Saudi violates Yemen cdase-fire; peace talks nevertheless continue

The Houthi and Saleh forces and the Saudi-lead forces have begun peace negation,in Switzerland, under the UN auspices.

On Friday, December 11, 2-15, the Saudi violated a cease fire agreement.

Tribal fighters loyal to Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi look at shells left behind by Houthi rebels in Majaz district, Yemen's northwestern province of Marib, after the pro-Hadi forces took the area from Houthi rebels. Photo Reuters

The Houthi-Saleh forces did not use the violation as an excuse to end negotiations, which continue.

Here's how the two sides stand now:

Al-Qaeda is limited to the vast Yemen desert. . .  

. . . the largest sand desert there is.

The US could have defeated al-Qaeda when the Southern Separatists Movement was strong, if  it had joined forces with them instead of with then-present Saleh and the Saudi: a blunder by Bushco-holdovers in the state Department.  Too late now to fix it.

Why the US is part of Middle East problem, not the solution

The quotation below is from an al Monitor interview with Arab Knesset member Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint List, a political alliance of four Arab-dominated parties.

Well worth reading, for liberals and others interested in community in the US.

Th article, quoted below, concludes with this:

Odeh:  As I have said before, and let me reiterate this, the United States isn’t the solution — it’s the problem. To date, there is no one unified group of Arab Israelis in the United States holding events and talking to the public in general as well as to people who carry influence and trendsetters. This is my primary goal at the moment, to set up such a body in America through which I can influence American public opinion.

Reasonable.  What can one do, from the middle of the Pacific Ocean?

Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List, poses before the filming of a television campaign ad in Tel Aviv, March 8, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/ Ratner)

Why the US is part of Middle East problem, not the solution

In early November, Arab Knesset member Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint List, received a surprising email from Foreign Policy magazine: He had been selected as one of its 100 Leading Global Thinkers for 2015. Yet, Odeh could not pop the champagne cork right away, as he was asked to keep his selection under wraps until the official announcement was made in early December. Unfamiliar to most of the Israeli public until about a year ago, he suddenly found himself rubbing elbows with Pope Francis, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, the negotiators of the Iran nuclear deal and other world leaders and thinkers.

The announcement indicates that Odeh was chosen for the prestigious list thanks to his ability to unite Israel’s Arabs. “Odeh yoked diverse leaders — Islamists, secular feminists, socialists — with a forthright argument that Arabs deserve the same rights as Jewish citizens,” it read.

Odeh called his father, a construction worker, and whispered the news into his ear so that none of his associates or aides could eavesdrop. He later drove home to tell his wife the happy news. He then had to hold his tongue for nearly a month until the magazine made the official announcement.

In early December, Odeh went on a US tour to voice his own opinions and to serve as a mouthpiece for Arab Israelis and their predicaments. According to him, the decision-makers of the world’s largest power are hardly familiar with the population that makes up 20% of Israel’s citizens.

Odeh returned to Israel earlier this week with at least one operative goal. He wants to set up an active lobby of Arab Israelis living in the United States who attended American universities and speak English. What he would like is for them to do everything they can to raise public awareness in the United States concerning the issue of Arab Israelis.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Odeh relates that during his tours in Washington, Philadelphia and New York and after addressing various crowds and more than 20 research institutions, he has arrived at the conclusion that not only is the American establishment not part of the solution, it is in fact one of the main obstacles to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“These are perhaps harsh words,” Odeh tells Al-Monitor, “but it is indeed the truth. US foreign policy is predicated on interests and not on morality. They shouldn’t be selling this democracy fiction to us. Americans are best friends with tyrants and primitive leaders in the Persian Gulf — those who prevent women from driving. But all of a sudden, if there’s one Arab leader they don’t like, they take down the flag of democracy, come riding roughshod with large forces, allowing fundamentalist movements to take control over everything. We’ve seen this in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, too.”

