Turkey's tough choice: Take on ISIS or the PKK?

Turkey's tough choice: Take on ISIS or the PKK?
By Gönül Tol, Special to CNN
October 9, 2014 -- Updated 1234 GMT (2034 HKT)

Editor's note: Gönül Tol is the founding director of The Middle East Institute's Center for Turkish Studies and an adjunct professor at George Washington University's Institute for Middle East Studies. The views expressed in this commentary are entirely those of the author.

(CNN) -- Turkey is in a tough spot. It has ISIS militants threatening the Syrian border town of Kobani, inching ever closer to confronting Turkish security forces. In addition thousands of Syrian Kurds, fleeing ISIS attacks, have massed along its border, adding further to Ankara's troubles.
Amid mounting pressure to become more active in the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS, the Turkish parliament last week overwhelmingly authorized its military to make incursions into Syria and Iraq; also to allow foreign troops to operate out of Turkish bases. The move has been greeted in Western capitals as a welcome sign that Turkey is finally fully on board with the anti-ISIS coalition.

Yet the Turkish parliament's actions herald neither a complete about-face in policy toward Syria nor immediate military action against ISIS. Indeed, Turkey's reasons for joining the war may be more to do with suppressing Kurdish separatists and removing the al-Assad regime than with destroying the jihadist group.

Toppling the leadership in Damascus and keeping in check the Syrian Kurds who are closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, have long been Ankara's priorities in Syria.

 Turkey authorizes strikes on ISIS ISIS forces enter Kobani, sources say Biden regrets saying allies helped ISIS Cam catches ISIS shelling Syrian city

The wording of last week's parliamentary resolution -- which states that "the terrorist elements of the outlawed PKK still exist in northern Iraq" -- suggests that Kurdish separatists still remain the Turkish government's top concern.

The vote does not signal intervention against ISIS any time soon: despite thousands of Syrian Kurdish refugees and ISIS's fast advance towards Turkey's southern border, Ankara seems unwilling to act. Turkey's defense minister Ismet Yilmaz said: "Don't expect an imminent step after the approval of the authorization request."

Rather, the Turkish government is likely to give its full cooperation to the campaign against ISIS so that it can secure agreement of a U.S.-backed no-fly zone in Syria: this, Ankara believes, would address both concerns.

Turkey thinks that Assad regime's ability to attack mainstream opposition forces from the air has strengthened ISIS, causing the Free Syrian Army to flee and allowing the Islamic militants to capture the vacant territory. Enforcing a no-fly zone over Syria would ground al-Assad's air force and boost rebels fighting to topple him: it could also establish a Turkish military presence, ridding northern Syria of Kurdish fighters linked to the PKK and smothering the autonomous Kurdish region. Turkey has become increasingly uneasy about the emergence of yet another Kurdish entity on its frontier after the PKK-affiliated Syrian Kurdish groups established autonomy in northern Syria.

The military and diplomatic boost that the PKK has received through its effective fight against ISIS has also worsened the situation for Ankara. In response to the growing ISIS threat, the PKK, the Peshmerga, and the People's Protection Unit (the PKK-linked Kurdish militia group fighting in Syria), have established a united Kurdish front, with the PKK militants coming to the aid of Peshmerga fighters and halting the jihadi group's advance into the autonomous region of northern Iraq. The People's Protection Unit was the main force battling ISIS, and it helped thousands of Yazidis escape from the western part of the region as ISIS attacked.

The PKK has effectively become the West's best hope for on-the-ground troops, winning the group positive reviews in Western media. Since the group started its assault against ISIS in northern Iraq, there has been a lot of talk in Western capitals about removing the PKK from the terror list.

The fight against ISIS has also empowered the PKK militarily: Turkey is concerned that that weapons sent to the Peshmerga might ultimately end up in the hands of the PKK at a time when Ankara is moving forward with a deal that would disarm its group. The Turkish government puts the blame for this on the West but Ankara's overtures towards its own Kurdish minority have been mostly strained by its own short-sighted Syria policy.

The ongoing conflict around Kobani has underscored the many challenges the Syrian war poses for the peace process Ankara launched in 2012 in an effort to end the 30-year old Kurdish insurgency. The intensified shelling in Kobani has angered Kurds on the Turkish side of the border, who have blamed the Turkish government for allowing ISIS to fester and not doing enough to stop its assault against Kurds.

Turkey's reluctance to get involved for fear of empowering Kurdish militants in Turkey is now contributing to the growing discord between Kurds and the government. Last week, after reports that Turkey closed the border gates to impede the flight of Kurds from Kobani, Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK's imprisoned leader, warned that if ISIS carried out a "massacre" in Kobani then the peace process with the PKK could end.

If engaged by Ankara, the PKK-linked groups in Syria could be integrated into the moderate Syrian opposition and become an effective fighting force against the al-Assad regime. But the Turkish government's increasingly harsh rhetoric against the group signals that such a shift in Ankara's thinking is not in the works. Last week, Erdogan said "While the ISIS terror organization is causing turmoil in the Middle East, there has been ongoing PKK terror in my country for the last 32 years, and yet the world was never troubled by it. Why? Because this terror organization did not carry the name 'Islam.'"

If Turkey keeps seeing the PKK a bigger threat than ISIS activities in Syria, then the legislation passed last week is unlikely to lead to a deeper involvement of Turkey in the fight against the jihadist group.

No let up in firing on Indo-Pak border

No let up in firing on Indo-Pak border
Very serious situation at hand: Div Com Jammu
ABHINAV VERMA

Jammu, Oct 8: Amid mounting tension, Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged heavy fire along the Line of Control and Indo-Pak border here Wednesday, leading to death of two women in Samba sector. As per government figures, the border firing has, in past few days, claimed eight lives  while causing injuries to at least 75 persons.

Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Shanat Manu, said eight deaths have been reported so far across the Jammu region. He said in the Pakistani firing, one person was killed in Poonch, five in Jammu and two in Samba district till Wednesday evening.

“We have a very serious situation at hand right now, he said.

Police sources said the firing began after the Pakistan's military allegedly attacked about 60 Indian army posts stationed along the border.

“Pakistani rangers targeted the entire Jammu border during the night and the firing is still on,” they said.

