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US must be desperate to send suicide squads to take something they dont have the muscle for.. But to split Syria they need to capture this base at all costs..
SYRIA: Reports of heavy fighting in Deir Ezzor, #Syria after 3 large explosions.
Local reports claim aircraft are striking the areas around Deir Ezzor airport, ISIS appear to be attacking.
What remains of central Aleppo after years of fightings…
https://twitter.com/green_lemonnn/status/679633730806411264
Syria: Assad forces 0.2 miles away from Palmyra Castle, 1.2 miles from Palmyra gate
Syrian, Russian and Hezbollah Massive Offensive Forced Deash Flee Palmyra
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA), Russian force and Hezbollah fighters have mounted a major offensive to liberate Palmyra, forcing “surprised and confused” Daesh militants to flee their fortifications and outposts close to the iconic ancient city.
Palmyra Gate
Syrian government troops on Sunday fended off Takfiri terrorists’ attack on their positions in the direction of Wadi Abyad dam, west of the ancient city of Palmyra in Homs province.
The terrorists who had launched an attack from al-Hayyal Mountain suffered a heavy death toll after the Syrian army and the country’s National Defense Forces (NDF) thwarted their attack near Palmyra in the Central Homs province and pushed them back from the battlefield in a counter-attack, FNA reports.
Damascus-led forces are said to have come as close as 0.2 miles away from the Palmyra Castle, also known as Fakhr-al-Din al-Ma’ani, and 1.2 miles away from the Palmyra gate.
http://en.alalam.ir/news/1771062#sthash.YOVs1tBW&st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/6CLF8dZk80
Russia donated to #Kazakhstan S-300 missile systems as contribution to the unified air defense command that has already been put in place.
According to this, S400 has a 600KM range.. And since Russia is giving away S300’s Mr.Putin can I have one? pleaze
http://info-step.ru/wp-content/gallery/anti-aircraft-missile-system-c-500/thumbs/thumbs_lang_voenka_s500.jpg
Nope/// they are going to Armenia
https://www.rt.com/news/326869-russia-armenia-airdefense-caucasus/
Well yes.. that is why since Russia is giving away S300’s now to upgrade their own systems to the S400, I want one too..
Syria,Iran,Armenia, s.osetia (?), Kazakhstan, and who knows where else.. This is so old tech… no one wants it…. Its so last years model you know.. does not come with airbags, abs or xenons.. The S400’s integrated to other radar systems can detect stealth aircraft as well. S500 is in testing and not production so not sure why people are saying its operational. It has a range of 3000km and neither the missiles or radar is good enough for production.
Yes it is worth looking…
RuAF #Sukhoi Su-24s at #Latakia #Syria
https://twitter.com/commonsaviation/status/679468413526212609
For hires try this…
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%91%D1%83%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B8_%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%B3%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BF%D0%BF%D1%8B_%D0%92%D0%9A%D0%A1_%D0%A0%D0%A4_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%B0%D1%8D%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B5_%C2%AB%D0%A5%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%B9%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BC%C2%BB_%28%D0%A1%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%90%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B1%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BF%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0%29_%2866%29.JPG
Elsi–
Is Podemos as bad for Spain as Syriza was for Greece?
I hope you are well; haven’t seen you around for awhile.
Feliz Navidad!
wow the Russian MOD spokesman blew his top on this one…
SYRIA On Dec 18-23, Russian aircraft have performed 302 combat sorties engaging 1093 terrorist objects
#SYRIA Second blaming wave on after tragic bombardment of hospital in Kunduz (Afghanistan) by #US Air Force
SYRIA Third wave of charges appeared right after strike performed by aircraft of #US AF on Iraqi servicemen near #Fallujah
Rus MoD comments on Amnesty Int brief and summes up operation results in #Syria, Dec 18-23 http://on.fb.me/1OLuJXN
SYRIA #FAKEAI Rusian Defence ninistry made deep research on briefing of the non-governmental organization Amnesty International
#FAKEAI Having puplished the brief Western Media missed hypothetic rhetorics and gave everything as facts
#SYRIA #FAKEAI Briefing is made in a well-known style: same clichés and fakes, refferings to impersonal sources and no evidence
#FAKEAI This is not a new but effective and completely lying method. Nobody saw or heard anything but accusations are aimed to #Russia
Rus MoD since first day of operation in #Syria holds regular briefings with results and footages instead of fantasies
#SYRIA Representatives of respectful mass media, do not put at risk your reputation by publishing fakes provided by anonymous sources
FAKEAI Amnesty International, reveal who and when provided you with this so-called data or it will be done by the Rus MoD itself
SYRIA Rus MoD is convinced that fighting against terrorism does not involve efforts aimed to discredit partners but joint practical actions
https://twitter.com/mod_russia
Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
Russian Defence Ministry commented on briefing of Amnesty International and summed up results of operation carried out by the Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria on December 18-23.
