PKK offensive in Syria and Turkey

Orkhan Sattarov. Exclusively to VK

Die Welt published an article on the large-scale offensive of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey and Syria. “Almost every day Turkey hints at a military intervention to Syria: the motives are the threat of establishing a Kurdish state unity, the inflow of refugees and the gathering of Syrian troops near the Turkish border,” Die Welt reports. According to the well-known Western expert on Turkey, Gareth Jenkins, all these things are bluster. “Turkey cannot and won’t take any steps on its own. If an intervention is implemented, it will be international and headed by the US. The Turkish population doesn’t want an independent military strike on Syria by Turkey. Even when the Syrian air defense forces shot at the Turkish fighter aircraft, no more than 20% of the Turkish population wanted a response from the Turkish side. I think today the number is even less,” the expert believes.

Meanwhile, the situation in Turkey became more acute, as the PKK began a large-scale offensive, Die Welt reports. Fights near Semdinli have been taking place in the past three weeks. It seems the Turkish army has used aviation and sent thousands of soldiers to the region. Apparently the PKK has decided to establish a front line instead of the usual launching of guerilla strikes. Hundreds of PKK militants seem to have received an order to provoke a public riot in this Kurdish-populated region. If that was their aim, they didn’t succeed. The mass media assumes that the real task of the PKK in Turkey is to side-track Turkish attention from Kurdish activities in the northern regions of Syria. However, Jenkins doesn’t believe in this version or in rumours that Bashar Assad’s regime stands behind the PKK’s strategy: “The regime worries about its own problems, it has few opportunities to act beyond Syria's borders. The PKK long ago declared that 2012 would be a year when nobody would defeat it. Of course there is a connection with the Syrian events, but in the sense that the situation in Syria encouraged the PKK to take the offensive.”

Lebanon and the Syrian crisis

Lebanon is deeply involved in the Syrian conflict, the Austrian periodical Wiener Zeitung reports, mentioning that the Shiah movement Hezbollah supports President Assad, while Sunni forces support the rebels. Dozens of Sunni Arabs from the Persian Gulf countries living in Lebanon are returning to their countries because of the unstable situation. The Austrian foreign ministry also warns its citizens about insecurity of trips to some regions of Lebanon. The northern part of the country is meant (the Tripoli region), as well as the Bekaa Valley, regions to the south of the Litani River and regions near Palestinian refugee camps.

Possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran

The German mass media continues to discuss the possibility of a preventive strike on Iran by Israel. Focus cites Israeli media and reports on an American blogger who published secret plans for an Israeli attack on Iran. According to the assumptive plans of the Israeli military command, an unprecedented cyber-attack will be launched at first, then there will be an air strike on Iranian military and nuclear facilities. All major periodicals of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland reported the news on the latest assessments made by the Israeli government, according to which a war with Iran would last for 30 days, and 500 Israeli soldiers would die in it.

Ahmadinejad at the OIC session in Mecca

The German expert on the Middle East, Ulrich Tilgner, being a guest of the Swiss analytical TV show Tagesshau, commented on the invitation to Iran from Saudi Arabia to attend the OIC summit which took place in Mecca. Answering a question about expectations of a breakthrough from the OIC negotiations, the expert said: “Ahmadinejad has no proposals. He is an outsider even in Iran, where he is suffering and has only 10 months left of his presidency. He won’t say anything new, and he won’t be heard.” Tingler predicts the suspension of Syria’s membership in the OIC.

Pussy Riot in the focus of the German media

Leading German periodicals are following the scandalous affair of the punk-group Pussy Riot. Spiegel reports, citing Novaya Gazeta, on the protest act held in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow and against five arrested activists. The Western media believes the case is political and emphasizes that the members of the punk-group are eager critics of the Russian authorities, and first of all President Vladimir Putin.