Regional geopolitics

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Tochka missile strike kills 104 Saudi, Emirati soldiers in Marib
By Leith Fadel - 06/02/2016

The death toll from the Tochka missile strike on Friday has now reached 104, as both the Saudi and Emirati armies count their casualties inside the Mass Military Camp in the Marib Governorate. According to a Yemeni source, the Yemeni Army’s missile battalion struck a large military garrison inside the Mass Camp, resulting in a massive explosion that required several fire teams to put out the flames.

This Tochka missile strike has been recorded as the largest number of dead military personnel from the Saudi-led Coalition forces inside of Yemen this year. Earlier this week, the Saudi-led Coalition forces attempted to recapture the strategic city of Rabu’ah in Saudi Arabia’s Asir province; however, they suffered heavy casualties after a failed bid to seize this border site.

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/...iers-in-marib/ | Al-Masdar News

[Eddo211]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Ayrabs can't fight, cant fly, cant shoot, wont do sh!t without coalition forces.......one of these days Iran will take care of them for forcing Islam on Persia.

[Joseph]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Ayrabs can't fight, cant fly, cant shoot, wont do sh!t without coalition forces.......one of these days Iran will take care of them for forcing Islam on Persia.

And if you've ever noticed when watching the Saudis, Kuwaitis, Qatari's participating in soccer, Olympics, sports in general, their participants are usually Africans from Sudan, Niger, Chad, etc. They have to pay others to do their work for them.

[Joseph]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Who wants to read some world class neocon b*tching from a US Arab pundit?

I hold diametrically opposite views of the writer and everything he says in coming true, thankfully


source: http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/05/...syrian-rebels/

Obama’s Disastrous Betrayal of the Syrian Rebels
How the White House is handing victory to Bashar al-Assad, Russia, and Iran.

BY EMILE HOKAYEM
FEBRUARY 5, 2016

What a difference a year makes in Syria. And the introduction of massive Russian airpower.

Last February, President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its Shiite auxiliaries mounted a large-scale attempt to encircle Aleppo, the northern city divided between regime and rebels since 2012 and battered by the dictator’s barrel bombs. Islamist and non-Islamist mainstream rebels — to the surprise of those who have derided their performance, let alone their existence — repelled the offensive at the time. What followed was a string of rebel advances across the country, which weakened Assad so much that they triggered Moscow’s direct intervention in September, in concert with an Iranian surge of forces, to secure his survival.

Fast-forward a year. After a slow start — and despite wishful Western assessments that Moscow could not sustain a meaningful military effort abroad — the Russian campaign is finally delivering results for the Assad regime. This week, Russian airpower allowed Assad and his allied paramilitary forces to finally cut off the narrow, rebel-held “Azaz corridor” that links the Turkish border to the city of Aleppo. The city’s full encirclement is now a distinct possibility, with regime troops and Shiite fighters moving from the south, the west, and the north. Should the rebel-held parts of the city ultimately fall, it will be a dramatic victory for Assad and the greatest setback to the rebellion since the start of the uprising in 2011.

In parallel, Russia has put Syria’s neighbors on notice of the new rules of the game.Russia has put Syria’s neighbors on notice of the new rules of the game. Jordan was spooked into downgrading its help for the Southern Front, the main non-Islamist alliance in the south of the country, which has so far prevented extremist presence along its border. Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian military aircraft that crossed its airspace in November backfired: Moscow vengefully directed its firepower on Turkey’s rebel friends across Idlib and Aleppo provinces. Moscow also courted Syria’s Kurds, who found a new partner to play off the United States in their complex relations with Washington. And Russia has agreed to a temporary accommodation of Israel’s interests in southern Syria.

Inside Syria, and despite the polite wishes of Secretary of State John Kerry, the overwhelming majority of Russian strikes have hit non-Islamic State (IS) fighters. Indeed, Moscow and the Syrian regime are content to see the United States bear the lion’s share of the effort against the jihadi monster in the east, instead concentrating on mowing through the mainstream rebellion in western Syria. Their ultimate objective is to force the world to make an unconscionable choice between Assad and IS.

The regime is everywhere on the march. Early on, the rebels mounted a vigorous resistance, but the much-touted increase in anti-tank weaponry could only delay their losses as their weapons storages, command posts and fall-back positions were being pounded. Around Damascus, the unrelenting Russian pounding has bloodied rebel-held neighborhoods; in December, the strikes killed Zahran Alloush, the commander of the main Islamist militia there. In the south, Russia has fully backed the regime’s offensive in the region of Daraa, possibly debilitating the Southern Front. Rebel groups in Hama and Homs provinces have faced a vicious pounding that has largely neutralized them. Further north, a combination of Assad troops, Iranian Shiite militias, and Russian firepower dislodged the powerful Islamist rebel coalition Jaish Al-Fatah from Latakia province.