At least there Army soldiers, including a JCO, were seriously injured when their location was hit by a mortar shell fired from across the LoC in GaliMaidaan in Sabjian sector of Poonch district yesterday evening, officials said.

The injured soldiers have been identified as NaibSubedarSubash Singh, SepoySurjit Singh and SepoyBasant Kumar of 40 Rashtriya Rifles.

“Pakistan intermittently carried out firing between 1300 hrs and 1900 hrs in Poonch and Mendhar Sector along the LoC,’’ an official spokesman said. “Ceasefire violation was effectively responded by own troops. Earlier in Banwat and Hamirpur areas, Pakistan also violated the truce at 1620 hrs with small arms and mortars.”

2 WOMEN KILLED IN SAMBA

Last night, Pakistani Rangers simultaneously targeted several Border Outer Post (BoPs) in Samba and Kathua districts, resulting death of two women and injuries to over two dozen residents and security personnel, officials said.

Residents of Chelyari village, situated close to Indo-Pak border, left the village after the firing intensified. Stray bullets reportedly hit some residents of the village. “A woman died on spot while six persons were shifted to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) Jammu,” a police official said, adding “another woman succumbed to her injuries in the hospital.”

The deceased have been identified as Shankuntla Devi and her daughter-in-law, Polli Devi.
The injured admitted at GMC included Soudaggar Mal, Booti Ram. Kuldeepkumar, Meenu Devi and Koushal Kumar—all residents of Chelyari village.

While official channels between the two neighbouring countries remained blocked, the soldiers on both sides exchanged heavy firing at several places during the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said.

Meanwhile seven people were injured near Jeora Farm in Ranbir Singh Pura Sector when they were on way towards their house and hit by a mortar shell. They were shifted to GMC Jammu.
Five people were killed and 30 injured in border firing in Arnia Sub-Sector on October 6, officials said.
==============
Pak looking for a leader to deal with LoC tension: Imran Khan
Lastupdate at : Thu, 9 Oct 2014 16:51:38 IST
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Islamabad, Oct 9: Pakistan's opposition leader Imran Khan has said that the country needs a better leader than Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to respond to the situation along the Line of Control.

"The nation is looking for a leader in the present circumstances. But where are you, Mr Nawaz Sharif? Why are you silent?" asked Khan, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

The cricketer-turned-politician alleged that Sharif was silent on the LoC situation to save his business interests. PTI

Islamic State seizes large areas of Syrian town

Islamic State seizes large areas of Syrian town despite air strikes
BY DAREN BUTLER AND OLIVER HOLMES
MURSITPINAR Turkey/BEIRUT Thu Oct 9, 2014 7:50am EDT

 REUTERS- A black flag belonging to the Islamic State is seen in the Syrian town of Kobani, as pictured from the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc October 9, 2014. 

CREDIT: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS

(Reuters) - Islamic State fighters seized more than a third of the Syrian border town of Kobani, a monitoring group said on Thursday, as U.S.-led air strikes failed to halt their advance and Turkish forces nearby looked on without intervening.

With Washington ruling out a ground operation in Syria, Turkey described as unrealistic any expectation that it would conduct a cross-border operation unilaterally to relieve the mainly Kurdish town.

The commander of Kobani's heavily outgunned Kurdish defenders said Islamic State controlled slightly less than a third of the town that lies within sight of Turkish territory.

However, he acknowledged that the militants had made major gains in a three-week battle that has also led to the worst streets clashes in years between police and Kurdish protesters across the frontier in southeast Turkey.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamic State, which is still widely known by its former acronym of ISIS, had pushed forward on Thursday.

"ISIS control more than a third of Kobani. All eastern areas, a small part of the northeast and an area in the southeast," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory which monitors the Syrian civil war.

Esmat al-Sheikh, leader of the militia forces in Kobani, said Islamic State had seized about a quarter of the town in the east. "The clashes are ongoing - street battles," he told Reuters by telephone from the town.

Explosions rocked the town throughout Thursday, with black smoke visible from the Turkish border a few kilometres (miles) away. Islamic State hoisted its black flag in Kobani overnight and a stray projectile landed 3 km (2 miles) inside Turkey. The U.S.-led coalition carried out several airstrikes on Thursday and sporadic gunfire from the besieged town was audible.

The United Nations says only a few hundred inhabitants remain in Kobani but the town's defenders say the battle will end in a massacre if Islamic State prevails, giving it a strategic garrison on the Turkish border.

They complain that the United States is giving only token support through the air strikes, while Turkish tanks sent to the frontier are looking on but doing nothing to defend the town.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu played down the likelihood of those forces going to the aid of Kobani.

"It is not realistic to expect Turkey to conduct a ground operation on its own," he told a joint news conference with visiting NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. However, he added: "We are holding talks.... Once there is a common decision, Turkey will not hold back from playing its part."

Ankara resents any suggestion from Washington that it is not pulling its weight, but wants broader joint action that also targets the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "We strongly reject allegations of Turkish responsibility for the ISIS advance," said a senior Ankara government source.

"Our allies, especially the U.S. administration, dragged their feet for a very long time before deciding to take action against the catastrophic events happening in Syria," he added.

Turkey has long advocated action against Assad during the civil war, which grew out of a popular uprising in 2011. However, the United States called off air strikes on Damascus government forces at the last minute last year when Assad agreed to give up his chemical weapons.

President Tayyip Erdogan says he wants the U.S.-led alliance to enforce a "no-fly zone" to prevent Assad's air force flying over Syrian territory near the Turkish border and create a safe area for an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey to return.

But Stoltenberg said that establishing a no-fly zone or a safe zone inside Syria has not been discussed by NATO.

TURKISH CLASHES

At least 21 people died in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey on Wednesday during clashes between security forces and Kurds demanding that the government do more to help Kobani. There were also clashes in Istanbul and Ankara.

In Washington, the Pentagon cautioned on Wednesday that there are limits to what the air strikes can do in Syria before Western-backed, moderate Syrian opposition forces are strong enough to repel Islamic State.

Islamic State has also seized large areas of territory in neighbouring Iraq, where the United States has focused its air attacks on the militants.

