World Peace “Lennon Ivan Style” – Part 245

World Peace “Lennon Ivan Style” – Part 245 

During the week ending on Sunday, May 7, 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 further crack-down measures as a school principal has disappeared in the latest in a string of international arrests allegedly ordered by TURKEY. Turgay Karaman was on his way to a meeting with lawyers when he was intercepted by plain-clothes police officers and forced into a waiting car in MALAYSIA. Surveillance camera footage shows the 43 year-old being forced away with his hands tied behind his back although Turgay Karaman has lived in MALAYSIA legally for 13 years on a work permit. However, police have since revealed that Turgay Karaman is one of two TURKISH men detained in MALAYSIA for unspecified offences relating to national security. However, a lawyer representing Turgay Karaman, the principal of Time International School, said neither Turgay Karaman nor the other detained businessman Ihsan Aslan were part of the failed “Coup D’État”. Nonetheless, TURKEY’s government has requested anyone TURKEY accuses of links with the Fethullah Gulen movement to be extradited to Turkey, where more than 110,000 people have been detained and 47,000 formally arrested in the ongoing crackdown after the failed “Coup D’État”. In addition, the TURKISH government blocked WIKIPEDIA as part of its latest attack on dissent as Turkey made demands of the online encyclopaedia that the site remove all content critical of the TURKISH government that WIKIPEDIA refused to do. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that TURKEY was seriously saddened by television footage showing U.S. military forces operating alongside Syrian KURDISH fighters that TURKEY views as terrorists while the U.S. believes that the KURDISH forces are the most effective fighting force against ISIS. TURKISH forces launched airstrikes on the Syrian Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) as TURKEY considers the YPG to be an affiliate of the PKK against which TURKEY has been waging a 30 plus year fight for control of southeastern TURKEY. Conversely, the US views the KURDISH led Syrian Democratic Forces as the most effective partner to counter ISIS in northern Syria as proven by steady advances against ISIS. Finally, RUSSIA and TURKEY agreed to boost economic ties as RUSSIA hailed improving bilateral relations following tensions caused by TURKEY's shooting down of a RUSSIAN fighter jet near the SYRIAN border in 2015. However, there was little progress on SYRIA where TURKEY and RUSSIA back opposing sides although they seem to be getting back to a normal cooperative partnership as RUSSIA and TURKEY reached a comprehensive agreement to lift sanctions although the exact date of their removal remained unclear.

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 a new IRAQI offensive to take back MOSUL from ISIS that gained new momentum with an armoured IRAQI force trying to advance into MOSUL city from the north western side. ISIS is now holding onto the northwestern corner of MOSUL that includes the historic Old MOSUL City centre and the medieval GRAND AL-NURI Mosque including its landmark historic leaning minaret where the ISIS black flag has been flying from the tower since ever since June of 2014. It appears that IRAQI forces are making a steady advance in their offensive and that ISIS fighters are breaking down slowly but surely and retreating from the northwestern corner. Meanwhile, in another symbol of the weakening of the ISIS organization, ISIS vigilante, Um Qays who was in charge of intelligence cells as well as women police forces within ISIS, was found dead with marks of gunshots in her chest at a house on the outskirts of Tal Afar, a major ISIS stronghold. 

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 while TURKEY, IRAN and RUSSIA signed an agreement at the SYRIAN cease-fire talks in KAZAKHSTAN calling for the creation of four de-escalation zones in SYRIA that represent the latest attempt by all key players in the region to reduce the violence in SYRIA including the commitment by President Bashar al-Assad that the SYRIAN air force will halt flights over the designated areas in SYRIA. Unfortunately, as officials from TURKEY that backs the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and IRAN and RUSSIA that backs the current regime under President Bashar al-Assad signed the agreement, some members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) shouted in protest and walked out of the conference room because the FSA is protesting IRAN's participation at the cease-fire conference and the role of IRAN as a guarantor of the cease-fire agreement, accusing IRAN of being a responsible party in the war in SYRIA that has killed more than 400,000 people and displaced over half of SYRIA’s population. As per Abu Osama Golani, a FSA general who attended the cease-fire conference in KAZAKHSTAN, IRAN is a country that is killing the SYRIAN people and thus the killer cannot also be the rescuer. Meanwhile, President Bashar al-Assad has said that although it will abide by the proposed cease-fire agreement, the Syrian Armed Forces (SAF) will continue fighting terrorism wherever armed rebel groups are fighting SAF troops. It is obvious that the various terrorist groups have no interest for peace as over 130 militants and civilians were killed and more than 500 people were wounded during a recent wave of terrorist infighting in the EAST GHOUTA region of DAMASCUS, SYRIA. It seems that terrorist groups JAYSH AL-ISLAM and FAYLAQ AL-RAHMAN have been trading attacks for control of the EAST GHOUTA region resulting in fierce battles shattering any hope for the various terrorist groups to respect any sort of cease-fire agreement. 

