Arash Karami: Rouhani: Jets are not toys to shoot down/Joyce Karam: Turkey and Russia on collision course in Syria/Orhan Kemal Cengiz:Who are ‘Allah’s lions’

Rouhani: Jets are not toys to shoot down
Arash Karami/Al-Monitor/November 26/15

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani criticized Turkey for shooting down a Russian military aircraft Nov. 24 on the Syrian-Turkish border. While Rouhani was diplomatic in his criticism, conservative Iranian media lashed out against Turkey and its policies in Syria.Contrary to Turkish claims, Rouhani said Nov. 25 that the Russian Su-24 was struck inside Syria’s borders. He added, “assuming it was close to Turkey’s borders, missiles and planes are not toys that someone could decide to shoot them down in the air.”Rouhani called Turkey’s actions “provocative,” adding, “We want our neighbor and friend Turkey to be seriously watchful of the situation, because the circumstances are very sensitive.” He added that Iran is not happy to see a deterioration in Russia-Turkey relations, saying that it is neither in Iran’s nor the region’s interests, especially in the fight against terrorism. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on all sides to show restraint, saying that conflict between the two nations aids terrorists. During the Nov. 25 press conference, Zarif said the incident should be used as an opportunity to create a broader coalition to fight terrorism in the region “without preconditions.”Iran’s hard-line media, however, saw Turkey’s actions in the broader context of the country’s and NATO’s policies in the region. The top story in Vatan-e Emrooz was headlined “Turkey’s playing with fire.” The article called Turkey, along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, “supporters of terrorism.” Javan Newspaper, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, headlined their story “NATO’s stab in the back of those fighting Daesh [Islamic State].”Iranian analyst Sa’adollah Zaeri told Mashregh News that NATO’s backing of Turkey in this incident will not be “beyond verbal support” and that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made a “strategic mistake” in thinking otherwise. He said Turkey exposed their interests to “serious damages,” and the suspension of military cooperation between the two countries weakens Turkey’s standing from its north in the Black Sea to its south in Syria.
Zaeri also said Russia’s intervention in Syria is strategic and the downing of their jet will not change their calculations. According to Iranian parliament member Alireza Zakani, Russia’s intervention in Syria was prompted when Quds Force Cmdr. Qasem Soleimani personally told Russian President Vladimir Putin that there are 16,000 Chechens fighting in Syria and Iraq who will return to the Caucuses and create a security problem for Russia. Despite being on opposing sides of Syria’s bloody civil war, Iran and Turkey have been able to maintain their economic relationship. As sanctions are lifted from Iran, this relationship will likely increase. Russian and Iranian ties, however, are much more significant and deeper for Iran. And this relationship will only continue to grow in the coming years based on the reactions to the meeting between Putin and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Nov. 23. In reference to the two-hour Putin-Khamenei meeting, Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to Khamenei, said there has not been a meeting of this “quality and importance” in the last 37 years since the 1979 Revolution. He called it a “turning point” for both countries and said that Iran and Russia have “entered a strategic relationship,” adding that the futures of Iran and Russia are tied together in many aspects.

Turkey and Russia on collision course in Syria
Joyce Karam/Al Arabiya/November 26/15
Their trade is booming and their gas and oil flow is uninterrupted, but when it comes to Syria, Russia and Turkey are not the best of partners, and their disagreements have become more costly this week as Ankara downed a Russian fighter jet over its border, while Moscow continued to bomb Syrian rebel forces allied with Turkey. The downing of the Sukhoi 24 on Tuesday is by all means an unprecedented escalation unseen since the 1950s, but it wasn’t unpredictable. Ankara and Moscow, given their diametrically opposed political and operational roadmaps for the conflict in Syria, have been on a clashing trajectory since Russia entered the Syrian military fray last September. One of Russia’s many objectives in Syria is to cut into Turkish influence in order to boost the Assad regime, and now that they are in each other’s crosshairs, more clashes directly or via proxies seem inevitable. Among the many outside agendas colliding in Syria, Russia’s and Turkey’s are the most in conflict.