President Barack Obama has ruled out sending U.S. ground forces on a combat mission, and Secretary of State John Kerry offered little hope to Kobani's defenders on Wednesday. "As horrific as it is to watch in real time what is happening in Kobani ... you have to step back and understand the strategic objective," he said.

In Turkey, the fallout from the war in Syria and Iraq has threatened to unravel the NATO member's delicate peace process with its Kurdish community. Ankara has long been suspicious of any Kurdish assertiveness which puts itself in a tough position as it tries to end its own 30-year war with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Following Wednesday's violence in Turkey, streets have been calmer since curfews were imposed in five southeastern provinces, restrictions unseen since the 1990s when PKK forces were fighting the Turkish military in the southeast.

Erdogan said that protesters had exploited the events in Kobani as an excuse to sabotage the Kurdish peace process. "Carrying out violent acts in Turkey by hiding behind the terror attacks on Kobani shows that the real intention and target is entirely different," he said in a statement.

Kurdish leaders in Syria have asked Ankara to help establish a corridor which will allow aid and possibly arms and fighters to cross the border and reach Kobani, but Ankara has so far been reluctant to respond positively.

Saleh Muslim, co-chairman of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, met Turkish officials last week, Kurdish sources said, but the meeting was not fruitful.

The PYD annoyed Turkey last year by setting up an interim administration in northeast Syria after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lost control of the region. Ankara wants Kurdish leaders to abandon their self-declared autonomy.

Turkey has also been unhappy with the Kurds' reluctance to join the wider opposition to Assad.

On the Turkish side of the frontier near Kobani, 21-year-old student Ferdi from the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli said if Kobani fell, the conflict would spread to Turkey.

"In fact it already has spread here," he said, standing with a group of several dozen people in fields watching the smoke rising from west Kobani.

Turkish police fired tear gas against protesters in the town of Suruç near the border overnight. A petrol bomb set fire to a house and the shutters on most shops in the town were kept shut in a traditional form of protest against state authorities.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut, Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul and Orhan Coskun, Tulay Karadeniz and Jonny Hogg in Ankara; Editing by David Stamp)

As Islamic State Nears Conquest of Syrian Town, U.S. Presses Turks

MIDDLE EAST

As Islamic State Nears Conquest of Syrian Town, U.S. Presses Turks
By MARK LANDLER and ERIC SCHMITT NYT OCT. 8, 2014

President Obama, at the Pentagon on Wednesday, discussed the drive against the Islamic State. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As fighters from the Islamic State were on the brink of a highly visible conquest of a Syrian town near the Turkish border, Obama administration officials on Wednesday said there were limits to what the United States was able or willing to do to defend it.

Officials from the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon warned that airstrikes alone would not be sufficient to protect the town, Kobani, from the black-clad fighters. Their comments came a month after President Obama expanded the military campaign against the Sunni militant group into Syria. Although the Kurdish town — with television cameras trained on it from across the border in Turkey — has become a vivid symbol of the Islamic State’s lethal advance, and the Kurds’ fierce resistance, administration officials sought to play down its strategic importance.

“As horrific as it is to watch in real time what’s happening in Kobani,” Secretary of State John Kerry said at a news conference, “it’s also important to remember that you have to step back and understand the strategic objective and where we have begun over the course of the last weeks.”

The military’s Central Command said that the United States had conducted eight more airstrikes on Wednesday — for a total of 19 in the past four days — to try to halt the advance on Kobani. But officials drew a sharp distinction between Syria and Iraq, where it conducts airstrikes in concert with Kurdish pesh merga fighters and the Iraqi military.

“That sort of ground operation doesn’t currently exist in Syria right now, and that will limit the effectiveness of the United States military to have the same kind of impact on the situation in Kobani,” the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, told reporters.

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama was briefed on the military campaign by his commanders at the Pentagon and then met there with his national security team. “It remains a difficult mission,” he said. “As I’ve indicated from the start, this is not something that is going to be solved overnight.” The administration’s downbeat tone seemed aimed at managing expectations about the campaign and also at pressuring Turkey, which has signed on to the coalition but has so far been reluctant to commit military resources in the conflict.

Officials said they wanted the Turks to act by deploying ground troops in Syria, firing artillery at the militants, helping to train and arm Syrian rebels, sharing intelligence or opening its border to let Turkish Kurdish fighters join the fight and Syrian Kurds to flee the town. The White House, however, has not specifically asked Turkey to send troops to defend Kobani, in part because the Syrian Kurds there do not want Turkish reinforcements. The role of Turkish troops in Syria is complicated because President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made no secret that he wants to oust President Bashar al-Assad as much as he wants to repel the Islamic State.

The delicacy of the negotiations between the United States and Turkey is typified by the issue of a buffer zone in the northern part of Syria, which the Turkish government has long demanded and which the Pentagon has resisted because of its cost and complexity.

On Wednesday, Mr. Kerry said the idea of a buffer zone was “worth looking at very, very closely,” and would be a topic of discussion between Turkish officials and Mr. Obama’s special envoy for Syria, Gen. John R. Allen, in meetings in Ankara on Thursday. Mr. Earnest, however, said, “It’s not something that’s under consideration right now.”

Administration officials said the United States was walking a fine line with Turkey, which has conditioned military participation on the imposition of a buffer zone. General Allen is expected to argue that bolstering the Syrian rebels would not only create a fighting force against the Islamic State, but also be a counterweight to the Assad government.

Pentagon officials said that while airstrikes had succeeded in changing the tactics of the militants — dispersing them, forcing them to conceal their weapons and hide among the population and limiting their electronic communications — airstrikes would not be enough to stop them from seizing Kobani and other towns.

“Airstrikes alone are not going to fix this, not going to save the town of Kobani,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. “We know that. We know that ISIL is going to continue to grab ground and there are going to be villages and towns and cities that they take.” Admiral Kirby was using an alternative name for the group.

Admiral Kirby also conceded that unlike in Iraq, where the United States has sent scores of military advisers to assist Iraqi and Kurdish troops, Syria offers no ready ground ally.