But it is the gains around Aleppo that represent the direst threat to the rebellion. One perverse consequence of cutting the Azaz corridor is that it plays into the hands of the al Qaeda-affiliate Jabhat Al-Nusra, since weapons supplies from Turkey would have to go through Idlib, where the jihadist movement is powerful. Idlib may well become the regime’s next target. The now-plausible rebel collapse in the Aleppo region could also send thousands of fighters dejected by their apparent abandonment into the arms of Nusra or IS.

The encirclement of Aleppo would also create a humanitarian disaster of such magnitude that it would eclipse the horrific sieges of Madaya and other stricken regions that have received the world’s (short-lived) attention. Tens of thousands of Aleppo residents are already fleeing toward Kilis, the Turkish town that sits across the border from Azaz. The humanitarian crisis, lest anyone still had any doubt, is a deliberate regime and Russian strategy to clear important areas of problematic residents — while paralyzing rebels, neighboring countries, Western states, and the United Nations.

Assad all along pursued a strategy of gradual escalation and desensitization that, sadly, worked well. Syrians already compare the international outcry and response to the IS’ siege of Kobane in 2014 to the world’s indifference to the current tragedy.

To complicate the situation even more, the regime’s advances could allow the Kurdish-dominated, American-favored Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to conquer the area currently held by the Free Syrian Army and Islamist militias between the Turkish border and the new regime front line north of the Shiite towns of Nubl and Zahra. This would pit the SDF against IS on two fronts: from the west, if the Kurds of Afrin canton seize Tal Rifaat, Azaz and surrounding areas, and from the east, where the YPG is toying with the idea of crossing the Euphrates River. An IS defeat there would seal the border with Turkey, meeting an important American objective.

The prospect of further Kurdish expansion has already alarmed Turkey. Over the summer, Ankara was hoping to establish a safe zone in this very area. It pressured Jabhat al-Nusra to withdraw and anointed its allies in Syria, including the prominent Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, as its enforcers. True to its record of calculated dithering, President Barack Obama’s administration let the Turkish proposal hang until it could no longer be implemented. Turkey faces now an agonizing dilemma: watch and do nothing as a storm gathers on its border, or mount a direct intervention into Syria that would inevitably inflame its own Kurdish problem and pit it against both IS and an array of Assad-allied forces, including Russia.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the rebellion’s main supporters, are now bereft of options.Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the rebellion’s main supporters, are now bereft of options. No amount of weaponry is likely to change the balance of power. The introduction of anti-aircraft missiles was once a viable response against Assad’s air force, but neither country — suspecting that the United States is essentially quiescent to Moscow’s approach — is willing to escalate against President Vladimir Putin without cover.

Ironically, this momentous change in battlefield dynamics is occurring just as U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura yet again pushes a diplomatic track in Geneva. But the developments on the ground threaten to derail the dapper diplomat’s peace scheme. Fairly or not, de Mistura is tainted by the fact that the United Nations is discredited in the eyes of many Syrians for the problematic entanglements of its Damascus humanitarian arm with the regime. Despite U.N. resolutions, international assistance still does not reach those who need it most; in fact, aid has become yet another instrument of Assad’s warfare. Neither Kerry nor de Mistura are willing to seriously pressure Russia and Assad for fear of jeopardizing the stillborn Geneva talks.

Seemingly unfazed by this controversy, de Mistura’s top-down approach relies this time on an apparent U.S.-Russian convergence. At the heart of this exercise is Washington’s ever-lasting hope that Russian frustration with Assad would somehow translate into a willingness to push him out. However, whether Putin likes his Syrian counterpart has always been immaterial. The Russian president certainly has reservations about Assad, but judging by the conduct of his forces in Chechnya and now in Syria, these are about performance– not humanitarian principles or Assad’s legitimacy. For the time being, Moscow understands that without Assad, there is no regime in Damascus that can legitimize its intervention.

Ever since 2011, the United States has hidden behind the hope of a Russian shift and closed its eyes to Putin’s mischief to avoid the hard choices on Syria. When the Russian onslaught started, U.S. officials like Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken predicted a quagmire to justify Washington’s passivity. If Russia’s intervention was doomed to failure, after all, the United States was not on the hook to act.