Touching on the American conduct concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Odeh observed, “Saying that the United States has supposedly bailed out on the conflict — and that we saw this after the meeting between [President Barack] Obama and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu — is simply untrue. It hasn’t given up. It keeps paying billions for what is called 'security' and 'Israel’s army.' All those statements about the administration wanting a two-state solution but not Netanyahu are an outright lie. The United States is pleased with what’s going on in the Middle East, selling weapons to Israel and Saudi Arabia. It is the only one that maintains ties with everyone, but the others don’t maintain any ties with each other. It stands to gain by not having peace in the Middle East, which is why I directly point a finger at the United States for being the main stumbling block to peace in the region. If the US really wants the two-state, it can force the Israeli government to act, but it doesn’t do so on purpose. When it comes to the issue of peace, it only pays lip service.”

The rest of the interview follows:

Al-Monitor:  If that’s your opinion of the United States, what were you looking for there?

Odeh:  You know where I stand in regard to Netanyahu’s government, so what am I doing in the Knesset? I’m a person who has an opinion and wants to make a change, and I also know it can’t be done by a knockout. There are over 300 million people in America. There are African-American movements from which I have learned and still do. I’m learning from the American civil rights movement and want to knit ties with it. One of the things I’m trying to do is to tell them that there are relations between the official United States and the official Israel. But it is high time, for the first time in history, that ties were fostered between the progressive forces in both countries, for example between the Arabs and the blacks and between democratic forces in both Israel and the US. This is what I’d like to advance.

Al-Monitor:  [Now obligatory questions about Trump ommitted.]

Al-Monitor:  During your US tour, you refused to enter the building of the Jewish Agency in New York when you arrived there to address the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Why?

Odeh:  You know how much I want to meet with people. I was told "the Conference of Presidents" and I replied, "Sure thing." Someone whispered in my ears that they are very right wing. I said, "Bring them on." I don’t need to preach to the converted. I want to talk with them. I thought I was going to address them in their offices. Suddenly at the entrance I see signs for Aliyah, the Jewish Agency and the Zionist Congress. So I asked, "Where am I?"

I was informed that that was a Jewish Agency building, so I asked if they could find another venue. Then somebody came over and in very blunt language said to me, “You don’t want to talk to us; you’re against us.” That was Malcolm Hoenlein, their president. I said, “I want to meet you, but please understand me. I won’t go in there.”

Al-Monitor:  What do you have against the Jewish Agency?

Odeh:  Israel has built over 700 Jewish communities and zero Arab ones. The Jewish Agency played a big role in establishing the Jewish communities, and part of it came at the expense of our lands. It’s not just the Nakba and not just the discrimination, but even today, in connection with the unrecognized communities. It’s the Jewish Agency that gives trouble to the young people there, together with the Jewish National Fund, which is the one that expelled the Arabs from their lands and continues to do so. So with all due respect, let me say that I can’t address you, not here at the Jewish Agency offices.

Al-Monitor:  Coming back to Israel, you evoked the idea of setting up an active lobby of Arab Israelis living in the United States in order to raise public awareness there concerning the issue of Arab Israelis. Why is such a lobby necessary?

Odeh:  As I have said before, and let me reiterate this, the United States isn’t the solution — it’s the problem. To date, there is no one unified group of Arab Israelis in the United States holding events and talking to the public in general as well as to people who carry influence and trendsetters. This is my primary goal at the moment, to set up such a body in America through which I can influence American public opinion.

∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼

From Wikipedia:

Ayman Odeh (Arabic: أيمن عودة‎, Hebrew: איימן עודה‎; born 1 January 1975) is an Arab Israeli lawyer and politician.[1] He is a member of the Knesset, and currently serves as leader of Hadash, and head of the Joint List, a political alliance of four Arab-dominated parties; Hadash, Balad, the United Arab List and Ta'al.

∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼

On facebook, with contact information . . . .

∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼

The horrific settlements which Americans are funding.  Israel has built more than 700 Jewish communities and zero Arab ones.  Some of the new settlement are built on land that for which Palestinians hold deeds dating from the Ottoman Empire, but no matter to the Israeli.

