The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 6th March 2020
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
TURKISH FORCES are reeling back after a Syrian counter-attack that’s driven them out of parts of Idlib province they had briefly regained in a Turkish offensive at the beginning of the week.
The Turks stepped up drone attacks on Syrian positions and supplied the terror gangs in Idlib with MANPADS (Man portable surface-to-air missiles) that have brought down two Syrian helicopters and three war-planes. But more military equipment is on the way to the Syrian Arab Army from Russia, China and Iran ranging from vehicles to radar units and advanced anti-aircraft systems.
The Turks, and the Al Qaida and ISIS gunmen that do their bidding, had launched an offensive to improve their position in advance of a Turkish-Russian summit in Moscow this week that is expected to call for an end to the fighting in the Idlib enclave. But the Syrians held the line, boosted by support from the people’s militias and the Hezbollah Lebanese resistance movement, and pushed the Turks back. The strategic town of Saraqib is once again in Syrian hands and the strategic M5 motorway has been re-opened.
Last week a Turkish appeal for direct NATO support was vetoed by Greece on 28th February because Turkey, backed by Franco-German and Anglo-American imperialism rejected a Greek demand to add a paragraph which would have mentioned the issue of the refugee and migrant influx from Turkey to Greece.
Meanwhile progressive British journalist Vanessa Beeley, who is currently in Idlib, confirmed that Syria is fighting a war on its soil against terrorists and the Turkish regime forces whose aggression on Syrian lands constitutes a flagrant violation of international law.
She said that the largest number of refugees in Turkish occupied Syria were those who fled to escape the fighting but have been prevented by the terrorists from returning to their homes via the humanitarian corridors established by the Syrian government.
Beeley pointed out that the growth of the terror movements and the terrorist attacks that created the refugee crisis would not have taken place if the Erdogan regime had not received them on its soil and then sent them to Syria in the first place.
blame itself
“Therefore, Turkey can only blame itself with regard to the refugee issue within it, and of course it uses this issue for its benefit as it receives funding from the European Union and uses this blackmail as a threat against it.”
Beeley pointed out that the Turkish regime is acting in full partnership and coordination with Israel, and this coordination have become clearer over the past few months with the increase in Israeli attacks on Syrian positions after the Syrian Arab Army started its campaign to liberate Idlib province.
Turkish communists are calling for the Turkish army to withdraw from Syria including Idlib and those parts of the Syrian-Kurds autonomous area that Turkey occupied last year. The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) says: “We know very well that throughout history, wars were used as pretexts by ruling powers to conceal the discontent within the country and even to repress it. The whole burden of the problematic economy of Turkey is laid on the shoulders of the people. Unemployment is on the rise, the cost of living is becoming unbearable. The gas supply of a million houses was cut due to unaffordable bills. This meaningless war carried on the soil of another country will yield only but more poverty and greater numbers of deaths for our people.
“Our country is too precious to be handed over to NATO officers, pro-Americans or jihadists. The Syrian policy of the government, which is disapproved by the majority of our people, should be abandoned immediately and Turkish troops must be withdrawn from Syria”.