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” whereby TURKEY has now crossed the border into MALAYSIA whereby Turgay Karaman, the principal of Time International School and detained businessman Ihsan Aslan who have formally refuted any involvement in the failed “Coup D’État” were detained under guilty until proven innocent principles with plains-clothes police officers arresting both men and sweeping them away like trailer park trash with no respect for civil human rights and liberties. In my opinion, TURKEY’s government request that anyone TURKEY accuses of links with the Fethullah Gulen movement be extradited to TURKEY is without merit based on the notion that everyone is entitled to a fair trial in their respective country of sponsorship which in this case is MALAYSIA before being deported to TURKEY as there is a difference between being found guilty by TURKEY in appearance as opposed to being found guilty in fact by MALAYSIA. Therefore, until such time as TURKEY presents evidence before the MALAYSIAN courts that these two men are guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, TURKEY’s request for extradition needs to be delayed as otherwise the precedent will be set that wild accusations are sufficient to have suspects detained. In regards to the TURKISH government blocking WIKIPEDIA as Turkey made demands that the site remove all content critical of the TURKISH government that WIKIPEDIA refused to do, I believe that WIKIPEDIA needs to fight the ban as access to information is a fundamental human right of all people including the TURKISH people such that WIKIPEDIA has the clout to stand with the TURKISH people and fight for this fundamental civil right. In regards to U.S. military forces operating alongside Syrian KURDISH fighters that TURKEY views as terrorists while the U.S. believes that the KURDISH forces are the most effective fighting force against ISIS, I believe that once again divergent personal, financial and political interests tend to characterize the same group of fighters as either freedom fighters or terrorists depending upon the point-of-view. In my opinion, this is the new geopolitical complexity that has flooded the entire region whereby everybody continuously and persistently jockeys primarily for his or her respective interests first while ISIS is placed secondary along with all other strategic NATO alliances. In regards to RUSSIA and TURKEY getting back to a normal cooperative partnership as RUSSIA and TURKEY reached a comprehensive agreement to lift sanctions although the exact date of their removal remained unclear, I believe RUSSIA saw the opening to strengthen ties with TURKEY after TURKEY blasted the U.S. for backing the KURDS and thus took the opportunity to sway TURKEY in favour of resuming economic ties with the eventual lifting of sanctions. In my opinion, this is the new game on the geopolitical stage of modern day chess like plays whereby nothing ever stays the same but rather varies perpetually depending on what various dominant personal, financial and political interests say. 

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 new IRAQI offensive from the northwest of MOSUL against ISIS that gained new momentum with an armoured IRAQI force trying to advance into MOSUL city, this would represent a strategic victory by IRAQI forces as located in the vicinity is the GRAND AL-NURI Mosque which has become a hugely symbolic prize as it is the mosque where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made a rare public appearance back in July of 2014 and declared ISIS’s caliphate after ISIS seized around one-third of IRAQ by sheer and brutal force. In my opinion, it is precisely because of the symbolic nature of the GRAND AL-NURI Mosque that the fight for Mosul’s west has been slow and deadly to IRAQI forces and civilians caught in the crossfire with ISIS. I believe that regardless of the IRAQI casualties, there is no other viable option to lift the ISIS siege of the OLD MOSUL CITY than what the IRAQI forces are currently trying to accomplish which is to completely surround the OLD MOSUL CITY before launching an operation to clear it in its entirety from ISIS. Therefore, after more than six months of fighting that has killed and wounded more than 8,000 civilians with over 420,000 people having been forced to flee western MOSUL alone since the fighting began, there does appear to be a light of hope at the end of the tunnel for the hundreds of thousands of people still trapped inside MOSUL neighbourhoods under ISIL control. Meanwhile, in regards to ISIS vigilante, Um Qays who was in charge of intelligence cells as well as women police forces within ISIS, being found dead with marks of gunshots in her chest, it is my opinion that all ISIS terrorists regardless of their gender should be treated equally such that Um Qays got what she deserved and the world is a far safer and better place with her death. 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 while officials from TURKEY that backs the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and IRAN and RUSSIA that backs the current regime under President Bashar al-Assad signed a cease-fire agreement that establishes four de-escalation zones. However, some members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) shouted in protest and walked out of the conference stating that IRAN is a country that is killing the SYRIAN people and thus the killer cannot also be the rescuer. In my opinion, everybody at the table of negotiations has their respective hands dirty such that the protests by the FSA against IRAN cannot hold back the peace process. In my opinion, there will definitely never be any peace in SYRIA if IRAN is excluded given that IRAN has been instrumental in maintaining the existing regime under President Bashar al-Assad in power. That being said, I am not condoning IRAN’s actions other than to say that everybody in the region could be held accountable for killing the SYRIAN people in which case nobody could sit at the table of peace negotiations under the FSA logic as everybody now functioning as a rescuer has previously been involved in the SYRIAN conflict as a killer. Therefore, SYRIA is at a point in its history where there has been enough war and bloodshed to conclude that the SYRIAN conflict cannot be resolved by force such that all key parties involved in the war including IRAN must negotiate some kind of a peace deal to end the war in SYRIA once and for all. In regards to President Bashar al-Assad confirming that the Syrian Armed Forces (SAF) will continue fighting terrorism wherever armed rebel groups are fighting SAF troops, it is evident that ISIS, HAYAT TAHRIR AL-SHAM, JABHAT FATEH AL-SHAM, AL QAEDA, NUSRA FRONT, AHRAR AL-SHAM or ALL FULL OF SHIT GANGSTER SHAM have zero interest in peace negotiations such that wars with these terrorist factions should not derail the cease-fire agreement. In regards to over 130 militants and civilians being killed and more than 500 people being wounded during a recent wave of terrorist infighting in the EAST GHOUTA region of DAMASCUS, SYRIA, the various terrorist groups operating in the region have zero interest in any form of cease-fire such that there is nothing TURKEY, IRAN or RUSSIA can do other than intervene when the terrorists cross the line and innocent civilians start to die. 

In summary, I refer to “World Peace Lennon Ivan Style – Part 245” 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 RADICAL GANGSTER TERRORISTS still raging war to even the never ending score that only the latest cease-fire deal signed by TURKEY, IRAN and RUSSIA can result in an end to the heartless, senseless and savage gore. 

Spirit of John Lennon – Kurdish Guerrilla Song:

May 7, 2017