Graffiti on the road to Bethlehem in the West Bank stating "Ich bin ein Berliner" (English: "I am a Berliner")

Obama's Foreign Policy

Hussein Obama is getting some bad press.  This article, in Foreign Affairs, is supportive of Obama’s unusual and effective approach to foreign policy, and I am happy to see it, especially because the parent organization that publishes  Foreign Affairs, The Council on Foreign Relations, has become of  late noeconic (my word, and I like it), angry at anything Russian and eager to war with Russia.

A summary of the article:

Obama's WayThe President in PracticeBy Fred KaplanBarack Obama has been besieged by foreign policy crises, constrained by diminished American power, and pressured by opponents at home and allies abroad to take action and show leadership, even when dealing with intractable problems. Yet his caution about embarking on unnecessary military adventures seems wise, and he has managed to keep sight of the big picture as others have gotten lost in the shrubs.

We would all do well to study Obama’s foreign policy style.  It is the style best suited for the confusion inWest Asia, where most of the action is today.  An aggressive, muscular style such as is promoted by many politicians in this Election Season, would be as bd as bad as the nemonic Invasion of rIraq.

Part 4: Opportunities and dangers in West Asia

There follows current affairs reports from two sources. 

The first, al Monitor, generally favors Iran over the Saudi, as do I.   al Monitor provides the most information regularly on the Middle Est.

The scond, from the Council on Foreign Relations, generally has the best analysis and the most accurate reporting, though, generally, from a neo-conic point of view, which favors war over peace. 

From al Monitor:

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) speaks with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, during a signing ceremony after the talks in Tehran, Nov. 23, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Alexei Druzhinin)

Will Iran play peacemaker between Russia, Turkey?

The downing of a Russian Su-24 fighter jet by Turkey near the Syrian border has put Iran in an uncomfortable position given its close ties with both countries. As Russia and Turkey continue to escalate tensions with new accusations against one another of cooperating with the Islamic State terrorist group, the announcement of unilateral sanctions and the ending of military and economic ties, Iran may try to bring both countries back from the brink.

Arash KaramiContributor,  Iran PulseArash Karami covers Iranian media for Al-Monitor. On Twitter: @thekarami

In an article titled “How can Iran mediate between Russia and Turkey?” Shabestan News Agency interviewed an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general and foreign policy analysts to discuss the issue. The article offers various perspectives on how Iran sees its role between the two countries.

Gen. Yadollah Javani, . . .

. . . adviser to the supreme leader’s representative to the IRGC, said, “Iran wants to be a mediator between the Russians and the Turks.” Javani was critical of Turkey’s policies in the region, however, saying it “has been a piece of the puzzle of the enemy and played an important role in helping bring about terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq.”

Javani envisioned Iran’s mediation as part of a larger role in the region that coincides with America’s declining role, saying, “To create tensions between countries in the region, the United States has attempted to incite Turkey against Russia, and Turkey must realize that the influence of the West in the region has come to an end and Iran’s mediation can be a type of convergence of regional powers.”

Foreign policy analyst Hassan Hanizadeh told Shabestan News Agency that he believes Iran will first attempt to limit the Russia-Turkey crisis to Syria, so that the two countries do not begin to have differences in other parts of the region. He said that Iran’s ultimate goal will be to return the Moscow-Ankara relations back to normal and that if officials from both countries are unwilling, Iran will “take action as a mediator.”

Hanizadeh also said that Iran will try to convince Turkey to decrease “its destructive role in Syria.” Given Turkey’s support of opposition fighters to the Syrian government and reports they seek to create a type of buffer zone on the border, this policy shift by Turkey seems unlikely at the moment.

Conservative analyst and Tehran University professor Mohammad-Sadegh Koushaki was less optimistic and more hard line on Turkey, saying, “It’s unlikely that Turkey has reached the level of rationality to accept Iran’s mediation.” He said that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan knew that targeting the Russian plane would cause a harsh reaction. He added that accepting Iran’s mediation would be a rational decision and that Erdogan “has always shown that his actions are rational.”

