Foreign Policy Diary – Greek Crisis fuels EU instability

Bribery as Foreign Policy.. France loses 3 bil arms deal.. They did not veto Iran nuclear deal.. Cant be any more transparent.
Saudi Arabia will suspend all military and financial support to the Army and security forces of Lebanon (not fighting Hezbollah).

A deal could have helped Erdogan achieve two of his most cherished goals: The YPG would have had to join the rebel campaign to unseat Assad and refrain from any moves towards self-rule; and Turkey’s largest pro-Kurdish party, the People’s Democracy Party (HDP), would have needed to support Erdogan’s plans not only to become the president but also to expand his powers once in office.

Hopes of an agreement were rekindled a year ago when the PKK unveiled a 10-point roadmap for peace. But Erdogan swiftly disowned the document, and all communication between Ocalan and the HDP has since ceased.

The Kurds are now looking to link their two self-administered “cantons” that lie to the east of the Euphrates, named Jazeera and Kobani, with the canton of Afrin, which lies to the west. This means dislodging the Islamic State from the 60-mile area wedged between them, and also going through an area that rebel groups friendly to Ankara, including more moderate brigades that have received weapons from the CIA, dominate.

They are angling for diplomatic recognition. Russia has stepped up to the plate, hinting that it will back the Kurds’ plans for autonomy. It also insists that the Kurds must take part in the now-stalled Geneva talks. The United States also backed the Kurds’ participation in peace talks, but backed off when Ankara threatened to stay away from the talks if the Kurds were allowed to join.

The Kurds are skillfully playing the Russians and Americans off of each other to extract as much influence as possible. Kurdish threats to defect squarely to the Russian camp propelled Brett McGurk, President Barack Obama’s special envoy for the anti-Islamic State coalition, to speed up a long-mulled visit to Kobani.

Washington appears to be quietly encouraging the Kurds to grab more territory, even at the expense of moderate rebels it has aided and trained, to ensure that Assad’s Russian-backed forces don’t get there first.

past experience suggests that Erdogan is more likely to dig his country into an even deeper hole.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/18/how-the-kurds-became-syrias-new-power-brokers/?utm_content=buffer7c861&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

One wonders a little what Tsipras is thinking, if at all, about the irreversible, accelerating rot and decay he is presiding over. Literally everybody has him by the balls by now. The Troika, NATO, Turkey, the enraged citizenry at home and further up north in the EU (migration crisis). What comes closest in modern European history to Syriza’s present tribulations is German Social Democracy in the wake of WW1: A pro-Big Business party whose patrons lost the battle and callously left them to endure the full ‘brunt of hatred’ internationally and seething anger and contempt at home, reinforced by social mayhem and prospects of outright civil war. Eventually, Germany was pulled out of the swamp by US imperialism for a few years until the fall of 1929. As the US plunged into depression, Germany was hit immediately and mercilessly as the US appendage it had become.

In view of the foregoing, the outlook for Syriza today is much worse. Like the German majority population, past and present, the Greeks too yearn dearly for continued Western imperialist privilege at the expense of the Global South, accompanied by prosperity and social peace at home. Sadly for Western Social Democracy, of which Syriza is a minor constituent part, the financial Oligarchs are very blunt as they unceremoniously tear down the system of Global Apartheid, at least in the very crucial field of labour. This is what we see play out right now in Greece more than anywhere else. Consequently, Syriza is facing changing demographics and social stratification at home with a rapidly growing “dangerous class” while Greece itself is being violently squeezed and harassed by its EU patrons. Western imperialism abandoned reformism some 40 years ago. Most notably, today’s neoliberal/neoconservative Elites have become so wealthy, arrogant, and contemptuous that they see popular consent as more or less irrelevant to wielding power. The MSM’s descent into a business of 100% lies and imbecilities 24/7 beautifully testifies to this attitude.

Syriza passionately licks the boots of the Oligarchy as did German Social Democracy a century ago. At that time, the contradictions were nasty all right, but still the aspirations of chauvinist populations in besieged countries could be addressed by sharing the spoils of global plunder and industrial output. Today, the West is deindustrialised and the Elites don’t see any point in maintaining Global Apartheid, Tsipras and Syeiza be damned.