PRESS RELEASE
Putin and Erdogan Discuss Syria and Mosul Operations, Ash Carter Deployed To Run Interference
Oct. 19, 2016 (EIRNS)—In a telephone call initiated by the Turks, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan exchanged views on the Syrian settlement and discussed the operations to capture Mosul, Iraq, from the terrorists.
“The Russian side stressed the importance of efficient separation of ’moderate’ opposition groups from militants of Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups affiliated with it,”
the Kremlin said according to TASS. “It was agreed to continue contacts on bilateral and regional problems at various levels.”
Speaking to a group of Ankara neighborhood chiefs on Oct. 19, Erdogan said of his phone discussion with Putin,
“We talked about Aleppo in the [phone] conversation. They expressed that they [had] halted air strikes there as of 10 p.m. They requested the exclusion of al-Nusra from there. We have given the necessary instructions to our friends on the issue. We discussed such a consensus in an effort to exclude al-Nusra from Aleppo and provide the peace of the Aleppo people.”
The Turkish daily Yeni Safik, citing a Turkish Presidential source late Tuesday, added that Putin also congratulated Turkey for its success against Daesh in Syria. Erdogan thanked Putin for his presence at the Oct. 10 Istanbul energy conference, the source said. The two also discussed Syria, ending the conflict in Aleppo and delivering humanitarian aid to the northern city.
In a commentary in Hurriyet, Serkan Demirtas wrote that the recent reconciliation of ties with Russia paved the way for Ankara to return to the Syrian theater, both politically and militarily. In return Turkey has been doing two things since ties have been mended with Russia.
“First, it’s no longer vocal against the continuation of the Bashar al-Assad regime and no longer the champion in bringing up the brutal attacks of the regime against civilian targets in and around Aleppo. Second, Turkey seems ready to ignore the Russia-Syria duo’s attacks to break the resistance of the moderate rebels in eastern Aleppo which would eventually lead to Damascus gaining control of one of the country’s largest cities.”
Commenting on this report, Lyndon LaRouche termed this very important, since it demonstrates that Russia and Turkey are coordinating their operations in Syria.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama, who has been busy double-crossing everyone over Southwest Asia, has deployed Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to Turkey on Oct. 19. This follows talks in Washington between Turkey’s military commanders and the U.S. Defense Department on operations in Syria and Iraq. Turkey has expressed concern that the U.S.-led operation to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from Daesh could lead to sectarian warfare and create huge refugee flows that would head to Turkey.
While Carter will be meeting Turkish leaders, he will only be staying a few hours, after which he will head to the United Arab Emirates and then Europe for counter-ISIS coalition meetings with U.S.-led coalition defense ministers in Paris on Oct. 25.