For Iran, despite being on opposing sides of Syria’s bloody civil war, Turkey has been an important trading partner, with $13.7 billion volume of trade in 2014. Turkey has also helped Iran evade international sanctions the country has been under for their nuclear program. With the international sanctions coming off as a result of the nuclear deal, trade is expected to increase in numerous industries between the countries.

Ties with Russia, however, are much deeper for Iran. In addition to playing a large role in the development of the country’s nuclear program, the two countries are aligned on many geopolitical issues in the Middle East. According to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s foreign policy adviser Ali Akbar Velayati, Iran and Russia have recently “entered a strategic relationship” and their economic and security relations will grow.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani is the latest official to comment on the Russia-Turkey crisis. On Dec. 1, he called it unfortunate that there is tension between the two countries and said it is harmful to the fight against terrorism. Larijani also praised Russia’s actions in Syria, saying, “If the West had done what Russia is doing against IS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups, we would not have had these regional problems.”

∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼

Published by the Council on Foreign Relations
 

ALEXEI NIKOLSKY / REUTERS Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to servicemen during a training exercise at the Donguz testing range in Orenburg region, Russia, September 19, 2015.SNAPSHOT November 30, 2015 TurkeyRussian Federation

Putin's Game of Chicken 

And How the West Can Win 

By Gregory Feifer

As Russia slaps sanctions on Turkey in retaliation for the November 24 downing of a Russian fighter jet over the Turkish-Syrian border, the standoff between Russia and the West has taken a dangerous new turn. One day, Russian President Vladimir Putin is courted by Western leaders reeling from the Paris attacks; the next, he’s locked in a confrontation with a NATO member that prompted a spike in social media posts raising the possibility of World War III.

Unpredictability has been a hallmark of the Kremlin’s foreign policy since before Russia invaded Georgia almost eight years ago. Although the current course of events may appear confounding, however, it follows a consistent logic dictated by Putin’s spinning of his global role. His moves toward rapprochement, no less than his hostility, are aimed not at building a genuine anti-terror coalition but at challenging the West to a high-stakes game of chicken. His zero-sum reasoning is dangerous for all, and Western countries must understand it to craft their response.

RUSSIAN’S MYTHS

Putin’s swagger is an integral part of the Kremlin’s formula for manufacturing the truth. In this latest case, evidence that the Russian plane violated Turkish airspace is irrelevant. When the Russian military trotted out a man it claimed was the surviving crew member, he denied receiving any warnings to leave Turkish airspace. Never mind that the orchestrated-looking video showed him only from behind and failed to conceal him from appearing to read his answers from cue cards.

 Honor guards carry a coffin with the body of Oleg Peshkov, a Russian pilot of the downed SU-24 jet, during an honorary ceremony at the Chkalovsky military airport outside Moscow, Russia, November 30, 2015.VADIM SAVITSKY / REUTERS

In Russia, outrage about the crash is enabling the Kremlin to expand on its Soviet-style narrative about the West spreading global instability, sponsoring a fascist war in Ukraine, and seeking to steal Russia’s natural resources. Now state-approved opinion-makers are tapping into an older trope: their country’s cultural ties to Byzantium, to which the Russian Orthodox Church traces its roots. Social media seethes with vows to “take back” Constantinople—as Istanbul was called before its sacking in 1453, of course—and television pundits denounce Ankara as a dangerous sponsor of the Islamic State (ISIS) in addition to organized crime. Capturing the sentiment, last week a prominent former general warned on a prime-time talk show that “if we don’t respond to the Turks, we’ll be trampled.” He characterized the Russian plane’s downing as an act of war.

Beyond mischaracterizing Turkey’s actions, Russian rhetoric also mischaracterizes Syria, treating it as if it were Russian territory threatened by an aggressive Turkey. This narrative fits the Kremlin’s depiction of itself as the lone defender of Christendom against NATO, Islamist terrorists, and Nazis. In that culture war’s latest twist, even Turkey’s largest city must be “liberated.” “Let [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan know that the Turkish state will cease to exist in five to ten years!” the Russian military analyst Semyon Bagdasarov said on the same show. “He killed our people,” Bagdasarov continued. “Constantinople isn’t a Turkish city! We are the heirs of the great Byzantine Empire, and it’s necessary to take back everything we can!”

