MEZOPOTAMIA KURDISTAN DAILY INDEPENDENT NEWSSERVICE
Mezopotamian Development Society (Registered) GERMANY
THE MOST REQUESTED DAILY & ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWSSERVICE ON KURDISTAN FOR THE HIGHLY INVOLVED PEOPLE – email : mesop@online.de – Watch our website : www.mesop.de
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MESOP TODAYS QUOTATION : THE PLAIN TRUTH
Let’s Not Forget That Assad Has Destroyed More of Syria’s Ancient Sites Than ISIS
Posted: 29/03/2016 11:43 BST Updated: 29/03/2016 11:59 Huffington Post
www.mesop.de
MESOP : THE GREATEST FARCE IN OUR TIMES 2016
Bashar al-Assad says he is ready to hold elections in Syria ‘if the people want it’
Samuel Osborne – THE INDEPENDENT UK 31 3. 2016 – Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Russia’s RIA news agency, in Damascus, Syria on March 30, 2016 Reuters
President Bashar al-Assad has said he is ready to hold early presidential elections if the Syrian people wanted it.President Assad previously said “opposition forces” could form part of a new government, which would be agreed at peace talks in Geneva. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72683
MESOP : MUST READ – THE MOST PHANTASTIC WORLD OF ABDULLAH OCALAN / THE APO MYTH
Opinion: A History of the Universe by Ocalan – By KANI XULAM
When Winston Churchill published The World Crisis, his contemporary Arthur Balfour called the book “Winston’s brilliant autobiography, disguised as a history of the universe.”
The same can be said of Abdullah Ocalan’s latest book, Imrali Notlari.
This account of “peace talks” on the island of Imrali, first published in early 2015, got censored when Turks learned it was about to go public.
The redacted second edition appeared in November 2015, and its pdf version has been circulating on the Internet ever since—for free. It is autobiographical all right, but there is no chronology.
Mr. Ocalan comes across as paranoid and angry, despite herculean effort, unable to see that he is a helpless cork in a Turkish sea—powerless to alter his marooned fate, or sway the tides to make it ashore. – That may be a good thing, given the odds. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72691
MESOP : PKK/PYD STALINISTS FIGHT CONTRA KURDS IN GENEVE
Increasing tensions between PYD and KNC as a result of Geneva talks and different policies #twitterkurds #rojava – More one : www.mesop.de
WATCH DOCUMENT : http://www.mesop.de/?p=72664
MESOP : Arguments & Analysis – “Around Aleppo, It’s Not Peace — Just a Break“ (Thanassis Cambanis, The Century Foundation)
“Aleppo’s state of play underscores just how difficult it would be to work out the details of a lasting settlement. It has proven impossible, even with massive Russian support, for the Syrian government to fully encircle the rebels in Western Aleppo. It isn’t known whether Russia made a tactical decision not to allow a full government takeover of Aleppo, in order to prevent government overreach, or whether it wasn’t able to. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72648
WEST KURDISTAN (SYRIA)
MESOP: THE PUTIN/ASSAD SIMULATION OF “FIGTHING AGAINST ISIS WITHOUT FIGHTING ISIS”
Syria Report: Russia Encouraged Jihadists to Join Conflict in 2014
By Scott Lucas – eaworldview – Russia encouraged jihadists from the North Caucasus to join the Syrian conflict in 2014, according to a report by the International Crisis Group.
