(editorial)
Turkey first - As I have insisted before in these pages, the neo-Ottoman regime of Tayyip Erdogan is, IMO, intent on recovering, to the extent possible, as much of northern Syria and Iraq as it can. They see these territories as lost Ottoman lands, taken from Turkey by force majeur and to be regained by force or trickery. Turkish forces are deep in northern Iraq and building what look like permanent bases. In Syria they captured the Afrin District of Aleppo Province and have constructed a new government manned by their supporters. It seems obvious that they have in mind to maintain this occupation by their collaborators until some future date when a plebiscite can be staged, a referendum that would favor annexation. In Idlib the Turks are making the most of the de-escalation agreement they concluded with the Russians last year. They have established company sized outpost around the boundaries of Idlib Province. They have begun to build dirt airstrips suitable for C-130 aircraft alongside these "observation posts." At the same time the Turks have suggested to the Russians that Idlib Province's fate should be left to them They propose to disarm the rebels (jihadis and non-jihadist) alike, form "a new army" and a new administration for the province. The ultimate goal seems clear there as in the other Arab territories. How they would disarm the jihadis is a bit of a mystery. I suspect that neither the Russians nor the SAG will fall for that.
Natanyahu, Trump, Trudaeu, Teresa May and the White Helmets. IMO the WHs have from the beginning been a Combined project of the UK and US covert action advocates existing for the purpose of black propaganda (pretending to be something else) created for the purpose of undermining the Syrian government. In the present victorious SAA and Russian campaign in SW Syria some WHs became trapped in the ever shrinking rebel held pocket backed up to the Israeli occupied Syrian Golan Heights. The sponsors of the WH project obviously did not want any WHs captured by the SAG who would sweat statements out of them. To avoid that Israel was asked to exfiltrate them. That has been done with some number of them (not all). They will be re-settled in Canada, the UK and Germany where they probably will not be heard of for a while. What Canada's interest is in this is obscure to me. pl