The Pentagon plans to train about 5,000 opposition fighters a year, but Admiral Kirby said it would take three to five months just to develop the “procedures and protocols” for the program before it begins at a base in Saudi Arabia. It would be several additional months after that before the first group of trained fighters could be fielded.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering an important NATO ally, said Washington was pressing Turkey to send troops across the border and carry out airstrikes of their own to reverse the Islamic State’s gains.“We can’t have our boots on the grounds,” said the official. “That’s the responsibility of the countries in the region.”

Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting.

US defence department acknowledged that Kobane could still fall to ISIL

MIDDLE EAST
US says air power 'not enough' to save Kobane
US-led coalition continues air strikes against ISIL as Pentagon official admits besieged Syrian city "could be taken".

Last updated: 09 Oct 2014 07:40 AJ

Despite the air strikes, the US defence department acknowledged that Kobane could still fall to ISIL [AP]

US-led coalition air strikes have managed to push back some fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Syrian city of Kobane, but US and UK officials have said that air power alone cannot prevent the city from falling.

"Kobani could be taken. We recognise that," John Kirby, the press secretary for the US Defence Department told reporters on Wednesday.

"We're doing everything we can from the air to try to halt the momentum of ISIL against that town. Air power is not going to be alone enough to save that city."

Kirby's comments came as the coalition intensified its bombing of ISIL targets in Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, while the Turkish military deployed tanks on its side of the frontier on Thursday.

In a statement on Wednesday, US Central Command (USCC) said it appeared that Syrian-Kurdish fighters continued to control most of the town and were holding out against ISIL.

But the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) said on Thursday that ISIL now controls more than a third of the town.

"All eastern areas, a small part of the northeast and an area in the south east [are controlled by ISIL]," the SOHR said. 

If Kobani fell to ISIL, the armed group would be in control of more than half of Syria's 820 km border with Turkey, but US Secretary of State John Kerry said the loss of the town would not be a strategic defeat.

Philip Hammond, the UK's foreign secretary, said that his country was a full partner of the coalition and was open to the possibility of extending its commitment to military action within Syria, a move which he said would require parliamentary approval.

"We absolutely have not ruled out playing a role in Syria. We will require further parliamentary approval if we decide that that is the right thing for us to do," Hammond said.

Buffer zone confusion

Meanwhile, the US has been sending mixed signals over Turkey's proposal to create a buffer zone along the Syria-Turkey border, with Kerry initially saying that Washington was willing to consider the idea, but the White House later denied doing so.

US and Jordanian aircraft conducted eight additional strikes on ISIL around Kobane, for a total of 14 coalition strikes for the day and 19 bombing raids near the town since Tuesday, USCC, which is overseeing the airstrikes and US forces in the Middle East, said on Wednesday.

The latest strikes near Kobane destroyed five armed vehicles, an ISIL supply depot, a command centre, a logistics compound, and eight occupied barracks, the USCC said.

Another air raid southwest of the Syrian city of Raqqa destroyed four armed vehicles and damaged two more, it said.

US fighter jets and other aircraft also kept up bombing runs in Iraq, with one attack northwest of Ramadi, one in Mosul and another raid south of Kirkuk, it said.

About 200,000 people have already fled Kobane and surrounding villages since the fighting began.

IS Advances NYT, Withdraws IBT

ISIS Advances in Syrian Border Town of Kobani Despite Airstrikes
By KARAM SHOUMALI and ANNE BARNARD OCT. 8, 2014

An explosion rose from the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on Wednesday, as fighters from the Islamic State militant group appeared to hold their ground there despite intensive American-led airstrikes. Credit Sedat Suna/European Pressphoto Agency

MURSITPINAR, Turkey — Gun battles and explosions echoed from the embattled Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on Wednesday, as Islamic State militants detonated a car bomb and new American-led airstrikes hit the northern edge of the town, close to the Turkish border.

A Kurdish official in Kobani, Assi Abdullah, said that despite the bombing, Islamic State fighters had managed to enter new areas of the town and move north, closer to the border.

That development, along with what could be seen of the fighting from across the border, suggested that two days of intensive airstrikes had failed to turn back the militants. Kurdish fighters, as well as Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have said that airstrikes alone will not stop the attackers.

But they are divided on how to address the problem. Kurds insist that Turkey should allow Kurdish fighters, supplies and weapons to enter the encircled town through its territory. Turkey refuses to do so unless the Kurds meet certain demands, including distancing themselves from their allies in an outlawed Kurdish separatist party in Turkey.

Turkey has also balked at deeper involvement with the American-led coalition against the Islamic State, urging President Obama to focus on ousting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and calling for an international no-fly zone and buffer area along the Syrian border, not necessarily in Kobani.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that preventing the town’s fall to Islamic State militants was not a strategic objective for the United States.

“As horrific as it is to watch in real time what is happening in Kobani,” Mr. Kerry said at a news conference with the British foreign secretary in Washington, “you have to step back and understand the strategic objective.” He added that the focus had been on the militants’ “command and control centers, the infrastructure.”

Ms. Abdullah, the Kurdish official in Kobani, said by telephone that 15 civilians had been killed since militants entered the town. “We still have thousands of civilians inside Kobani who might be massacred if ISIS takes the city,” she said, using a former acronym for the Islamic State.

As an indication of the complex political currents, however, she made it clear the Kurds would not welcome military assistance from Turkey, asking instead for free passage of Kurdish fighters from Turkey to reinforce those in Kobani.

“We would view Turkey sending its troops without an international decision as an occupation," she said. "Turkey can help in a different way by allowing support to come through its territory. All the talk by Turkey about helping us is still words and not actions.”

Anwar Muslim, a lawyer and the head of the Kobani district, echoed those sentiments, saying it was illogical to ask the Kurds to denounce Mr. Assad and join Syrian insurgent groups fighting against him.

“We don’t deal with the Syrian regime, and our borders with Turkey have always been quiet,” he said in a telephone interview. “We wish that Turkey would allow fighters from Qamishli to come through its territory,” he added, referring to a Syrian Kurdish area now cut off from Kobani, “and wish it had been earnest about standing by the Kurds against ISIS.”

Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
It was difficult to gauge the direction of the battle in Kobani on Wednesday. For the first time in days, there was no shelling of the town. Kurdish fighters and officials reached inside Kobani early Wednesday said that Tuesday’s airstrikes, the most intense so far, had kept the militants from advancing beyond their foothold southwest of the town.