Russia, however, has been not only been able to increase the tempo of its military operations, but also to justify the mounting cost. And contrary to some pundits, who hailed the Russian intervention as the best chance to check the expansion of IS, Washington knows all too well that the result of the Russian campaign is the strengthening of the jihadist group in central Syria in the short term. This is a price Washington seems willing to pay for the sake of keeping the Geneva process alive.

The bankruptcy of U.S. policy goes deeper. The United States has already conceded key points about Assad’s future — concessions that Russia and the regime have been quick to pocket, while giving nothing in return. In the lead-up to and during the first days of the Geneva talks, it became clear that the United States is putting a lot more pressure on the opposition than it does on Russia, let alone Assad. Just as Russia escalates politically and militarily, the Obama administration is cynically de-escalating, and asking its allies to do so as well. This is weakening rebel groups that rely on supply networks that the U.S. oversees: In the south, the United States has demanded a decrease in weapons deliveries to the Southern Front, while in the north, the Turkey-based operations room is reportedly dormant.

The result is a widespread and understandable feeling of betrayal in the rebellion, whose U.S.-friendly elements are increasingly losing face within opposition circles. This could have the ironic effect of fragmenting the rebellion — after years of Western governments bemoaning the divisions between these very same groups.

It’s understandable for the United States to bank on a political process and urge the Syrian opposition to join this dialogue in good faith. But to do so while exposing the rebellion to the joint Assad-Russia-Iran onslaught and without contingency planning is simply nefarious. Washington seems oblivious to the simple truth that diplomacy has a cost, as does its failure — probably because this cost would carried by the rebellion, for which the United States has little respect or care anyway, and would be inherited by Obama’s successor.

The conditions are in place for a disastrous collapse of the Geneva talks — now delayed until late February — and a painful, bloody year in Syria. All actors understand that Obama, who has resisted any serious engagement in the country, is unlikely to change course now. And they all assume, probably rightly, that he is more interested in the appearance of a process than in spending any political capital over it. As a result, all the parties with a stake in Syria’s future are eyeing 2017, trying to position themselves for the new White House occupant. This guarantees brinksmanship, escalation, and more misery. 2016 is shaping up as the year during which Assad will lock in significant political and military gains.

[Joseph]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge In the News Again: Still Too Many Awkward Questions


Column: Politics

Region: Caucasus

Country: Georgia



Georgian_Army_soldiersAs the links between various rogue elements in the former Georgian Intelligence Services, Turkey and ISIL, the Islamic State, become ever more obvious increasing numbers of questions are being asked about activities in the Pankisi Gorge, one of the products of this unholy alliance. These are now becoming increasingly troubling for Georgia and its sponsor, the United States, as it is a known fact that US intelligence has used the no-go valley as a training base, and that the products of that training are now key commanders of the so-called “freedom fighters” in Syria.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated directly that Pankisi Gorge is now being used as a training base by ISIL itself, not the US. “We are getting reports that IS militants use this remote area to train, rest and replenish their reserves,” Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow on January 26th. He added that it hasn’t been possible to open the borders since a visa regime was introduced between Russia and Georgia back in 2000 largely because the “terrorist threat coming from the Pankisi Gorge has not faded.”

The Russian Foreign Minister is bound to say that, isn’t he? But everyone else has had the chance to prove him wrong since 2000, as this reason has been given extensively since then. Instead the area has been sealed off, a large number of relatively well-paid non-Georgians have moved in and graduates from there have joined US-supported forces without any concerns about “interoperability”, the reason so many joint military trainings are held for allied countries.

As these allegations are affecting the free movement of its citizens, and would be a serious threat to its security if true, Georgia should investigate them. But nothing has ever been done, by any of Georgia’s governments. This tells you all you need to know about the nature of Pankisi Gorge. All that’s missing is the detail – and that is becoming clearer with each passing day.

Written in Infamy

The history of Pankisi has been reported in this journal and by various independent journalists. It was set up by US intelligence as a ploy to destabilise Russia. This was derailed by 9/11 and its aftermath, but by that time the operation was functioning well, and serving too many political and financial interests, especially those of Turkish intelligence, so could not just be closed down.

It is this which was being investigated by Roddy Scott, a British journalist. He was killed in September 2002 whilst filming the crossfire between the Russian army and a group of Chechen fighters who had illegally crossed the border to carry out an assault on Grozny. He was part of a joint investigation of how these Mercedes-driving Chechens were being funded, and their links to intelligence services.