In the course of five days, on December 18-23, aircraft of the Aerospace Forces in the Syrian Arab Republic have performed 302 combat sorties engaging 1093 objects in the #Aleppo, #Idlib, #Latakia, #Homs and Deir ez-Zor provinces.
In Homs province, a Su-24 bomber made a strike on a concentration of military hardware of the ISIS terrorists. According to objective monitoring data, 6 off-road vehicles with large-caliber machine guns and 3 militants’ trucks were destroyed.
In Aleppo province, a #Su34 bomber made a strike on a command centre of one of the Ahrar ash-Sham illegal armed groups uncovered by UAVs. Direct hit on the building occupied by terrorists completely destroyed the facility.
The Russian aviation continues making strikes on militants’ illegal oil production facilities.
Near Deir ez-Zor, Su-34 bombers eliminated 2 oil storage facilities and 3 oil extraction installations as well as dozens oil trucks waiting for being loaded just in 24 hours.
Pay attention to the detonation wave of the tankers, which had been filled with not just oil but its refueled products.
In Idlib province, a Su-34 bomber eliminated a training camp belonging to illegal armed groups. There were experienced instructors, who had arrived from neighbouring countries of Syria.
Information concerning the camp, where the significant part of terrorists arriving from Turkey is composed of citizens from CIS states, was received from representatives of the patriotic Syrian opposition about a week ago. This data has been thoroughly checked through all available channels including the Information centre in #Baghdad.
The data with coordinates of the terrorists’ camp was confirmed at once by several sources.
As soon as a large number of militants arrived at the camp, a strike was made on it destroying the whole infrastructure with terrorists.
It is to be paid attention that just in several hours the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed the Russian Defence Ministry for alleged killing of exactly 600 civilians, exactly 150 of them – are allegedly children.
Only the Turkish leadership knows where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had got these round numbers without submitting even smallest evidence.
Another declaration published in the Turkish media quoting the spokesman of the Turkish Government Numan Kurtulmus is not less significant.
According to him, only 391 of 4198 operations of the Russian air group in Syria were aimed against #ISIS targets.
Attention should be paid to the accuracy in the claimed number of sorties of the Russian aircraft against targets in the Syrian Arab Republic.
This fact shows that all the data transmitted to the American party has been brought to notice of the Turkish General Staff by the US Air Force Command.
So, on November 24, when the Turkish fighter traitorously attacked with a missile the Russian Su-24 bomber, the Turkish General Staff was well-informed about the time and the area of task performance of the pair of Russian bombers.
These words of Numan Kurtulmus can be treated as official confirmation by Turkey of the fact that the operation on shooting down the Russian aircraft in the Syrian sky and killing of the Russian servicemen had been planned beforehand.
The Russian Defence Ministry has repeatedly attracted attention to the fact that all stovepiping, which contains accusations addressed to the Russian aircraft concerning allegedly killing many Syrian civilians by airstrikes or with some prohibited munitions (from cluster to vacuum ones) do not appear for nothing.
When it had happened for the first time, it could be treated as a strange coincidence.
However, it has happened for the third time. It is to be stressed that the same media agencies have spread fake information, and all coincidences turned into regularity.
It is to be reminded that the first blaming wave had appeared right after destruction of thermal power station by the #US Air Force aircraft in Aleppo, which left the whole districts without electricity.
The second wave of accusation went on after tragic bombardment of the hospital of the Doctors Without Borders in Kunduz (Afghanistan) carried out by the US Air Force on October 3, which killed 42 people.
By the way, the video with the strike and its consequences appeared in common access at once. The Russian Defence Ministry was not blamed for this tragedy just because there are no Russian troops in #Afghanistan.
That is why all the lies are aimed to accuse Russia of bombing Syrian hospitals.