An unnamed Russian security source in the North Caucasus told the ICG in November 2015:We opened borders, helped them all out and closed the border behind them by criminalizing this type of fighting.If they want to return now, we are waiting for them at the borders. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72694
MESOP : A STALINIST CHRONOLOGY AS WORK IN PROGRESS
General Secretariat of the Kurdish National Council in Syria / STATEMENT ON PYD
One more time the PYD comes out with fake charges and false accusations through a fabricated play, as usual, by issuing a complaint on behalf of “martyrs’ families” and addressing it to the so called Court of Justice in Qamishlo against Ibrahim Biro, the president of the KNC, Abdulhakim Bachar and Fuad Aliko, the Kurdish members in the negotiation delegation to the Geneva III talks. The complaint reads as follows: “The mercenaries who have the following names offended the values of martyrs and the values of the Rojava Revolution through their public war against our revolution and our accomplishments as well as their open non-acceptance of our self-administration. We hope the Honoured Court will prosecute those criminals in the name of the families of 500 martyrs”. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72650
MESOP “ARA NEWS” : PYD/PKK want expel Kurdish KNC delegation from Geneva – PKK STALINISM
The PYD recently put more pressure on the KNC after a group of ‘martyr families’ issued a complaint at the Qamishli court against KNC-leaders Ibrahim Biro, Fuad Aliko, and Abdulhakim Bashar who are attending the Geneva talks for allegations of “offending the martyrs” and “insulting the Rojava revolution”. The KNC rejected the complaint as an attempt of ‘political assassination’ in a statement released on Sunday. Read more ; http://www.mesop.de/?p=72653
MESOP DOCUS : UN Aims to Resettle 480,000 Syrian Refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees began a high-level ministerial conference in Geneva Wednesday to discuss ways to resettle around 480,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years (Reuters). UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking at the opening of the conference, said the effort required an “exponential increase in global solidarity” (NYT). The conference comes shortly after Oxfam, a nongovernmental group, released a report that found that twenty-eight of the world’s wealthiest countries have resettled just 1.39 percent of Syria’s refugee population, accounting for less than a third of their commitments (Guardian). The Syrian conflict, which began five years ago, has produced nearly five million refugees so far, the vast majority of whom have wound up in neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey – Watch full document http://www.mesop.de/?p=72655
MESOP : SYRIAN POUND PANICING – Russian withdrawal sparks ‘panic’ in Damascus currency markets
AMMAN: 30 March 2016 – The black-market exchange rate for the Syrian pound reached a record high last Thursday following two weeks of “panic” in Damascus currency markets sparked by the announcement that Russia would withdraw the “main part” of its forces from Syria, an economist who has tracked the Syrian currency since 2012 told Syria Direct.
The exchange rate began its ascent on March 15, the day after Putin’s televised announcement, rising from SP452 to the dollar to SP459. On March 26, the exchange rate surpassed SP500 for the first time before peaking at SP513 on Monday March 28, Syria-Stocks reported. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72659
MESOP ANALYSIS BY STEVE HANKE / JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Syrian pound meets ‘a bout of extreme weakness’ after Moscow announces withdrawal
In March 2011, before the earliest popular protests demanding the fall of the Assad government, one American dollar was worth 46 Syrian pounds. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72662
MESOP “A FIRE CALLED CEASEFIRE” : Regime Bombs Near Damascus
Defying the February 27 “cessation of hostilities” in Syria, regime warplanes are continuing strikes near Damascus.
Supporting an attempt by ground forces to take territory northeast of the capital, jet fighters and helicopters attacked both the al-Marj area and the town of Douma. The pro-opposition Orient News said four civilians were killed, three in the village of Bala and one in Douma. Pro-Assad forces took territory in the al-Marj area, including the Marj al-Sultan base, before the cessation of hostilities, and they have continued to attack after the ceasefire.Orient said three barrel bombs were also dropped on Khan al-Sheeh, southwest of Damascus, as leaflets called on residents to surrender. www.mesop.de
MESOP : GREAT “FOREIGN POLICY REPORT” – MUST READ !
Putin’s Attack Helicopters & Mercenaries Are Winning the War for Assad / Taking advantage of a ceasefire, the Russian strongman is doubling down in Syria — not withdrawing.