Scott had written to a collaborator, “I personally think it’s a great story, it’s about the first time I have ever seen the possibility for someone to really lift the lid on everything, rather than the usual “journo-grasping-at-straws-with-no-good-sources” which seems to emanate from the region. And what really gives it the boost is that it is tied into US policy, which gives it the international rather than local/parochial flavor.”

This letter was written in response to an unedited draft of a specific article – “A visit to Pankisi Gorge raises questions about Islamic radicals” later published on Eurasianet. This clearly demonstrated the cozy relationship between Chechen fighters in two Georgian valleys (Kodori as well as Pankisi) and both Georgian and American intelligence and larger operational and financial support mechanisms involving Turkey, Azerbaijan, and the Middle East.

This is the ostensible reason why George Bush stated on March 11 2001 that “Terrorists working closely with al Qaeda operate in the Pankisi Gorge.” In response to this comment Pankisi was very conveniently described ever since as “trackless,” “lawless,” and a place “where even local policemen fear to tread.” A place no sane person would try and investigate, in other words. Consequently the flow of US-trained fighters from Georgia, and the transit of “freedom fighters” from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries via Pankisi, continued unabated.

In fact great power protection, and the lure of a decent standard of living, created a never-ending ratline of volunteer recruits and commanders, who eventually became the Islamic Caliphate (IC), which was created as a reward for service, a sort of twisted version of the Congressional Medal of Honor. But then it got out of control. When these trained irregulars became too irregular, and the sources of their training and supplies too blatant, damage limitation became the order of the day.

In August 2012, when US poster boy Mikheil Saakashvili knew he was going to lose the forthcoming elections, a special operation was conducted by Georgian law enforcement near the village of Lapankuri located in Lopota Gorge. According to official information, it resulted in the deaths of seven members of an armed group of Chechens and three Georgian law enforcers.

This was described as an anti-terrorist operation, as if Georgia had just discovered terrorists were on its territory. In fact, it was designed to eliminate those who knew too much about the links between terrorists, Chechens and foreign intelligence.

Once again, the problem the US had imported was used to paint the Gorge as the home of kidnapping, arms dealing and drug trafficking to keep people away from it and give the US more excuses to effectively take over Georgia by offering “military aid” it could not refuse. As a result of this, we were told that the situation in Pankisi had improved after the crackdown. However no one can actually go and see, and the flow of people to and through Pankisi has not stopped at all.

Serving the State

In the most recent report, two militants from Pankisi have died in the Syrian war. The Information Centre of Kakheti (ick.ge) lists them as Ramzan Pareulidze (24) and Mukhmad Turkoshvili (22). The former had lived in the village Birkiani and the latter in Omalo.

Somehow, despite limited financial resources and lack of passports, these young men and many before them have managed to fly directly from Tbilisi to Istanbul, or cross Georgian land borders with Turkey, and then find themselves in the thick of territory controlled by IS forces. For example, two Georgian teenagers disappeared on 2 April 2015 and emerged four days later fighting in Syria. When their parents asked the Georgian police who had given their sons passports, they were told this was classified information. So it wasn’t the Georgian passport agency, the only body authorised to do this, and the police know but are apparently unconcerned.

The ethnic Chechens who have always lived in Georgia are protesting themselves about their young people being pressured or financially persuaded to join terrorists groups. The Council of Elders, the most popular and influential public structure in the Pankisi Gorge, made this appeal after two more local teenagers, 16-year-old Muslim Kushtanashvili and 18-year-old Ramzan Bagakashvili, reportedly travelled to Turkey in order to cross the border into Syria to join militants.

However, the Georgian Ministry of Justice responded to the request for preventive measures by claiming that this was not possible, as “Every adult citizen has the right to obtain a passport, and no other documentation apart from an ID card or a birth certificate is required”. Minister of Internal Affairs Vakhtang Gomelauri asserted that the incident had been a “misunderstanding”, as the border guards at Tbilisi Airport had not recognised the teenagers and so let them to go to Istanbul without any problem. But this response deliberately fails to answer the questions of how these teenagers obtained these passports and when, and whether any information about them had been issued to the border guards, and if so, what?

Georgian and Russian social media sites also make clear that the flow of fighters is continuing openly. Messages intended for “brothers and sisters from the expected larger caliphate [the term used by IS for the lands under its current or future control] first and foremost, and to those who are outside its borders” are frequently posted, too frequently for this to be a joke. The VKontakte social network, for example, hosts a Russian-speaking pro-IS group on which made the above announcement.