Russia’s intervention eyes Turkey
Among the many outside agendas colliding in Syria, Russia’s and Turkey’s are the most in conflict. Moscow is attempting to shore up the authoritarian security structure of the Assad regime as it flirts with key minorities, while Turkey has pitted itself on the side of the anti-Assad rebels and is embracing the Islamist factions from the country’s Sunni majority. In that context, interjecting Turkey’s role and plans in Northern Syria is a crucial part of Russia’s calculus in order to achieve its own. Hence, Moscow’s airstrikes have predominantly focussed on areas where Turkish supported rebels operate in Idlib, Aleppo, near Latakia and Azzaz, and less so on ISIS. Russian air presence in Northern Syria also directly aims at spoiling Ankara’s plans of establishing a safe zone to absorb refugees, prevent Kurdish autonomy, and train and equip the rebels. When it comes to proxies inside Syria, Turkey and Russia are on opposite sides of the battlefield. Moscow is aligning itself with the Assad forces, Hezbollah and pro-regime militias, while Turkey is a key supporter of Ahrar Sham, Turkmen brigades within the Free Syrian Army, and has had a murky relationship with Jabhat Nusra (affiliated with al-Qaeda). In fact, it was Russia’s strikes against the Turkmen villages in the last few days that have angered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stating openly “we have kinsmen in the area that are being bombed.” Almost 1.5 million Syrians are members of the Turkmen community, including the head of the largest Syrian opposition coalition Khaled Khoja. The Turkmen community is historically, linguistically and culturally close to Turkey and their brigades are critical in the fighting against both Assad and ISIS. If Turkey has any hopes of securing a 100-km long safe zone “west of the Euphrates River and reaching into the province of Aleppo” as reported last summer by the Washington Post, the weight of governing and securing it from ISIS and Assad would fall on the Turkmen brigades, Ahrar Sham and Kurdish forces cooperating with Ankara.
Collision with Russia
Whether it’s establishing a safe zone in Northern Syria, or fighting Assad close to his Allawite homeland, Turkey is bound to clash with Russia whose entry into Syria is to protect the regime strongholds and prevent the creation of a safe zone.
In their statements from the White House on Tuesday, both U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and his French counterpart Francois Hollande called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to focus his strikes on ISIS and refrain from targeting the rebel forces near Turkey’s border. Hollande even hinted indirectly at possibility of a humanitarian safe zone, stating that “Turkey plays an important role, and it is together with Turkey that we must find solutions so that the refugees can stay close to their country of origin.” Erdogan went a step further, saying Ankara “will soon put into practice humanitarian safe zone between Jarablus and Mediterranean coast” according to CNN Turk. Easier set than done, however, as the task of securing any safe zone in Syria and managing the day to day services will be threatened by both Russia’s and Assad’s air force, as well as questions surrounding the opposition’s ability to govern those areas. Washington has also not committed itself to a safe zone in Syria and is now focused on the diplomatic track in Vienna to bring representatives from the regime and the opposition to the table by January. But even with the Vienna process, there are little to no indications that major gaps on identifying rebel groups or path to transition can be overcome imminently. The polarization has only grown in Syria and neither Russia nor Turkey are in a place to change their battle bets, or strategic objectives whether it means forgoing support for the regime or the rebels.
Against this backdrop, the Syrian sequel of Turkish-Russian clashes has only begun with the downing of the Sukhoi-24. Their confrontation will ultimately continue in Syria’s skies and through ground proxies, as Russia tries to force its hand and Turkey to claim its backyard.

Who are ‘Allah’s lions’?