BY JAMES MILLER – MARCH 30, 2016 – FOREIGN POLICY REPORT – The George W. Bush parallel was lost on very few analysts when Vladimir Putin proudly announced that he was withdrawing a significant amount of Russia’s forces from Syria because their “mission is accomplished.” The announcement came just four days after the Atlanticpublished an overview of “The Obama Doctrine,” wherein U.S. President Barack Obama told journalist Jeffrey Goldberg that Russia was “bleeding,” “overextended,” and that Putin had made a terrible mistake. In both Syria and Ukraine, Obama argued, the Russian ruler had pursued policies that made his country weaker. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72679
SOUTH KURDISTAN (IRAQ)
MESOP BACKGROUNDER : THE LIBERATION OF MOSUL HAS BEGUN
By Michael Knights – Foreign Policy – March 30, 2016
If the coalition-backed Iraqi and Kurdish governments make the right deals and send the right messages, the nascent campaign to retake the city could be very different from the military slogs in Tikrit and Ramadi. “No one talks about liberating Mosul anymore,” I wrote for Foreign Policy in August (http://washin.st/1P9mlCX ), as Iraq’s war against the Islamic State grinded on inconclusively. But seven months later, with a win in the city of Ramadi under the anti-Islamic State coalition’s belt, they’re doing more than talking about Mosul: The first phase of the Fatah, or “Conquest,” operation to liberate Mosul has begun. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72669
MESOP : THE ROYAL FAMILIES OF KURDISTAN
Meritocracy or Kleptocracy: Kurdistan’s Political Leadership in Turmoil – By Aras Ahmed Mhamad
2016-03-30 22:47 GMT – NEWSWEEK – The Kurdistan region has been suffering on multiple fronts be it an economic crisis and delays in salaries for six months to disputes over budget cuts by the central government and decline in oil prices. There’s also a presidential crisis with Masoud Barzani’s expired tenure after two terms and two years of extension; Barzani has been president since 2005. Moreover, the Western powers failed to understand the welcoming nature of Kurds and the strong foundation of Kurdish spirit of harmony but will they fail to underestimate the rule of party oligarchs, kleptocrats, one-party-rule and one-man-rule? Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72681
MESOP ANALYSIS : BROOKINGS REPORT – Iraq Situation Report, Part III: Kurdistan – By Kenneth M. POLLACK
Editors’ Note: Brookings senior fellow Kenneth M. Pollack traveled to Iraq from March 9 to March 19 with Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. They had extensive meetings in Baghdad, Sulaymaniyyah, and Irbil with Iraqi, Kurdish, American, and British officials. This is the third and final installment of a survey on the situation in Iraq. (Read the first post here and the second here.) – Read here Part III : http://www.mesop.de/?p=72689
MESOP : Arguments & Analysis
“On the American Front Line against ISIS” (Robin Wright, The New Yorker)
“In a rare breakthrough, the United States, in February, negotiated safe passage for two brigades of Iraqi Army troops, after they were retrained and rearmed, to deploy in Kurdish territory — at the Peshmerga base in Makhmour. They arrived, with new uniforms, advanced American rifles and matériel, and shiny Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks mounted with machine guns. ‘People said it’d never be done,’ [Colonel Scott M.] Naumann told me. ‘The Iraqis said, “We’ll never get through,” and the Kurds said, “We’ll never allow them through.” But there were no issues. There’s a lot of right going on here, too.’ The Iraqis now have their own quarters, on the other side of Makhmour base. The Americans convene commanders from the Kurdish militia and the Iraqi Army daily. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72701
NORTH KURDISTAN (TURKEY)
MESOP : NO PRESIDENTIAL DINNER FOR RECEP ZAYYIP E.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who in Washington, DC, this week for the Nuclear Security Summit but will not be meeting with President Obama, met with senior regional experts at a private dinner on Tuesday where he tried to polish his image after months of new repressive measures, Foreign Policy reports.
MESOP : WE HOLD ON RECEP TAYYIP ! – Turkish army threatens legal action over anti-Erdoğan coup rumours
Statement says army has no plans to oust president and that such ‘baseless news’ is damaging morale – Associated Press in Istanbul – 31 March 2016 12.48 BST Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72685
MESOP : BREEDING TERROR : ALLONS ENFANTS DE LA PATRIE !
“The French connection: Explaining Sunni militancy around the world” (William McCants and Christopher Meserole, Order from Chaos)
“What we found surprised us, particularly when it came to foreign fighter radicalization. It turns out that the best predictor of foreign fighter radicalization was not a country’s wealth. Nor was it how well-educated its citizens were, how healthy they were, or even how much Internet access they enjoyed. Instead, the top predictor was whether a country was Francophone; that is, whether it currently lists (or previously listed) French as a national language. As strange as it may seem, four of the five countries with the highest rates of radicalization in the world are Francophone, including the top two in Europe (France and Belgium). Knowledgeable readers will immediately object that the raw numbers tell a different story. Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72698
MESOP SPECIAL : OBAMA COOPERATES WITH PUTIN / TRUMP ALSO – WHERE’S THE DIFFERENCE ?