U.S. President Barack Obama extends his hand to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, September 28, 2015. KEVIN LAMARQUE / REUTERS

U.S. President Barack Obama extends his hand to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, September 28, 2015.

Russians are no strangers to lingering grievances. Four centuries after the invasion of Polish armies during Moscow’s leaderless Time of Troubles (1598–1613), many Russians still treat Poles and the Catholic Church with suspicion. Yet before the tussle over Syria, Turkey and Russia seemed to have moved beyond historical animosity. Putin has often been seen as a model for Edrogan (one article in Politico was even titled “Vladimir Erdogan”). Both are tough leaders from straitened backgrounds who have asserted power through independent foreign policies, albeit to varying degrees.

But if similarity doesn’t necessarily temper hostility, what about mutual benefit—which is very considerable in this case? Russia is Turkey’s second-largest trading partner, the total having doubled to more than $30 billion a year during the past decade. For a long time, Turkey has been the most popular foreign destination for Russian tourists seeking reprieve from the bitter winter, although recession has considerably thinned their numbers. And Turkish construction companies have also played a large role in Russia’s post-communist building boom, while Muscovites pack giant Turkish supermarkets and other retail outlets, where prices are far less inflated than in Russian-owned stores.

Most important for the Kremlin, Turkey’s dependence on Russian natural gas for almost 60 percent of its supplies has helped enable Russia’s energy boom. Much of the gas is pumped directly through a pipeline under the Black Sea. Last December, the two countries announced another joint pipeline project that would help Moscow avoid piping European deliveries through Ukraine. On top of that, Russia is currently building a Turkish nuclear power plant.

It seems to make little sense for Russia to spoil that relationship, especially during a time of deepening isolation and recession. That is, except for the fact that friendship with Turkey, a Western country, does not help Putin further his image as a crusader.

Like the proverbial shark, Putin must keep moving. His current gambit seems to be positioning himself as the world’s prime fighter of terrorism. THIRD ROME

For its part, Turkey is in an uncomfortable spot. More than just hindering the country’s goal of overthrowing Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Russian bombing in Syria also threatens Ankara’s long-term influence inside its ravaged neighbor by targeting Turkish-backed rebels in northern Syria, ethnic Turks called the Bayir-Bucak Turkmen. That was becoming a domestic political problem for Erdogan.

So far, Turkey has sought to minimize fallout from last week, and the current incident will almost certainly pass. Erdogan has nothing to gain from a conflict with Russia. But if history is any guide the last provocation will soon be followed by others. The West should start thinking now about how to respond.

Years of conventional wisdom have dictated that collaboration with Russia is necessary not only in Syria but also on a range of issues from counterterrorism and Afghanistan to combatting the global drug trade, nuclear proliferation, and climate change. In fact, Putin has used that perception to his advantage, dangling the possibility of doing business together as a way of luring Western countries into positions he later exploited in Syria, Ukraine, Iran, and on a host of issues from energy to natural resources in the Arctic.

Nevertheless, widespread agreement about Russia’s indispensability persists because cooperation with Moscow seems to be such low-hanging fruit. If only Putin would finally realize the mutual benefit of fighting ISIS or curbing nuclear proliferation, the reasoning goes, his participation would help solve some of the world’s most intractable problems. History and ideology have encouraged Western tolerance. No one wants another Cold War, and Russian hostility could be rationalized as an inevitable response to NATO expansion when Russia was weak.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin during a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, December 1, 2014.

MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV / REUTERS

Russia's President Vladimir Putin during a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, December 1, 2014.

So the West has relentlessly pursued fellowship. It offered Russia involvement in the G-8, a special NATO-Russia council, and a partnership agreement with the European Union. Such attempts to take Russian interests and opinion into account do not play into the Kremlin’s nationalist myth of Putin as maligned hero, however.