By Wednesday afternoon, though, as plumes of smoke rose above the town, the same people sounded more anxious on the phone. One large explosion, initially thought to be an airstrike, was claimed by Islamic State militants as a suicide car bombing. Ms. Abdullah, the Kurdish official, said the bomb hit a police station where Kurdish fighters were stationed. It was unclear if there were casualties.

Coalition airstrikes continued into the late afternoon, sending towering columns of dust into the air and black smoke across the border.

More than 186,000 Syrians have fled to Turkey over the last three weeks, as Islamic State militants have pressed their offensive in and around Kobani. More than 200 Syrians who crossed the border in recent days have been detained by the Turkish authorities, who have questioned them about their ties to the Kurdish militants defending the town, known as the People’s Protection Committees, or Y.P.G.

On Wednesday, the Turkish government was forced to contend with an outburst of protests in several Turkish cities with large Kurdish populations. Turkey’s military imposed a curfew in parts of the southeast after at least 18 people were killed in demonstrations over the government’s failure to aid Kobani. It was the first time such a curfew had been imposed since a bloody Kurdish insurgency was tamped down in the 1990s.

The violence was the worst in years related to Turkey’s restive Kurdish minority, jeopardizing a fragile peace process. Protests also took place in Istanbul, Ankara and elsewhere. The worst rioting was in Diyarbakir, in southeastern Turkey, where at least 10 people died. Some of the deaths came in clashes between Kurdish activists and members of a Kurdish Islamist group sympathetic to the Islamic State.

Karam Shoumali reported from Mursitpinar, Turkey, and Anne Barnard from Beirut, Lebanon.
========================

Isis Syria News: Islamic State Withdraws from Kobani Districts After Heavy Air Strikes
Gianluca Mezzofiore By Gianluca Mezzofiore
October 8, 2014 11:08 BST

Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani after a war plane carried out an air strike, seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province Umit Bektas/Reuters

Air strikes conducted by a US-led coalition have begun to push Isis fighters back from some parts of the Syrian Kurdish-majority border town of Kobani after three weeks of advances.

Since the Islamic State (also known as Isis) raised their black flag on the eastern side of the town, raids on the Sunni Islamists have multiplied. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, militants "withdrew overnight from several areas in the east of Kobani".

The news was confirmed by Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister of Kobani district, who told Reuters that Isis fighters are "outside the entrances of the city".

"The shelling and bombardment was very effective and as a result of it, IS have been pushed from many positions," he said. The move came after Isis back positions were hit in strikes, causing casualties and damages to their vehicles.

"This is their biggest retreat since their entry into the city and we can consider this as the beginning of the countdown of their retreat from the area," Nassan said.

The Kurdish forces are desperately outnumbered and outgunned by Isis, which boasts an arsenal of US weapons looted from the Iraqi army in Mosul. Defence experts said it was unlikely that the advance could be halted by air power alone.

Mustafa Ebdi, a Kurdish journalist and activist from the besieged town, said on Facebook that the streets of Maqtala neighbourhood in southeastern Kobani were full of the bodies of Isis fighters.

The possible breakthrough in the battle for Kobani came after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that a ground operation is necessary to defeat Isis and expressed his concerns that the town was about to fall into the hands of jihadists.

யாழ் புகையிரத நிலைய கட்டுமான காட்சிப் படம்

Turkish Inaction on ISIS Advance Dismays the U.S.

MIDDLE EAST
Turkish Inaction on ISIS Advance Dismays the U.S.
By MARK LANDLER, ANNE BARNARD and ERIC SCHMITTOCT. 7, 2014

WASHINGTON — As fighters with the Islamic State bore down Tuesday on the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border, President Obama’s plan to fight the militant group without being drawn deeper into the Syrian civil war was coming under acute strain.

While Turkish troops watched the fighting in Kobani through a chicken-wire fence, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that the town was about to fall and Kurdish fighters warned of an impending blood bath if they were not reinforced — fears the United States shares.

But Mr. Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey would not get more deeply involved in the conflict with the Islamic State unless the United States agreed to give greater support to rebels trying to unseat the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. That has deepened tensions with President Obama, who would like Turkey to take stronger action against the Islamic State and to leave the fight against Mr. Assad out of it.

Even as it stepped up airstrikes against the militants Tuesday, the Obama administration was frustrated by what it regards as Turkey’s excuses for not doing more militarily. Officials note, for example, that the American-led coalition, with its heavy rotation of flights and airstrikes, has effectively imposed a no-fly zone over northern Syria already, so Mr. Erdogan’s demand for such a zone rings hollow.

“There’s growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border,” a senior administration official said. “After all the fulminating about Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe, they’re inventing reasons not to act to avoid another catastrophe.

“This isn’t how a NATO ally acts while hell is unfolding a stone’s throw from their border,” said the official, who spoke anonymously to avoid publicly criticizing an ally.

Secretary of State John Kerry has had multiple phone calls in the last 72 hours with Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, and foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to try to resolve the border crisis, American officials said.

For Mr. Obama, a split with Turkey would jeopardize his efforts to hold together a coalition of Sunni Muslim countries to fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. While Turkey is not the only country that might put the ouster of Mr. Assad ahead of defeating the radical Sunnis of the Islamic State, the White House has strongly argued that the immediate threat is from the militants.

But if Turkey remains a holdout, it could cause other fissures in the coalition. It is not only a NATO ally but the main transit route for foreigners seeking to enlist in the ranks of the Islamic State.

Ultimately, American officials said, the Islamic State cannot be pushed back without ground troops that are drawn from the ranks of the Syrian opposition. But until those troops are trained, equipped and put in the field, something that will take some time, officials said, Turkey can play a vital role.

“We have anticipated that it will be easier to protect population centers and to support offensives on the ground in Iraq, where we have partners” in the Kurdish pesh merga fighters and the Iraqi Army, said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “Clearly, in Syria, it will take more time to develop the type of partners on the ground with whom we can coordinate.”

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Mr. Obama’s spokesman, Josh Earnest, said he was confident that the president’s recently appointed special envoy for Syria, retired Gen. John R. Allen, would be able to resolve some logistical issues regarding the Turkish military’s participation in the coalition. But he acknowledged that Turkey’s differing view of the need to oust Mr. Assad was likely to come up.