Trump’s New Russia Adviser Has Deep Ties to Kremlin’s Gazprom / Carter Page brings a “real-world” resume—and says his close relations with Russian business are a strength.
By Zachary Mider – March 30, 2016 — BLOOMBERG – A globe-trotting American investment banker who’s built a career on deals with Russia and its state-run gas company, Carter Page says his business has suffered directly from the U.S. economic sanctions imposed after Russia’s escalating involvement in the Ukraine. When Donald Trump named him last week as one of his foreign-policy advisers, Page says his e-mail inbox filled up with positive notes from Russian contacts. “So many people who I know and have worked with have been so adversely affected by the sanctions policy,” Page said in a two-hour interview last week. “There’s a lot of excitement in terms of the possibilities for creating a better situation.” Read all http://www.mesop.de/?p=72696
THE GERMAN KURDISH CHAPTER
MESOP : DAS PRO FORMA PARLAMENT DER PKK HÄLT AUSSERORDENTLICHEN KONGRESS AB
Amed / Diyarbakir : DTK hält ersten außerordentlichen Kongress ab
31 März 2016 – Der Kongress der Demokratischen Gesellschaft DTK hat heute im Konferenzsaal des Rathauses von Amed (Diyarbakır) seinen 1. außerordentlichen Kongress abgehalten. Der DTK sah einen außerordentlichen Kongress für notwendig an, um ihre Organisationsstruktur der aktuellen Lage in Kurdistan, in der Türkei und im Nahen Osten entsprechend neu zu formulieren. Am Kongress nahmen neben Hatip Dicle und Selma Irmak, Selahattin Demirtaş, Co-Vorsitzender der HDP, Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, Co-Sprecherin der HDP, auch eine Reihe Abgeordneter und Vertreter von NGO’s teil. Die Eröffnungsrede hielt Selma Irmak Co-Vorsitzende des DTK. Volltext http://www.mesop.de/?p=72687
MESOP : PUTIN’S BLUFF FÜR DEUTSCHE “FRIEDENSFREUNDE” & SEINEN PARTNER PKK
Militärpräsenz bleibt : Trotz Abzugs bringt Russland mehr Ausrüstung nach Syrien
Handelsblatt – 31. 3. 2016 – Russland baut offenbar seine Militärinfrastruktur in Syrien aus. Es herrscht reger Verkehr russischer Marineschiffe durch den Bosporus. Auch der …
Aufrüstung: Russland baut offenbar Militärinfrastruktur in Syrien aus – ZEIT ONLINE
Russland rüstet in Syrien trotz des Abzugs weiter auf – Tages-Anzeiger Online
Russland rüstet in Syrien weiter auf – WirtschaftsBlatt.at (Registrierung)
MESOP : PUTIN’S „SPUTNIK“ LÄSST ASSAD REDEN / PKK/PYD KURDEN DROHT BETRUG VON IHREN PARTNERN
Assad: Syrien ist für Föderalisierung viel zu klein
Sputnik Deutschland – Eine Föderalisierung Syriens ist unmöglich, das Land ist viel zu klein, auch nicht alle Kurden sind dafür, wie Präsident Baschar al-Assad in einem …
Sputnik Deutschland – Assad zu Sputnik: Kriegsschäden in Syrien übersteigen 200 Milliarden Dollar
Sputnik Deutschland – Assads Erwartungen an künftige Parlamentswahlen in Syrien
Sputnik Deutschland – Syriens Präsident Baschar al-Assad erwartet keine revolutionären Änderungen im syrischen Parlament nach den für den 13. April anberaumten …
http://de.sputniknews.com/politik/20160330/308840666/assad-syrien-foederalisierung-zu-klein.html
MESOP FLASH : Regierungsbildung im Irak: Kurdische Parteien verlangen …
NEX (Pressemitteilung) (Blog) – „Die Kurden werden ein Angebot von weniger als 20 Prozent der Ministerposten in egal welchem neuen Kabinett nicht akzeptieren“, erklärte die …