The Russian Defence Ministry refuted this fakes presenting the world public comprehensive photo and video evidence.
This wave of charges appeared right after the strike performed by aircraft of the US Air Force on Iraqi military servicemen near Fallujah having injured and killed more than 50 people.
Absence of any evidences and referring to impersonal eyewitnesses, which are called by the Western Media as “observers for human rights”, are the essential attribute of all accusations.
After getting acquainted with such publications and reports, there is always a question: Do militants of the ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other extremist armed groups active in Syria know how many human rights organizations the hated by them West are working at the under-controlled territories and monitors their activity daily.
Therefore, it is impossible to find any reports concerning violating rights of Syrian people by terrorists but also brutalities in the under-controlled territories. As it can be seen, according to the western human rights organizations, it is all right.
The whole plan is clear and it is easy to check by using archives of the Internet or printed publications.
Just this night, briefing of the Amnesty International (non-governmental organization) tells about casualties among civilians resulted from Russian airstrike.
It is to be emphasized that in the preface of the briefing the agency Amnesty International tells that the facts have been examined distantly receiving information from telephone interrogations of the local human rights activities.
There have not been published anything specific or new. There are the same clichés and fakes, repeatedly refuted before.
Such phrases as “supposedly Russian airstrikes”, “possible violations of international law” etc. are used throughout the briefing.
In the other words, there only admissions without any evidence.
It is very interesting that these reservations varnished in many western media where the briefing of the Amnesty International had been published.
The wide public everything is given as facts.
The method is not new and at the same time very effective one. But it is absolutely deceitful.
Amnesty International states with confidence that there had not any militants in the areas where the “supposed Russian airstrikes” had been made.
But they cannot know it and check it. It is known that Syrian jihadists act within very mobile units using famous pick-ups Toyota with large-caliber weaponry on them.
To the notice of the authors of the briefing, even according to the classification of the US Army every such car is a tactical unit and a legal military target.
By the way, some of those cars, as it had been proved before, have arrived in Syria from the territory of the #USA.
Moreover, it is known that along with the Russian aviation, the airstrikes on different targets are being conducted by the aviation of the coalition led by the USA, by the Syrian Air Force and apart all – the Turkish aviation.
The level of coordination of those efforts despite the appeals of the Russian party remain very low, what is more frequent – it is at the zero level.
Why than Amnesty International speaks about the Russian actions? Such accusations of Russia are at least proofless.
There is another example.
The briefing tells about attacks on hospitals and medical institutions.
Amnesty International refers to only one supposed “fact” of a hit of some missiles several meters from Sarmin hospital in Idlib.
It is also mentioned that eyewitnesses did not see or hear the aircraft.
It is not the fact that there was any airstrike at all in that area. But they put it simply: aircraft was not seen or heard but, supposedly, that was a Russian warplane.
By the way, two months ago, in the end of October, this topic was raised, but by another organization of human rights. The Russian Defence Ministry gave a detailed refutation.
To the essence.
In the end of October, leading western media quoting the “Syrian-American Medical Society” which is registered in the USA, accused the Russian Ministry of Defence of supposed bombing of hospitals by the Russian aircraft in the inhabited areas of Alays, al-Hader, Khan Tuman, Al Zerba, Sarmin, Latamna.
Traditionally it was done without any factual basis.
As a pseudo-evidence, a video showing the demolition of a hospital in Sarmin settlement (Idlib province) was demonstrated.
Certain western media referring to anonymous sources claimed that in the course of the strikes of the Russian aircraft, 12 people were supposedly killed and about 28 were injured in that medical institution.
Russian Defence MInistry have checked this information. It turns out that there is a hospital only in Sarmin. In Alays, Al-Hader, Khan Tuman, Al Zerba, and Latamna there are no hospitals and medical personnel.
It came that the hospital was only in Sarmin.
It is to be reminded that since the first day of the operation in Syria, the Russian Defence Ministry holds regular briefings where results of airstrikes of the Russian aviation against terrorists and only terrorists are shown with unprecedented transparency.
All the proofless declarations of anonymous sources, which like to widely use Reuters agency are not trustworthy.
Another one fancy: the briefing of the Amnesty International tells that after the strike of the Turkish Air Force on the Russian aircraft, the Russian Defence Ministry reduced the volume of published data concerning the activities of the Russian aviation in Syria.
