seem to be the only other organizations initiating strikes. That being said, while ISRAEL has made no secret of its policy of acting to prevent transfers of weapons to HEZBOLLAH, ISRAEL has thus far refused to confirm or deny involvement in any particular strikes preferring to maintain ambiguity in the hope of lowering the pressure on the other side to retaliate. In my opinion, HEZBOLLAH is too busy right now fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad SYRIAN armed forces to focus on retaliatory strikes on ISRAEL such that it was not demonstrated, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that HEZBOLLAH was planning to use these weapons for purposes of striking ISRAEL directly in the future. Therefore, these strikes by ISRAEL appear to be a deliberate warning to HEZBOLLAH from ISRAEL whereby every step HEZBOLLAH takes, every move HEZBOLLAH makes, ISRAEL will be watching HEZBOLLAH. The reality on the ground in SYRIA is that HEZBOLLAH was instrumental in the war to preserve Bashar al-Assad in power and has thus only grown stronger as a military force to be reckoned with on the ground. However, ISRAEL still has the intelligence and air force sophistication including missile defense systems to control the HEZBOLLAH risk in the future albeit the reality of the current situation whereby HEZBOLLAH has become a force to be reckoned with on the ground due to over six plus years of military experience obtained during this SYRIAN civil war. In regards to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s claim that ISRAELI military strikes on his army showed that ISRAEL was supporting terrorists in SYRIA, it is obvious that everybody seems to have a different definition of who the terrorists are depending upon whose personal, financial and political interests the group pledges allegiance to which has been the root cause of unrest in the entire region as aside from ISIS everybody seems to be defending their own while pointing fingers at their foes. Meanwhile, in regards to air force fighter jets believed to be either RUSSIAN or SYRIAN striking two hospitals in rebel-held IDLIB province following several other strikes on medical facilities in north-western SYRIA in recent weeks, that both RUSSIA and SYRIA deny, it does appear from my point-of-view that somebody wants to punish the opposition movement. That is, from my point-of-view, someone is trying to systematically target the remaining hospitals in IDLIB to make life for people in the liberated areas intolerable such that other than the SYRIAN regime or its allies, it would be difficult to point the finger on another party that has air force capacity in the region. In my opinion, whoever is responsible for these air strikes are heartless cowards as the ongoing damage of medical facilities in northern SYRIA is appalling, to say the least, as the destruction has been depriving thousands of people of basic health services and among the hospitals put out of service was one specializing in maternity and child care. 

In summary, I refer to “World Peace Lennon Ivan Style – Part 244” as the belief that MOSUL victory is critical to ISIS decimation but SYRIAN ceasefire between ASSAD and FSA also key while SYRIAN negotiations must result in peace albeit necessity for ALL parties to exercise restraint as ISRAEL striking HEZBOLLAH ammunition depots & ASSAD military forces striking hospitals to intentionally inflict misery only exacerbates already deep rooted scars spread wrong that cannot be stitched as exposed for far too long.

Spirit of John Lennon – Kurdish Guerrilla Song: 

April 30, 2017