Now Moscow is tapping into not only its perceived status as the “third Rome”—after the second Rome, Constantinople—but a centuries-old sense of Russian exceptionalism. It was crystallized during the nineteenth-century debate between Russian Westernizers—symbolized by the novelist Ivan Turgenev, who urged Russians to modernize by adopting foreign values—and their rivals the Slavophiles, led by a literary critic named Ivan Kireevsky, who believed that Russia’s problems lay in its having abandoned patriarchal traditions and Orthodox Christian principles in favor of Western rationalism and individualism.

Like the proverbial shark, Putin must keep moving. His current gambit seems to be positioning himself as the world’s prime fighter of terrorism. “Russia’s position regarding terrorism has always been consistent, clear, and firm: this evil should be fought uncompromisingly and persistently,” he told a group of incoming ambassadors in the Kremlin on Thursday. “We believe that any attempts to whitewash terrorism, to connive with terrorists should be considered as complicity in terrorism, complicity in crimes.”

Even in this, cooperation with Russia would be a losing proposition. It would also send the wrong message to Russians by indicating that Putin’s behavior works. So far, he has compounded the killing and suffering in Syria because it contravenes Western interests and values, fueling the threat of terrorism and Europe’s migrant crisis. Until his narrative changes, anything can happen—and there should be no surprise when it does.

Part 3: Opportunities and dangers in West Asia

Russia marches in to Syria through Azerbaijan?

Some areas of Russia have significan Muslim populations.

Russia, has the strongest army in the Middle East and a lot of grim experience fighing Salafi extremeists.

From Al Jazeera:

Moscow, Russia - Twenty years ago on Thursday, Moscow started what it thought would be a "blitzkrieg" against secular separatists in Chechnya, a tiny, oil-rich province in Russia's North Caucasus region that had declared its independence.
But the first Chechen war became Russia's Vietnam; the second war was declared a victory only in 2009. The two conflicts have reshaped Russia, Chechnya, their rulers - and those who oppose them.

Russia need cross only Azerbaijan to get an army into  Iran and Syria.  Azerbaijan, a nominal Shiite country, has no love for Salafi extremists.

From al Jazeera

Moscow, Russia - Twenty years ago on Thursday, Moscow started what it thought would be a "blitzkrieg" against secular separatists in Chechnya, a tiny, oil-rich province in Russia's North Caucasus region that had declared its independence. 

But the first Chechen war became Russia's Vietnam; the second war was declared a victory only in 2009. The two conflicts have reshaped Russia, Chechnya, their rulers - and those who oppose them.

The Russian bases at Latakia and Tartus, Syria, are near the Turkmen and the Kurds.  The naval base at Tartus is Russia's only direct outlet to the Mediterranean and important to Russia.

From RT:  Russian sailors do their morning exercises near a Navy vessel in the bay of the Ukrainian city Sevastopol, the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Sept. 6, 2011.

From RT:  Russia protects regime of Syrian president Assad because it is afraid of losing naval bases in Latakia and Tartus, writes president of Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer in his article published by The Financial Times

Russian servicemen dining at x air base in Syria's Latakia © Dmitry Vinogradov / RIA Novosti

Some, who would war on Russia,
would kill this young man. . . .

Part 2: Opportunities and dangers in West Asia

Kurds also live in Northern Syria.   Turkey has launched a high-risk offensive against the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).  Turkey has a large population of Kurds living in its Eastern provinces and has treated them as third-class inhabitants for generations.  See Human rights of Kurdish people in Turkey.


However, 

from the Worker's Spatula, self-identified as  "honest, fair, dialectical", true so far as I know:

NEW YORK – This weekend, at an anarchist collective in Queens known as “the Headquarters”, a free event commemorating Murray Bookchin will reportedly take place. The event is being organised in collaboration with various liberal and anarchist-dominated student groups throughout the tri-state area to express their admiration for the work of Bookchin and their solidarity with the Kurdish struggle which he sacrificed so much to lead.A statement read:“Who is Murray Bookchin? He was born to a modest Kurdish family in New York, the son of Russian Kurdish immigrants. Through his sheer love of freedom and force of will, he singlehandedly transformed his party, the PKK, and the entire Kurdish struggle from evil Stalinists to ecological-feminist anarchists.