Right on the contrary: the Russian Defence Ministry has increased the volume of published information and has started inviting more foreign journalists at the Hmeymim airbase as well as at the Russian ships, which are performing combat duty in the water zone of Syria.
Aerial photographs of “supposed” areas of airstrikes of “supposed Russian aviation” arouse much interest. What is to be said?
Well done Amnesty International. You have a space grouping.
Russian Defence Ministry addressed to the Amnesty International with a suggestion to reveal who and when provided them with this so-called data or it will be done by the Ministry itself.
Concerning the suppositions on cluster bombs.
Russian aviation does not use them.
There are dozens of foreign journalists here who had been at the Hmeymim airbase and filmed the preparations for combat sorties, take-offs and landing for nearly 24 hours a day. No one even asked about this type of munitions.
That is because there are no such munitions at the Russian air base in Syria.
But there is a question to the Amnesty International:
Why were you silent and did not want to notice irrefutable evidence of usage of cluster bombs by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against cities in the east of Ukraine?
Were you busy at that moment?
Did you have a headache all these months?
Or was there anybody who recommended you not to notice that?
The Syrian conflict is running for already five years.
The number of victims has reached 300 000 people.
It is strange that the Amnesty International ignoring the question: who and what military crimes had committed on the territory of Syria before the Russian air group appeared there.
The selectivity of briefings of the Amnesty International attracts attention.
There are still no detailed reports on the activities of the “coalition” of the Saudis on the territory of Yemen and moreover the briefing on the crimes of terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry this energy is better to be aimed at covering these facts.
There is nothing to be added.
Addressing to representatives of respectful mass media it is to be said – do not put at risk your reputation by publishing fakes provided by anonymous sources.
The goal of all these manipulations – to stain others distrcting the attention of the world public from tragedies, which caused deaths and suffering of civilians in Aleppo, Kunduz, Falluji and other cities.
If anybody thinks that the Russian party does not understand this, that is wrong.
Moreover, the Russian Defence Ministry has enough information on the results of actions of so-called anti-ISIS coalition in Syria. These actions are not always correspond to the claimed goal – fighting against the ISIS.
The Russian Defence Ministry is convinced that fighting against terrorism does not involve efforts aimed to discredit partners but involves joint practical actions directed against plague of XXI century – international terrorism.
https://www.facebook.com/1492252324350852/photos/a.1492313031011448.1073741828.1492252324350852/1690246067884809/?type=1&theater
re creation of tatar battalion against Crimea”Islyamov also stressed that this battalion will likely be financed and provided with everything necessary by Turkey. “Our leader Mustafa Dzhemilev talked with the president [of Turkey]. While we talked with Turkey, the Turkish President responded and decided to equip us, our battalion, understanding that Ukraine is not yet so strong to afford to supply another battalion. Turkey immediately responded and stated that it is ready to finance this battalion. We are open to all citizens — whether they are Turks, Persians or anyone else [read: Islamic terrorists – KR]. The Turks are close to us by blood. And Ukrainians are close to us by blood. We are one people. This is our land,” – said Islyamov.”
well now Rus you have every reaon to declare Turkey as a sponsor of terrorism itself, and do everything necessary under the recent UN resolution………………..
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia’s General Staff has provided information to France on Turkey’s role in stealing Syrian natural resources and financing the Islamic State (IS, also known as Daesh), the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
“General of the Army Valery Gerasimov presented information on continued stealing of Syrian national resources, the proceeds from which are used to finance IS, as well as on Turkey’s role in this process,” the ministry said in a statement.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151224/1032242071/russia-france-exchange-information.html#ixzz3vEbcWfwy
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament Valentina Matvienko said Thursday she sees “no expediency” in speaking with the Turkish Parliament and contacts between the two legislative bodies will not be renewed.
“We can’t shake hands with the Turkish leadership. In the current conditions I don’t see the expediency or reason to have relations with the Turkish Parliament,” Matvienko said
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151224/1032245338/matvienko-turkish-parliament.html#ixzz3vEbnJn8V
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another Lithuanian loony
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Relations between Russia and the European Union have taken a heavy blow and important meetings like Russia-EU summits will most likely not be seen any longer, EU Ambassador to Russia Vygaudas Usackas said.
