Topic: Five Months in Syria: Russia Has Made History - page 2. (Read 1733 times)

Looks like the following article belongs here.

‘Efficient, accurate’: Russian air warfare in Syria praised in classified NATO report
https://www.rt.com/news/334642-russia-efficient-syria-nato/

That country will sure break up, Assad only conquered the Shia territories, while all the Sunni region is controleld by ISIS. US, Russia etc., just actors that are playing according to scripts written decades ago

http://original.antiwar.com/dan_sanchez/2016/02/15/yinon-plan-b/

They already survived genocide i don't know why the international community did not react appropriately with creating secure land for those poor people, as this was case for some other nations(religions) in this region.
I hope Russia will bring justice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Turkey

It is very much necessary to establish Kurdistan as a sovereign nation in the Middle-East. With the transformation of Turkey to an Islamist dictatorship, and Assad losing control over much of Syria, the last remaining strongholds of secularism in the region are threatened. The Kurds are fiercely secular, and they will provide buffer against the expanding Islamists.

Wrong Train to Damascus: Will Erdogan Catch the Last Car?

MIDDLE EAST

10:58 05.03.2016(updated 12:16 05.03.2016)




Russia and Turkey were involved in the longest series of military conflicts in European history: they lasted between the 16th and 20th centuries and Russia has won the overwhelming majority of these 12 wars; a Serbian political analyst attempts to understand if a thirteenth is looming and what decisive factors could lead to it being unleashed.

There is a Serbian folk wisdom which says that “when you enter the wrong train, then all the stations are incorrect”.
This wisdom could be applied to the relationship between the Western countries and Russia, primarily to the one between Russia, Turkey and the US, Serbian political analyst Bojan Bilbija writes in his article for Serbian online newspaper Politika.

If one would assume that all the three are already in the wrong wagon, then the prospects of the thirteenth conflict between Moscow and Ankara are much more likely than widely anticipated, the journalist says.

However the unleashing of the one depends on several key factors, he assumes.

The conflict between Ankara and the second most powerful army of the world would be completely irrational without a direct support of Washington, the author reasons.

“In reality, the Russian armed forces have at least three to five times quantitative superiority above Turkey in every aspect,” the author says.
Ankara and NATO should be even more concerned not just about this qualitative superiority, but about a number of advanced weapons systems Russia has in possession, which the Turks will not be able to get in the long while, he adds.
However what is it that could give Turkey the hope?

The first option is an assertion that a “weakened" Russia does not have enough economic strength to power a large scale conflict, and that a “sharp decline in living standards” within the country could lead to the overthrow of the country’s authorities, the author suggests.

However, he goes on, one should keep in mind that the Russian economy and state budget are regulated in such a way that they accumulate significant reserves and provide saving options without major cuts to the country’s social policy and military investment.

Russia still has a noticeable trade surplus and its huge infrastructure projects — such as the 19-kilometer bridge to Crimea and the construction of the monumental stadiums for 2018 World Football Cup — show that its financial flexibility causes no doubts.
The country’s gold and foreign currency reserves “show no tendency of melting,” the author further suggests, which proves that “even if there was a sudden increase in military spending — which in recent years have already been enormous and estimates to hundreds of billions of dollars – it would be durable for the Russian economy in the medium term”.

The second option for Erdogan, the political analyst says, is the involvement of NATO in the conflict with Russia. This is also a very controversial point, he suggests, as in this case Moscow should be the first to attack the Turkish territory, which would be very difficult to cause given the recent death of a Russian pilot when the Russian bomber was downed by Turkey in the Syrian airspace.

In such a case it would be a backup of Turkey’s aggression rather than its defense.
Given all the above, Erdogan can only rely on the US foreign policy or what it would bet on: cooperation with “unreliable” Putin, which will lead to the prolonged ceasefire and de-escalation of the warmongering rhetoric of the American war hawks or on discrediting of Kremlin’s “good intentions” and further insistence on the soon ceasefire failure in fear of Moscow’s tight control over Syria?

“In case the latter option prevails, Erdogan will not miss the opportunity to catch his wrong train to Damascus,” the author finally states.

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160305/1035818005/erdogan-damascus-wrong-train.html

Russia must help Kurds with weapons they are fighting against terrorist, and also they don't like Turks.
This way they will kill two flies.. Can we see creation of "country" for Kurds in near future?