While the diplomacy went ahead, the United States took pains to emphasize its support for the embattled Kurds in Kobani.

The military’s Central Command confirmed on Tuesday that coalition aircraft had carried out five airstrikes against Islamic State positions in the Kobani area in the past two days, destroying or damaging armed vehicles, artillery, a tank and troop positions.

The raids brought the number of airstrikes in and around Kobani to 18 — out of more than 100 in Syria altogether — since the air campaign was extended from Iraq to Syria.

But Kurdish fighters in Kobani said they were running out of ammunition and could not prevail without infusions of troops and arms from Turkey. Independent analysts and some influential members of Congress concurred, deriding the airstrikes in Kobani as too little, too late.

“This is yet another situation in which the Islamic State’s personnel and heavy weapons have been readily visible and vulnerable to U.S. airstrikes,” Representative Ed Royce, a California Republican who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “Instead of decisive action, the ISIL advance was met with only a handful of airstrikes. This morning’s escalated efforts may be too late.”

Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations envoy for Syria, issued an unusually strong call for the world to take “concrete action” to prevent Kobani from falling into control of the Islamic State.

“The world, all of us, will regret deeply if ISIS is able to take over a city which has defended itself with courage but is close to not being able to do so. We need to act now,” he said.

The fight along the sloping hills of Kobani, a Kurdish farming enclave, comes as neighboring Iraq is still groping to translate aerial bombardments against the Islamic State into momentum on the ground. It is further fragmenting Syria, cutting off Kurdish areas in the northeast.

And it has left the Kurds feeling abandoned, even though they are the sort of vulnerable minority group that Mr. Obama has made a priority of protecting — political moderates who have women fighting alongside men and have provided refuge for internally displaced Syrians of many ethnicities.

“Now I can see the shelling is getting closer to my neighborhood,” said Mahmoud Nabo, 35, a Syrian Kurd, pointing to the western side of town, which he fled Monday as Kurdish fighters urged civilians to evacuate. “We thought everything would stop after the first airstrike on ISIS, but now it is closer and more frequent.”

Analysts say the Kurds of Kobani are being held hostage as Mr. Erdogan seeks to wrest concessions not only from Washington but also from Kurdish leaders, his longtime domestic foes.

Some background on goals, tactics and the potential long-term threat to the United States from the militant group known as the Islamic State. Video by Natalia V. Osipova and Christian Roman on Publish Date September 10, 2014. Photo by Reuters.
The aim, said Soner Cagaptay, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is to weaken Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., in peace talks with the Turkish government.

Turkey also wants the Kurdish fighters to denounce Mr. Assad and openly join the Syrian insurgents fighting him. But the fighters and local political leaders accepted control of Kurdish areas when Mr. Assad’s forces withdrew earlier in the Syrian war, and have focused more on self-rule and protecting their territory than on fighting the government. In some places they have fought alongside government troops.

The impasse leaves Kobani isolated. Some refugees are literally pressed against the fence, unwilling to cross because they cannot take their livestock, and sometimes blocked by the Turkish authorities, who have also stopped Syrian and Turkish Kurds from crossing into Syria to fight the Islamic State.

Tear gas wafted near the border on Tuesday, as Kurdish men packed the streets of the town of Suruc to protest Turkish policy; demonstrations broke out in several cities across Turkey. In Diyarbakir, at least 10 people were killed and more than 20 were injured in clashes between sympathizers of a pro-Kurdish party and a group known for its Islamic affiliations, while the authorities ordered schools to close in several southeastern cities, the Haberturk news channel reported.

On one small stretch of the border near Kobani, a fleeing Syrian Kurd, Omar Alloush, said a Turkish soldier had looked on as an Islamic State fighter addressed Syrian Kurds across the border fence, telling them they were welcome to return as long as they abided by the group’s extreme interpretation of Islam.

“We will never trust those people,” Mr. Alloush, a member of a Kurdish political party in Kobani, said by telephone.

Yet another hillside spectator, Avni Altindag, a Kurd from Suruc, said the Islamic State was stronger than a few air raids.

He pointed to the men watching the smoke rising over Kobani, who were chanting for the People’s Protection Committees, a Kurdish group known as Y.P.G. that is battling the Islamic State in the town’s streets. “They used to come with high expectations of strikes against ISIS, but all are disappointed,” he said.

Mr. Altindag blamed Turkey. “They don’t want to help what they say is their enemy,” he said. “This is why it is in Turkey’s favor that Kobani falls to ISIS.”

Mark Landler and Eric Schmitt reported from Washington, and Anne Barnard from Beirut, Lebanon. Reporting was contributed by Karam Shoumali from Mursitpinar, Turkey; Somini Sengupta from the United Nations; Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul; and Alan Cowell from London.

A version of this article appears in print on October 8, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Turkish Inaction on ISIS Advance Dismays the U.S..

Syria town Kobani about to fall as Islamic State advances

Turkey says Syria town Kobani about to fall as Islamic State advances
BY DAREN BUTLER AND OLIVER HOLMES
MURSITPINAR Turkey/BEIRUT Tue Oct 7, 2014 7:15pm EDT


(Reuters) - Turkey's president said the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani was "about to fall" on Tuesday as Islamic State fighters pressed home a three-week assault that has cost a reported 400 lives and forced thousands to flee their homes.

The prospect that the town could be captured by Islamic State, who are now within city limits, has increased pressure on Turkey to join an international coalition to fight against the jihadists.

Islamic State wants to take Kobani in order to strengthen its grip on the border area and consolidate the territorial gains it has made in Iraq and Syria in recent months. U.S.-led air strikes have so far failed to prevent its advance on Kobani.

Turkey said it was pressing Washington for more air strikes, although President Tayyip Erdogan said bombing was not enough to defeat Islamic State and he set out Turkey's demands for additional measures before it could intervene.

"The problem of ISIS (Islamic State) ... cannot be solved via air bombardment. Right now ... Kobani is about to fall," he said during a visit to a camp for Syrian refugees.

"We had warned the West. We wanted three things. No-fly zone, a secure zone parallel to that, and the training of moderate Syrian rebels," he said.