The same old faces

All this demonstrates that the IS is not merely a latent threat to Georgia and other countries in its region. It is already embedded there, working with Georgian and Foreign intelligence services, and Georgia is once again being used as a base for, and conduit of, all the things the US claims to oppose, which it would never get away with even in top secret facilities back home.

Nor is this being done without the knowledge and assistance of other US allies. The usual suspect, the Poroshenko regime in Ukraine, is predictably involved. Various well-placed intelligence sources in Ukraine have told me, “They [Georgians recruited to fight for the IS] have already been here for at least 2 months, certainly in Mariupol and 95% certainly in other places.” This shows that these so-called “fighters” are under the control of intelligence, as assets.

Dr. Vakhtang Maisaia, a Georgian political scientist, maintains that the Islamic Caliphate has elaborated a “Caucasian Strategy for Waging Jihad”. This was drawn up between July and October 2014 and is coordinated by a specific warlord, most probably the North Caucasus jihadist “Black Ahmad”, who is very well known in Georgia. A Key Mentor (Amir Supyan, another very well-known North Caucasus warlord), coordinates the pursuit of this strategy and its accompanying operational plan at regional level.

Approximately $50-70 million has been allocated for this purpose by the IS authorities. These funds are supposed to be forwarded to the “Caucasus Islamic Emirate” (the radical Islamist organisation operating in the North Caucasus region) and its leaders, but there have been problems delivering them, which have damaged the formerly much closer relations between the IS and the Emirate leadership, providing a further threat to Georgia and other regional countries.

It is now believed that the number of the persons of Georgian origin serving in IS units has increased from around 200 to perhaps 350/400, but the true number is likely to be higher than can ever be verified. According to some sources, in 2014 there were 200 local Jihadists who supported the ISIS ideology in various parts of Georgia, and around 44 were fighting in Syria and Iraq, but this number had certainly increased several times over.

Ignorance and incredulity

Dr. Maisaia has described in detail the process by which Georgians are recruited for terrorist activity by their own government. It consists of the following specific steps:

Ideological motivation – given in the local Mosques controlled by the Jihadists (mainly the Salafi organisation), which provide an introduction to Jihadist theology;

Recruitment – the local Jihadist community leader, the Jamaat or Jamu, signs up the faithful for the Global Jihad;

Submitting official documents - most of these are forged, and there can be several bundles of documents;

Providing financial support – at least $200-300 to travel through Georgia and at least $500 to travel to Turkey, this fee including the bribe which will probably be necessary for crossing the Turkey-Syria border and reaching the ultimate destination;

Allocating a local conductor and supervisor – these are local dignitaries from the transit area the recruit is passing through, associates of the Jihadist National Network (also operating underground). The actual supervisor will be a medium level leader who has direct links with associates in Turkey and the territories controlled by the Islamic Caliphate;

Briefing – the recruit is given the necessary information to adapt to his life in Syria, presumably in a transshipment camp where he will be held for at least 14 days in isolation and then begin 1-3 months of ideological and military training. These camps are doubtless controlled at the highest level, and all the training and future deployment planned in advance.

Are we to believe this entire process is being conducted without the knowledge and involvement of the intelligence services of Georgia, its US sponsors and the various countries through which these recruits pass? People who object to “conspiracy theories”, and dismiss Lavrov’s statements as examples of them, generally point out that the chain of connections they imply is unrealistic. Which is more realistic – that the IS is doing all this on its own, somehow muscling in on countries controlled by others, or that it is working with the intelligence agencies of those countries to destroy the very people those agencies claim to be defending?

Seth Ferris, investigative journalist and political scientist, expert on Middle Eastern affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
http://journal-neo.org/2016/02/04/ge...ard-questions/

Time for the Russians to send in some Spetsnaz

http://asbarez.com/145647/isis-militants-at-pankisi-gorge-pose-serious-threat-to-armenia/

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Kurds expand south as the Islamist defenses crumble in northern Aleppo
By Leith Fadel -
07/02/2016

Recep Erdogan’s nightmare of a Kurdish border with Turkey is coming to reality as the “People’s Protection Units” (YPG) expand both south and east of the Afrin Canton, leaving the Turkish-backed Islamist rebels in fear of losing the Aleppo Governorate’s northern countryside. On Saturday evening, the YPG continued their advance in northern Aleppo, capturing the Quarries and imperative hilltop of Talat Al-Firan near the village of Al-Tamourah, which is under the control of Jabhat Al-Nusra (Syrian Al-Qaeda group), Jabhat Al-Shamiyah, and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham. In addition to their advance towards Al-Tamourah, the YPG has allegedly seized the town of Deir Jamaal in northern Aleppo; if true, this will be another demoralizing defeat for the Islamist rebels.