“It should be noted that our relations in the future will not be the same as before because of blatant aggression from Russia [in regard to Ukraine] that has delivered a huge blow to trust. But on the other hand, we need to provide for fruitful cooperation in issues that obviously correspond to our mutual interests,” Usackas told RIA Novosti in an interview.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151224/1032244635/eu-russia-summits-cooperation.html#ixzz3vEcNIfaU
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the Turkish government is waging cultural genocide on Kurds.
Musa, a 25-year-old Kurdish marksman, stands atop a building as he looks at the destroyed Syrian town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, on January 30, 2015
© AFP 2015/ BULENT KILIC
‘Absolute Nightmare’: How Fatal Would Russia’s Alliance With Kurds Be for Turkey?
“Curfews have been imposed in the number of cities and people cannot step outside. There is bombing going on and if people are injured they cannot get to the hospital. Electricity and water have been cut off. It is an undeclared war that Turkey is waging on its Kurdish civilian people in cities throughout south and east of the country,” Xulam told Sputnik in an interview.
He further said, “There are 20 million people living in the country with no basic human rights, no political rights and are forced to assimilate Turkish culture, language and literature. The Kurds are saying that they have had enough and they want local autonomy.”
The activist called this a cultural genocide and ethnic cleansing in a sense that people are not allowed to express themselves. He said that this is against the international law and against any norms. “Turkey is denying the very existence of the Kurds in its constitution and is forcing them to be assimilated.”
“The fury is that what is happening in Syria can easily be duplicated in Turkey. The fault lines are exactly the same in Turkey where the Sunni majority wants to impose on Kurds and Alawites. Turkey could become easily like Syria,” Xulam said.
He further noted that, “Turks will never investigate their own abuses. They never had, they never will. It could end up in a civil war.”
Talking about whether there are independent observers and international journalists who could highlight the situation of the Kurdish people, Xulam said, “There was a journalist to document this from the Netherlands, but as soon as these hostilities by Turkish government began they made the journalist persona non grata, bought her a ticket and sent her home. As far as I know there are no independent observers here.”
The activist said that Turkish journalists try the best they can to report on these clashes but they are imprisoned if they report against the Turkish government.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151223/1032225468/turkey-kurds-clashes-syria.html#ixzz3vEcnUYrj
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BEIJING, December 24. /TASS/. China and Syria have developed three principles for a peace process between the government and opposition, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday after talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.
“The most important agreement that we made is that we need to adhere to three principles when settling the crisis in Syria,” he said. “Firstly, we need to firmly adhere to the general direction of political settlement of the crisis. Secondly, the future of Syria should be decided by the Syrian people themselves. Thirdly, the United Nations Organization should play a leading role as a mediator between the sides,” the Chinese foreign minister noted.
“These three important principles should be observed during the whole process of looking for a political way to settle the crisis,” he concluded.”
china becoming more involved, supportive, concerned?
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MOSCOW, December 23 /TASS/. Turkey may be on the verge of a civil war that will destabilize the situation in the country for years ahead, Semyon Bagdasarov, director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Central Asia, told TASS on Wednesday. “The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) wanted to enlist Russia’s support very much because a true civil war has broken out in southeastern Turkey. The Kurds need external support,” Bagdasarov said commenting on a visit to Moscow of Selahattin Demirtas, a co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish HDP party.
“As for Russia, it should have clear understanding that it should support the national liberation movement of the Kurdish people, including the HDP, if it wants to influence Turkey’s stance,” the Russian expert went on to say.
According to Bagdasarov, the civil war in the Kurdish-populated regions of southeastern Turkey will gain momentum. “The Turkish and US leaderships will have to forget about Syria soon,” he stressed.
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KIEV, December 23. /TASS/. Jewish people played a notable role in the emergence of the modern Ukrainian state, president Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday as he addressed the Israeli Knesset.
He said, among other things, the Jewish language was one of the official languages of the young Ukrainian state and the Jews as a nation were immediate participants in the rise of the Ukrainian republic, meaning the Ukrainian People’s Republic of 1918-1921.
In 1918 through 1921, the Ukrainian people made what he called “the first desperate attempt over the period of 200 years” to revive its statehood and proclaimed the Ukrainian People’s Republic,” he said.”
what is he up to there??????
