MESOP NEWS “AMERICAN PIE” : OUR MOST BELOVED PKK/PYD ! READ SAMPLER BY FRITZ LODGE / BULENT ALIRIZA & BARAK BARFI (EXPERTS)

Why Syria’s Kurds Are America’s Key Ally | Fritz Lodge, The Cipher Brief
For the moment, the Kurds are the largest landowner in Syria beside the Assad regime. Kurdish troops comprise the core fighting component of the only force realistically capable of taking Raqqa from ISIS. In effect, Syria’s tiny Kurdish region has risen to become the key U.S. ally in the war-torn landscape and one of its most influential power brokers.  https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/middle-east/why-syrias-kurds-are-americas-key-ally-1091?utm_source=Join+the+Community+Subscribers&utm_campaign=60bcb9cf27-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_31&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_02cbee778d-60bcb9cf27-122492169

Expert Commentary

Syrian Kurds – Forgotten No More | Bulent Aliriza, Director and Senior Associate, Turkey Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies
“The question is, could Turkey move from its current position of hostility against the establishment of a Kurdish belt in northern Syria similar to the one in northern Iraq? Change its policy in the same way and come to terms with a Kurdish belt, and maybe even engage the Kurds through economic and diplomatic means?” https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/middle-east/syrian-kurds-forgotten-no-more-1091?utm_source=Join+the+Community+Subscribers&utm_campaign=60bcb9cf27-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_31&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_02cbee778d-60bcb9cf27-122492169

The Battle for Raqqa – It’s Complicated | Barak Barfi, Research Fellow, New America
Though the battle to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Mosul is slowly reaching its denouement, the campaign to take the jihadists’ Syrian stronghold of Raqqa has not experienced similar success. Insufficient combat-ready troops, a shortage of heavy artillery and ominous tensions between Kurds and Turks have come together to delay the capture of the city.

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/middle-east/battle-raqqa-its-complicated-1091?utm_source=Join+the+Community+Subscribers&utm_campaign=60bcb9cf27-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_31&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_02cbee778d-60bcb9cf27-122492169