"A rough estimate by the CIA Factbook has populations of 14.5 million in Turkey, 6 million in Iran, about 5 to 6 million in Iraq, and less than 2 million in Syria, which adds up to close to 28 million Kurds in Kurdistan."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_population

They will be in power as long as the Americans and the Israelis (now the Saudis as well) support them. AKP is still polling around 50% of the vote, and is quite strong, especially in Central Turkey. It seems to me that Erdogan will stay in power, for at least the next 10-15 years. The end will come only when the PKK is able to conquer Constantinople.

perfectly agreed.. akp and erdogan are getting closer to their end.. i hope they will get a fair deserved punishment for what they have been doing in syria..

Yeah sure. We should eliminate Bashar al Assad, who was democratically elected by his people and right now who is the biggest obstacle for the ISIS in their quest to rule all of Syria. There are only two sides in this conflict - the first one lead by Bashar al Assad, and the second one composed of Islamists such as ISIS and the Al Nusra. Chose any one side.

Oh yes!  I got the reason of your tail pain. TAF hunted a russian crow  in syrian border. If crow doesn't want to be hunted, it wouldn't fly away to foreing land from nest. You got it

Any connection to when Russia entered the fray and up tick in migrants to Europe?
Would be interesting to look at and think it would be a good gauge,but only if the numbers are strictly from Syria.

Innocents are killed in every war.  I'm not saying it's okay, I'm just saying it's an unfortunate inevitability.  Insurgents hide out in residential areas (because where else are they going to hide everything, in pistachio fields?) and get targeted...as a repercussion, innocents get hit as well.

War today isn't like war thousands of years ago, when rival armies would set up in giant fields and go at it one on one (although I know this is a generalization). 

And if Al-Assad were removed, who would take his place?  Some Sunni group that tips the balance of power in the middle east?  Some Saudi-backed 'moderate group'?  That would only cause more war as sectarian violence spreads to Lebanon & beyond

But the are killing most of the innocents in syria and bombing the residential area just like the entire west and europeans are doing they should try to eliminate bashar al assad first and then wipe out isis from syria rather than killing the innocents

Russia is showing more common sense and balls than entire western civilization in this matter. Sure they protect their strategic and national interests but they are doing dirty job for all of us in the process.

The US bombing campaign was killing 3 to 5 ISIS millitants per day, and right now the Russian raids are killing at least ten times that number. The American strikes were just a hogwash, to claim that they are not favoring the ISIS. Can't wait for Erdogan fans to appear here, and post links from Syrian Observatory For Human Rights.

Yeah we all know that AKP lapdogs are trying to push their own definition of truth. Pathetic attempts to save themselves from the deserved punishment.

The interesting question here, is why the US wasn't able to sort out that mess with a more than one year long bombing campaign? I guess we all know the answer .

You are viewing the definition of the term "win" from an American standpoint, to mean "total annihilation of the opponent". Russian standpoint on "win" is "to use enough force to allow diplomacy to take over and minimise the loss of life". That was true even with regard to the German Nazis, when USSR was pushing West to Berlin.

If Russia sees an opportunity to achieve peace without using excessive force, it will grab it. Such an opportunity was presented by Obama. If USA will hold their promise (they won't as usual) is another matter. The ball is now in the US court.

The stakes are no less smaller for Russia in Syria, as Syria was used by US-backed ISIS as a staging platform for terrorist activity within Russia.

Do you really believe that Russian Air Force bombs ISIS?
Let me tell the truth:
There are many groups in Syria. Some of dissident to Esed Forces. ISIS, PYD and YPG support Syrian army. Turkey supports only FSA (Free Syria Army)  and Turkmen Forces.  Not ISIS nor PYD/YPG.  And Russian Army in Syria for supporting Esed Forces. Therefore,  Russian Air Force bombs only FSA and Turkmen lines. Month ago RAF (Russian Air Force) bombed even turkish aid convoy.
You know, RAF many times violated turkish border and apologized many times until Russian warplane dropped by TAF ( Turkish Air Force). Turkey and Russia were good allied before warplane dropped.
Shortly,  Russia is in Syria only for national benefit and it never bombs ISIS.  But bombs civilians, Turkmens and dissident groups.

Russia may have made history in this, but the whole world has seen how hard it is to kill of an entire nation without using nukes.