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MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. The current situation in Russian-Turkish relations became the focal point of Wednesday’s meeting between Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the co-chairperson of the People’s Democratic Party, a pro-Kurdish political force in Turkey, Selahattin Demirtas, the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
“The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, received in Moscow the co-chairman of Turkey’s parliamentary People’s Democratic Party and the delegation that accompanied him on the trip to Moscow as part of regular political contacts,” it said.
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MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Russian State Duma’s International Affairs Committee chairman Alexey Pushkov has said Wednesday he does not see any prospects of resuming Russian mass tourism and charter flights to Turkey in the foreseeable future.
“Talking about Turkey, I do not see any prospects of returning to the previous situation,” Pushkov told a press conference.
The official noted that Turkey remains a transit country for the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization. “No one can rule out terrorist attacks against Russian citizens since we take part in military actions against IS,” he noted.
Pushkov stressed that apart from general deterioration of relations between Russia and Turkey, “the Turkish government has still not closed its border with territories in Syria controlled by IS.” “I think that this rules out lifting or easing restrictive measures against Turkey in the foreseeable future,” he said.
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MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Russia’s military are ready to unite efforts with their French counterparts in the fight against international terrorism, Russia’s General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov said at the meeting with his French counterpart Army General Pierre de Villiers on Wednesday.
possibly against Turkey??? Noted for supporting ISIS, smuggling,drug trafficking etc etc -see “taken ” films????
Hmmmm
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UNITED NATIONS, December 22. /TASS/. Russia is worried by supplies of weapons to militants in Syria, as well as penetration of terrorists to the country through checkpoints where United Nations observers inspecting humanitarian cargoes are deployed, a deputy Russian permanent representative to the global organization said at a UN Security Council session Tuesday.
Vladimir Safronkov expressed regret that the UN Security Council did not accept Russia’s proposal to apply the UN monitoring mechanism to “all cargoes going to Syria and declared as humanitarian.”
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“We are seriously worried that supplies of weapons to militants do not end, and foreign terrorists-militants from all over the world keep joining the ranks of the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups,” Safronkov said.
“Unfortunately, that flow goes via Syrian borders, often even via the same checkoints where the UN mechanism works,” the diplomat said.
He said despite the UN presence as well as the resolution of the international community “to put an end to the crisis in Syria and shut off the air supply to terrorists”, border crossing points to Syria “are persistently used for purposes having nothing to do with humanitarian, and often under humanitarian cover.”
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MOSCOW, December 23./TASS/. It is only up to Ankara to decide whether to impose visa restrictions on Russian nationals going to Turkey, the Russian Foreign Ministry has nothing to do with this, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Dozhd television on Wednesday.
“The issue of Turkish visas is a question to be referred to the Turkish side,” she said in reply to the question whether the possibility of Turkey imposing visa requirements for Russian nationals was discussed by the two countries’ foreign ministries.
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NEW YORK, December 23. /TASS/. The Turkish authorities should end its crackdown on journalists working for pro-Kurdish outlets, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) headquartered in New York said in a statement posted on its official website on Wednesday.
“The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkey to end its crackdown on the press,” its statement said. “Since the release of CPJ’s annual prison census, three journalists working for pro-Kurdish outlets have been arrested in Turkey on terror accusations, according to news reports,” the statement went on.
“The Turkish government is never going to overcome its many complex challenges by throwing journalists in jail. Silencing news and opinion will only lead to a dangerous information vacuum,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said, urging Ankara to set free journalists serving prison terms.
“Tensions are high in southeastern Turkey due to the civil war in neighboring Syria, the refugee crisis, and a resurgence of violence since the collapse of peace talks this summer between Turkish security forces and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party),” the report said, noting that the authorities were first of all putting pressure on journalists connected with Kurds.
According to the Committee, 17 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey at the moment.
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MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed that there is no alternative to launching United Nations-brokered intra-Syrian talks and continuing efforts against the Islamic State and other extremist groups in Syria, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday after Putin’s telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The sides “agreed to maintain active dialogue at various levels to further coordinate their anti-terrorist efforts,”
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MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Israel understands Russia’s interests in the current geopolitical situation and support its efforts against international terrorism, Israel’s Ambassador to Russia Zvi Heifetz said on Tuesday.
“As concerns the geopolitical situation, naturally, we understand Russia’s interests,” he said at a meeting with Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the international committee of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house. “We support efforts against world terrorism.
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bit more
A wiretapping operation conducted last year revealed that several Turkish military officers had contacts with Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) militants, and that they might’ve helped the Islamist movement obtain new recruits, according to the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet.