From Wikipedia:

"In 2013 the Turkish Government and the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan started a new process regarding the Kurdish question."  Peace reigned for a while, until Turkey bombed Kurdistan, as a part of its war with ISIS.

It is not clear from the middle of the pacific what effect Bookchin has had.

However, 

according to al Monitor, Oct. 9. 2015,

The United States will supply arms, equipment and air support to Syrian Arab and Kurdish groups already fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS) on the ground in Syria, the White House and Pentagon announced Oct. 9.

The PKK . . .

. . . is now at war with ISIS, whatever the West, including Turkey, may think of it.  From al Jaaeera America, October 17, 2015:

ERBIL, Iraq — The body of Zanyar Kawa is making its final journey to Sulaymaniyah, in northeastern Iraq. The slain fighter died 500 miles from his hometown battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, in Kobane, a Syrian town near the Turkish border.

Though an Iraqi Kurd, Kawa did not die serving the Iraqi Kurdish security forces, known as the peshmerga. Rather, he was killed fighting alongside guerrillas associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which seeks self-determination for Kurds in Turkey and across the region. Both Turkey and the United States consider the PKK a terrorist organization.

However,

other reports note only that Sunni Arabs will get direct support from the US because of Turkish opposition.  So far it is said, the Kurds in Kurdistan have been armed through Bagdad.

TheKurds complain that Bagdad doesn't send the arms on.  Bagdad is Shiite; Kurdistan is nominally Sunni.  Shouldn't be relevant; is.

Kurdistan and the central Iraq government in Bagdad are locked in a struggle over who will control the oil-rich city and area of Kirkuk.  See Wikipedia

Part 1; Opportunities and dangers in West Asia

Nov 24, 2015 - Turkish warplanes have shot down a Russian military aircraft on the border with Syria.

The Russians were looking to blast, burn, twist all ends up, burn, blind the Syrian Turkmen, who live one and around Turkman Mountain.  The plant crossed briefly into Turkish space.

All except the families of the deal pilots see opportunities and danglers.

Little mentioned are the Syrian Turkmen, who live in Northern Syria, around the Tukman Mountain.

Syrian Turkmen make vigorous, 

valiant fighters, and love their God and Guns.  

Texans would admire them, 

were they 

not Muslim.

Getty image fragment

Syrian Turkmen have lived in Northern Syria since he the 11th Century, during the time of the Seljuk Empire, 1034-1194.  

More than a million Turkmen live in Northern Iran. I would like to know their relation with the Syrian Turkmen and with Turkmenistan.  Later.

The Syrian Turkmen joined their Turkic companions in Turkey when Turkey took up arms against Assad, an have been at war for four years now.

On the Syrian Turkmen side are Turkey, Jabhat al-Nusra, all for various reasons opposed to Assad.

Jabhat al-Nusra is described by the Washington Post is the most effective fighting group opposing Assad.  

Opposing the Syrian Turkmen are Assad, Russia, Iran, an various other forces.  

Syrian Turkmen support a democratic government, not necessarily non-sectarian.

Jabhat al-Nusra is described by many Western nations, the Saudi, and the US as a 

terrorist organization.

It is for some political purposes and isn't for other political purposes.  
In both cases it is the same bunch of folks.

Fighters loyal to Jabhat al-Nusra and its allies smash a statue of the late Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad, father of current President Bashar al-Assad, in the Syrian city of Idlib AFP/Getty

For a history of this complex group, see Wikipedia, al-Nusra Front, from whence these images came:

However - 
the Independent, on May 13, 2015,  reported:

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are actively supporting a hardline coalition of Islamist rebels against Bashar al-Assad’s regime that includes al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, in a move that has alarmed Western governments.
The two countries are focusing their backing for the Syrian rebels on the combined Jaish al-Fatah, or the Army of Conquest, a command structure for jihadist groups in Syria that includes Jabhat al-Nusra, an extremist rival to Isis which shares many of its aspirations for a fundamentalist caliphate.  [Emphasis Added.]