He said Turkey would take action if there were threats to Turkish soldiers guarding a historic site in Syria that Ankara regards as its territory. But so far Turkey has made no move to get involved in the fighting across the border.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, had spoken twice in recent days to discuss the situation, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

"Turkey is determining what larger role they will play," Psaki told a daily briefing, "They have indicated their openness to doing that, so there is an active conversation about that."

Retired U.S. General John Allen, the envoy charged with building the coalition against Islamic State, and his deputy Brett McGurk will visit Turkey later this week for talks.

U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said Turkey had been generous in receiving refugees from Kobani but the international community needed to protect the town. "What is needed now is concrete action," he said, without elaborating.

France said it was vital to stop Islamic State's advance on Kobani, and was discussing with Turkey what could be done. "A tragedy is unfolding, and we must all react," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament.

But some analysts doubt the will exists among Western allies to take further action.

"It's the coalition of the unwilling, each country is doing the bare minimum, particularly in Syria," said Fadi Hakura at the London based think-tank, Chatham House.

From across the Turkish border, two Islamic State flags could be seen flying over the eastern side of Kobani.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said it had documented 412 deaths of civilians and fighters during the three-week battle for Kobani.

The U.S. military said it and allied air forces launched strikes on Islamic State in Syria on Monday and Tuesday. In the Kobani area the raids destroyed armed vehicles, a tank and a vehicle carrying anti-aircraft artillery.

On the ground, a burning tank, apparently belonging to Islamic State, could be seen on the western edge of town. There were also clashes on the northern fringe and mortar explosions could be heard to the northeast.

Islamic State fighters were using heavy weapons and shells to hit Kobani, senior Kurdish official Asya Abdullah told Reuters from inside the town, estimated by the U.N. on Tuesday to contain possibly a few hundred remaining residents.

AIR STRIKES

Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot, has ramped up its offensive in recent days against the mainly Kurdish border town, despite being targeted by U.S.-led coalition air strikes aimed at halting its progress.

"There were clashes overnight. Not heavy but ISIS is going forward from the southwest. They have crossed into Kobani and control some buildings in the city there," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory, a group that monitors the conflict with a network on the ground. ISIS is a former name for Islamic State.

"They are about 50 meters inside the southwest of the city," Abdulrahman said.

An estimated 180,000 people have fled into Turkey from the Kobani region following the Islamic State advance. More than 2,000 Syrian Kurds including women and children were evacuated from the town after the latest fighting, a member of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) said on Monday.

Before the offensive, Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, was home to refugees from the civil war which pits rebels against President Bashar al-Assad and has deteriorated into hundreds of localized battles between different factions.

The most powerful of the myriad militias fighting against Assad, Islamic State has boosted its forces with foreign fighters and defectors from other rebel groups. It gained additional heavy weaponry after its fighters swept through northern Iraq in June, seizing arms from the fleeing Iraqi army.

The group released a video showing dozens of men said to be from Ahrar al-Sham, a rival Islamist group which has clashed with it in the past, pledging allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the SITE monitoring service said on Monday.

Westerners have also fought for the Kurds against Islamic State. A man describing himself as a U.S. citizen and former soldier from Ohio said in a video interview with Reuters inside Syria that he had come to join Kurdish fighters.

Identifying himself as Brian Wilson, he said other Americans had come to Syria to fight Islamic State.

The United States has been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq since August and extended the campaign to Syria in September. Arab states have joined both campaigns, while other Western countries are participating in Iraq but not Syria.

Two months into the U.S. campaign, the U.S. military has added a new weapon to its arsenal in Iraq, using Apache helicopters for the first time, U.S. officials said on Monday.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan called for more U.S. action. "Our government and our related institutions have emphasized to U.S. officials the necessity of immediately ramping up air bombardment in a more active and efficient way," he said, according to the website of the television channel AHaber.

Turkey, a NATO member which shares a 900-kilometre (500-mile) border with Syria and has the most powerful military in the area, has so far refrained from joining the campaign, but the plight of Kobani has increased pressure to act.

Turkey says the scope of the campaign in Syria should be broadened to seek to remove Assad from power. It has sought a no-fly zone in northern Syria, which would require the coalition to take on Assad's air force as well as Islamic State, a move Washington has not agreed to.

PROTESTS IN TURKEY

At least nine people were killed and dozens wounded in demonstrations across Turkey on Tuesday as Kurds demanded the government do more to protect Kobani, local media reported.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters who burned cars and tires as they took to the streets mainly in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish eastern and southeastern provinces. Clashes also erupted in the biggest city Istanbul and in the capital Ankara.

The victims included five people killed in Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city in the southeast, which saw clashes between protesters and police.

In Geneva, angry Kurds held a protest at the United Nations, while in Brussels they invaded the European Parliament. They waved flags bearing the portrait of jailed Kurdish Workers Party leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The brother of British aid worker Alan Henning, who was beheaded by Islamic State, said Britain should put troops on the ground in the Middle East to fight against the militants.

Kidnappings are common in Syria's civil war, often used for ransom. Catholic news agency Fides quoted Bishop Georges Abou Khazen, the Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo, as saying a parish priest and around 20 Christians have been kidnapped from a Syrian village near the border with Turkey.

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Jonny Hogg and Umit Bektas in Turkey, Louis Charbonneau in New York, Lesley Wroughton in Washington and Tom Miles in Geneva; editing by Peter Graff, Giles Elgood and Tom Brown)

‘சிறையில் இருப்பவர்களின் ஆதரவு எங்களுக்குத் தேவையில்லை’ மோடி

File Photo ENB

நேரடியாக தொடங்கியது மோடி - ஜெயலலிதா யுத்தம்: பிரதமரின் ஹரியாணா பேச்சுக்கு அர்த்தம் கற்பிக்கும் பாஜக

இந்து

டி.எல்.சஞ்சீவிகுமார்


‘சிறையில் இருப்பவர்களின் ஆதரவு எங்களுக்குத் தேவையில்லை’ என்று ஹரியாணா தேர்தல் பிரச்சாரக் கூட்டத்தில் பகிரங்கமாகப் பேசியதின் மூலம் ஜெயலலிதாவை நேரடியாக எதிர்க்க மோடி முடிவு செய்துவிட்டார் என்றே அரசியல் விமர்சகர்கள் கருதுகின்றனர்.