The wiretapping was part of an investigation launched by Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office after six Turkish citizens were reported as missing and were possibly recruited to join Daesh by their relatives, the newspaper adds.
The prosecutor’s office obtained permission to tap the phones of 19 people suspected of facilitating contact between the missing people and Daesh. The investigation revealed that some of the suspects had helped the wannabe Daesh recruits get in contact with the Islamist movement, and to obtain the documents they needed to cross the border with Syria, as well as a means of transportation.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151224/1032260059/turkey-military-daesh-cooperation.html#ixzz3vFwOmK2q
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In the Russian Federation, a governmental decree, published on the official portal of legal information approved by the Ministry of Justice, contains the sentence “The Turkish party received a notice of intention from the Russian Federation wishing not to become a party named on the Treaty on mutual legal assistance in civil, commercial and criminal matters, signed in Ankara on 15th December 1997”. This proposal was agreed with the Foreign Ministry, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee of Russia.
The Cabinet decided to submit to the President a proposal regarding the relevant notification.
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NATO member-state Turkey is ruled by a criminal regime, which is supporting international terrorism and waging war against the freedom of speech, US geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser notes.
The Turkish regime has no scruples about sponsoring terrorists in the Middle East and beyond or detaining journalists for bringing to light Ankara’s illicit political manipulations, US independent geopolitical analyst and founder of StopImperialism.org Eric Draitser underscores.
“Turkey has been implicated in a wide variety of crimes (some constituting war crimes) which cast Ankara in a very bad light: a supporter of terrorism, a criminal government engaging in acts of aggression against its neighbors and other world powers, the repression of journalists and others who have brought the truth to the light of day, among many others. Taken in total, it becomes clear that under President Erdogan Turkey has become a belligerent actor with delusions of hegemony and a complete disregard for human rights and sovereignty,” Draitser writes in his recent article for New Eastern Outlook.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151224/1032260165/turkish-government-erdogan-supporting-international-terrorism.html#ixzz3vFxIMg5I
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MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Russia has great doubts that Turkey realizes and is aware of what it did with Russia’s Su-24 bomber above Syria, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday. In this way Zakharova commented on reports stating that one of the goals of the visit to Moscow by co-chairman of pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party Selahattin Demirtas were mediation efforts to mend relations with Russia after the bomber-related incident. READ ALSO Expert: Turkey faces full-scale armed conflict in its southeast Russian defense ministry: Turkey recognizes de facto planned destruction of Su-24M jet Russia allows 53 companies to employ Turkish citizens after January 1 Obama adviser: US develops plan to close oil trafficking corridor at Turkish-Syrian border Watchdog does not exclude recycling banned Turkish products after January 1 Pro-Kurdish party deputy chairman: Russia, Turkey can resolve crisis by diplomatic means China calls Russian bomber downed by Turkey loss for international anti-terror campaign “The issue is not about mediators or mediation efforts, but about the realization by the Turkish side of what it did,” she said. “What we see yet is that the Turkish leadership is only making the situation worse, at a fast pace.” “There are big doubts about Turkey that they realize well what they did and that they are aware of it,” Zakharova said. “We voiced our position, our assessments do not cover the Turkish people,” the diplomat said. “We have underscored at the top level a few times, and we regularly state at a high level that although deterioration of bilateral relations will inevitably tell on people living in our countries, they [Russian measures] are addressed to Turkey’s leadership.”
More:
http://tass.ru/en/politics/846718
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MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Russia has been taking measures to plug all loopholes the terrorists have been using to smuggle oil and it counts on cooperation with other countries to this end, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said in response to a publication in the Norwegian press regarding oil trafficking by the terrorist organization Islamic State (outlawed in Russia) to Turkey.
More:
http://tass.ru/en/politics/846677
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WASHINGTON, December 24. /TASS/. The Turkish-Syrian border has a 98-kilometer stretch crossed by fighters and used for transporting smuggled oil, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communication for the US President said in an exclusive interview with TASS. “We’ve been working for some time with Turkey to close the 98-kilometer stretch of the border,” Rhodes said. “We believe there’s been good progress on the northeastern part of the border. We continue to see oil and fighters that could be crossing that border.”