Orhan Kemal Cengiz/Al-Monitor/November 26/15
For several months now, Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast seems to have been thrown back to the 1990s, a period marked by gross human rights violations, as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) pushes a new strategy extending armed confrontations to urban areas.The bloody unrest in cities and towns has followed a distinct pattern: PKK militants first dig trenches in various neighborhoods and then proclaim the area an “autonomous region.” The local governor subsequently responds by imposing a round-the-clock curfew, which not only bars residents from going out but completely cuts off the area, making it off-limits to the media and any nonresidents, as the security forces move in to purge the PKK militants. The curfews and the ensuing clashes have lasted up to 10 days in some areas, with civilians confined to their homes, unable to go out to buy food or go to the hospital. The security operations, unfolding away from the public eye and media scrutiny, have led to allegations of grave human rights violations, including claims that civilians are deliberately killed in raids that sometimes involve tanks and aerial bombardments.
Neighborhoods have been completely destroyed, and the media have carried images reminiscent of war zones, with walls torn down and houses riddled with bullets and mortar shrapnel.
Judging by the extent of the destruction and bloodshed, one could conclude the Turkish state has reverted to its familiar, heavy-handed style of “problem resolution.” Yet, some images captured by the media and witness accounts point to a new, alarming element unseen in the country so far. In the town of Idil in Sirnak province, for instance, special operations police forces, clad in black and wearing balaclavas, were filmed celebrating a “successful” operation by firing in the air and chanting “Allahu akbar” (God is great). Police and soldiers fighting in the Kurdish areas are known to be using nationalist slogans and symbols, but the use of religious ones is unprecedented.
Moreover, grisly graffiti with racist, militarist and misogynic messages have appeared on the walls in neighborhoods placed under curfew for security operations. A new term has emerged: “Esedullah team” (team of Allah’s lions), which has been inscribed on the walls as a signature, with variations including “the Esedullah team is here” or “the Esedullah team has arrived.” Representatives of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have expressed dismay at how “different” the security forces operating in cut-off neighborhoods are. “They point guns at women and children. They force men to lie face down and then stamp on their hands, feet and backs. They know no law. Their faces are covered and no one even knows who they are,” HDP lawmaker Caglar Demirel said last week.
In remarks to the Diken news site, residents of Diyarbakir’s Sur district, which has seen some of the worst curfews, offered other disturbing descriptions of the masked men. “They cover their faces. Some have long beards and look as if drugged,” one resident said. Another man expressed doubt that the men were police at all. He said, “The police here are not the normal police of the state. They have long black beards and don’t look like police at all. I don’t believe they are actually police. With their long beards, they look more like Islamic State [IS] militants than the police of the state.”
As the concerns of the Esedullah teams grow, lawmakers from the HDP and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) took the issue to parliament last week. In a written question to Interior Minister Idris Baluken, an HDP lawmaker for Diyarbakir claimed that “the masked men who call themselves the Esedullah team” looked like IS militants and chanted “IS slogans,” spoke a language other than Turkish or Kurdish, used force against civilians “mercilessly” while chanting “Allahu akbar” and appeared “to take inspiration from the methods used by IS.”
The CHP’s Sezgin Tanrikulu, meanwhile, submitted a written question to the prime minister, asking “who and for what purpose were the Esedullah teams created?” He demanded an explanation also on allegations that the security forces “acted with feelings of vengeance.”
In response to the growing outcry, the Interior Ministry last week launched an investigation, though not into the Esedullah teams in particular but into the threatening graffiti inscribed on neighborhood walls during security operations.
So, who are the Esedullah teams? The available information falls short of providing a clear answer. Yet, what has emerged so far from news reports, witness accounts and images in the media suggests that a group within the police — religiously motivated, heavy-handed and hostile to Kurds — is increasingly taking the forefront in security operations in the southeast. The locals tend to believe these policemen share the same mindset as IS fighters and see them as an IS-linked paramilitary force. Regardless of whether this perception has any factual basis or stems from psychological fears only, one thing is certain: It serves no good to Turkey’s Kurdish problem, already mired in conflict, tensions and mistrust.