Also on Saturday, the YPG began their vital advance towards the Mennagh Military Airport that has been under the control of Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham for near three years now. The Islamist rebels have attempted to form a joint operation called “Jaysh Halab” (Aleppo Army) to combat both the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the YPG in northern Aleppo; however, this group is unlikely to last very long, thanks in large part to the strategic bombing campaign by the Russian Air Force inside the province.

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/...rthern-aleppo/ | Al-Masdar News

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Էրդողանը դժգոհել է Վաշինգտոնից
azadutyun

07.02.2016

Թուրքիայի նախագահ Ռեջեփ Էրդողանը դժգոհել է Միացյալ Նահանգների պաշտոնական ներկայացուցչի՝ Սիրիա կատարած այցի կապակցությամբ:

Միացյալ Նահանգների պետքարտուղարության ներկայացուցիչն այցելել է Սիրիայի հյուսիսում քրդերի վերահսկողության տակ գտնվող տարածք:

«Վաշինգտոնը պետք է ընտրություն կատարի Թուրքիայի և «Քրդական ժողովրդական միություն» կուսակցության միջև», - հայտարարել է Էրդողանը:

[Haykakan]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Russian-Armenian News Agency
Feb 2 2016

Sanctions against Armenia: Mustafa Cemil's new Ukrainian offer


Self-proclaimed `leader' of the Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian MP,
Representative of the President of Ukraine for the Crimean Tatar
people Mustafa Abdulcemil (Cemil) has called to announce sanctions
against Armenia because of the Karabakh conflict.

`I believe that the sanctions against the country-occupier (Armenia, `
ed.) should be effective and focused on the soon liberation of the
occupied territories,' declared Mustafa Cemil during the visit to
France as part of the Ukrainian delegation at the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

The leader of the Crimean Tatars is trying to please his patrons,
primarily, his sponsors in Turkey and Azerbaijan, ` says Konstantin
Zatulin, head of the Institute of CIS Countries.

`Cemil demonstrates Muslim solidarity, reminding us that the Majlis of
the Crimean Tatars is an ally of Ankara and Baku. This is aimed at
expanding the range of their sponsors and benefactors in those two
countries,' told RUSARMINFO Konstantin Zatulin.

According to the expert, Azerbaijan has not been particularly
noticeable in contacts with the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, but Cemil throws
to the bait in the hope that Baku will pay attention to him.

`Cemil takes the position of Turkey in regards to the Karabakh
conflict, and this statement demonstrates that he is loyal to them.
Turkey, in turn, openly opposes the reunion of Crimea with Russia and
provokes Azerbaijan in the escalation of the Karabakh conflict. The
fact that Mustafa Cemil is a people's MP of Ukraine indicates that to
some extent he also voices Ukraine's position over the Karabakh
conflict. Despite the fact that Ukraine used to declare equal
relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, after the reunion of
Crimea with Russia Kiev has reconsidered its position in favor of
Baku,' concluded Konstantin Zatulin.

Armenians have been living in the territory of the Crimean peninsula
since ancient times, and in the middle of the XI century were the
second largest ethnic group after the Crimean Tatars. In 1475, when
the Peninsula passed to Ottoman Turks the number of Armenians
decreased. They returned to Crimea in 1783, when the peninsula once
again became part of Russia. In 1913 in Crimea lived about 9000
Armenians, and in 1914 ` already 15 thousand. According to the census
of 2014, there are about 11 thousand ethnic Armenians in Crimea.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__rusarminfo.ru_sanctions-2Dagainst-2Darmenia-2Dmustafa-2Dcemils-2Dnew-2Dukrainian-2Doffer_&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=z8xbQFHyiNzVjZQORbmU1X42M40b3-eP0Mk6udjGF1c&s=rMKoO81QCsxrfzsofTI-HQZBq8aWxPBbc2PXdbZtlGE&e=

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Sanctions against Armenia: Mustafa Cemil's new Ukrainian offer
Self-proclaimed `leader' of the Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian

Some half azz leader from Gabon has more weigh than the "Self-proclaimed" Mustafa tatar from Ukraine.

[Gevz]

Re: Regional geopolitics

State Duma members suggest annulling Russian-Turkish treaty which is important for Azerbaijan

http://en.apa.az/xeber_state_duma_members_suggest_annulling_rus_239019.html