More:
http://tass.ru/en/world/846610
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Bit bit more
Rt has news that wiretaps reveal ISIS are regularly in touch with from turkish intelligence on his phone……sorry can’t copy paste link…..and on22nd Iraq mp demands Turkey must come clean about ISIS links…..Egypt now demands Turkish military must leave Iraq…..
So who here has been good? Santa’s making a list..
https://twitter.com/NinaByzantina/status/679710814979293184
Really???? aviator sun glasses???? does not fit women….
https://twitter.com/LinaArabii/status/679754361153695744
Just shows Iraq/Syria was a pre planned and organized op by the US….
Pre-Mosul, Maliki begged the #US to hit Da’ish camps near #Iraq’s border w/ #Syria. They did nothing
U.S. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson: US Chemical Weapon Claim Against Syria’s Assad Was ‘Bull’ -… http://friendsofsyria.info/index.php/2015/12/22/u-s-colonel-lawrence-wilkerson-us-chemical-weapon-claim-against-syrias-assad-was-bull/
Examining the beginning of the ‘Arab Spring’ in Syria and the killings of soldiers across the country:
Syria: The hidden massacre
Several old Russian-made military trucks packed with Syrian security forces rolled onto a hard slope on a valley road between Daraa al-Mahata and Daraa al-Balad. Unbeknown to the passengers, the sloping road was slick with oil poured by gunmen waiting to ambush the troops.
Brakes were pumped as the trucks slid into each other, but the shooting started even before the vehicles managed to roll to a stop. According to several different opposition sources, up to 60 Syrian security forces were killed that day in a massacre that has been hidden by both the Syrian government and residents of Daraa.
One Daraa native explains: “At that time, the government did not want to show they are weak and the opposition did not want to show they are armed.”
In Mekdad’s view, “this incident was hidden by the government and by the security for reasons I can interpret as an attempt not to antagonize or not to raise emotions and to calm things down – not to encourage any attempt to inflame emotions which may lead to escalation of the situation – which at that time was not the policy.”
April 2011: The killing of soldiers
What we do know for certain is that on April 25, 2011, nineteen Syrian soldiers were gunned down in Daraa by unknown assailants. The names, ages, dates of birth and death, place of birth and death and marital/parental status of these 19 soldiers are documented in a list of military casualties obtained from Syria’s Defense Ministry.
The list was corroborated by another document – given to me by a non-government acquaintance involved in peace efforts – that details 2011 security casualties. All 19 names were verified by this second list.
Were these the soldiers of the “Daraa massacre?” April 25 is later than the dates suggested by multiple sources – and these 19 deaths were not exactly “hidden.”
But even more startling than actually finding the 19 Daraa soldiers on a list, was the discovery that in April 2011, eighty-eight soldiers were killed by unknown shooters in different areas across Syria.
Keep in mind that the Syrian army was mostly not in the field that early on in the conflict. Other security forces like police and intelligence groups were on the front lines then – and they are not included in this death toll.
The first Syrian soldiers to be killed in the conflict, Sa’er Yahya Merhej and Habeel Anis Dayoub, were killed on March 23 in Daraa.
Two days after those first military casualties, Ala’a Nafez Salman was gunned down in Latakia.
On April 9, Ayham Mohammad Ghazali was shot dead in Douma, south of Damascus. The first soldier killing in Homs Province – in Teldo – was on April 10 when Eissa Shaaban Fayyad was shot.
April 10 was also the day when we learned of the first massacre of Syrian soldiers – in Banyas, Tartous – when nine troops were ambushed and gunned down on a passing bus. The BBC, Al Jazeera and the Guardian all initially quoted witnesses claiming the dead soldiers were “defectors” shot by the Syrian army for refusing to fire on civilians.
That narrative was debunked later, but the story that soldiers were being killed by their own commanders stuck hard throughout 2011 – and gave the media an excuse to ignore stories that security forces were being targeted by armed groups.
Certainly, by June 5, there was no longer any ability for opposition groups to pretend otherwise. In a coordinated attack in Jisr Shughur in Idlib, armed groups killed 149 members of the security forces, according to the SOHR.
But in March and April, when violence and casualties were still new to the country, the question remains: Why would the Syrian government – against all logic – kill vulnerable civilian populations in “hot” areas, while simultaneously taking reform steps to quell tensions?
Who would gain from killing “women and children” in those circumstances? Not the government, surely?
https://t.co/6B7LsrWr92