ஜெயலலிதா கைது விவகாரத்தால் தமிழகத்தில் ஏற்பட்டுள்ள அரசியல் வெற்றிடத்தை பயன்படுத்திக்கொள்ள மாநில கட்சிகள் மட்டுமின்றி தேசிய கட்சிகளும் தீவிரமாக பணியாற்றி வருகின்றன. குறிப்பாக, தமிழகத்தில் அரசியல் மாற்றத்தை ஏற்படுத்திவிடலாம் என பாஜக கருதுகிறது. அதன் முதல்கட்டமாகத்தான் கடந்த உள்ளாட்சித் தேர்தலில் பெரிய கட்சிகள் எல்லாம் புறக்கணித்த நிலையில் அதிமுகவை எதிர்த்து பாஜக போட்டியிட்டது. பல இடங்களில் அதிமுக பாஜக இடையே கடும் மோதல்கள் ஏற்பட்டன. அப்போது முதல் பாஜக மாநிலத் தலைவர் தமிழிசை சவுந்திரராஜன், அதிமுகவை கடுமையாக விமர்சித்துவருகிறார்.

தற்போது ஜெயலலிதா சிறையில் இருக்கும் நிலையில் தமிழகத்தில் அதிமுகவை எதிர்த்து முழு வீச்சுடன் செயல்படும்படி பாஜகவினருக்கு பிரதமர் மோடி உத்தரவிட்டுள்ளதாக அக்கட்சியின் வட்டாரங்கள் தெரிவிக்கின்றன. இதுகுறித்து அக்கட்சியின் முக்கிய நிர்வாகிகள் ‘தி இந்து’விடம் கூறியதாவது:

ஹரியாணா தேர்தல் பிரச்சாரக் கூட்டத்தில் பேசிய மோடி, ‘எனது அரசு மக்களின் ஆதரவில் இயங்கி வருகிறது. எங்களுக்கு சிறையில் இருப்பவர்களின் ஆதரவு தேவையில்லை. அதேபோல் மாஃபியாக்களின் ஆதரவும் தேவையில்லை’ என்று பேசினார். அரசுத் தேர்வாணைய ஊழல் வழக்கில் சிறையில் இருக்கும் இந்திய தேசிய லோக்தளம் கட்சித் தலைவர் ஓம்பிரகாஷ் சவுதாலாவை மனதில் வைத்தே மோடி பேசியதாக ஹரியாணா மக்கள் நினைக்கலாம். ஆனால், பீகாரின் லல்லு பிரசாத் யாதவையும் தமிழகத்தின் ஜெயலலிதாவையும் மனதில் வைத்துதான் அவர் அப்படி பேசியிருக்கிறார்.இவ்வாறு பாஜக நிர்வாகிகள் கூறினர்.

இதுகுறித்து நம்மிடம் பேசிய அரசியல் விமர்சகர்கள், “பிரதமர் பதவிக்கான போட்டியில் ஜெயலலிதாவின் பெயர் எப்போது அடிபட்டதோ அப்போதே அதிமுகவுக்கு மோடி குறி வைத்துவிட்டார். கடந்த நாடாளுமன்றத் தேர்தலில் தமிழகத்தில் பெரிய கூட்டணி அமைத்தும் பாஜகவுக்கு ஒரு இடம் மட்டுமே கிடைத்தது மோடியின் கோபத்தை அதிகரித்தது. ‘ஊழல் எம்எல்ஏக்கள், எம்.பி.க்கள் மீதான வழக்கு விசாரணையை விரைவுபடுத்த வேண்டும்’ என்று நாடாளுமன்றத்தில் மோடி பேசியதற்கும் இதுதான் பின்னணி காரணம். ‘எம்எல்ஏக்கள், எம்.பி.க்கள் மீதான் ஊழல் வழக்குகளை விரைவில் முடிக்க வேண்டும். ஒருவேளை வழக்கு இழுத்தடித்தால் அதற்கான காரணத்தை உயர் நீதிமன்றத்துக்கு தெரிவிக்க வேண்டும்’ என்று மத்திய சட்ட அமைச்சர் ரவிசங்கர் பிரசாத்தை கடிதம் எழுத வைத்ததும் அவர்தான். ஜெயலலிதா சொத்துக் குவிப்பு வழக்கு தொடர்பாக மோடியிடம் சுப்பிரமணியன் சுவாமி கேட்டபோது, ‘நீதிமன்ற விசாரணைகளில் தலையிட மாட்டேன்’ என்று மோடி கூறியிருக்கிறார். இதையெல்லாம் மோடி ஜெயலலிதா மோதலின் விளைவுகளாவே கருதவேண்டி உள்ளது’’ என்றனர்.

நெருங்கும் திமுக

இன்னொரு பக்கம் பாஜகவை சத்தமில்லாமல் நெருங்க முயற்சி செய்துவருகிறது திமுக. மத்தியில் பாஜக ஆட்சி அமைந்தபிறகு சந்தர்ப்பம் கிடைக்கும்போதெல்லாம் மோடியை கருணாநிதி பாராட்டி வருகிறார். ஒன்றரை மாதங்களுக்கு முன்பு நடந்த ஒரு கூட்டத்தில் பேசிய கருணாநிதி, ‘இந்திய பிரதமர்களிலேயே ஆற்றல் மிக்கவர் மோடி’ என்றார்.

சென்னை வந்த சட்ட அமைச்சர் ரவிசங்கர் பிரசாத், அப்போது முதல்வராக இருந்த ஜெயலலிதாவை சந்தித்துப் பேசினார். அதுபற்றி கருத்து தெரிவித்த கருணாநிதி, ‘மோடியின் புகழுக்கு ரவிசங்கர் பிரசாத் களங்கம் விளைவித்துவிடக் கூடாது’ என்றார். பாஜகவை திமுக நெருங்க முயற்சிப்பதற்கு பல்வேறு காரணங்கள் இருப்பதாகத் தெரிகிறது. ஆனாலும், ‘இதனால் தங்களுக்கு என்ன பலன்’ என்ற யோசனையில் இதுவரை பிடிகொடுக்காமல் இருக்கிறது பாஜக