Assad Grants Autonomy to Kurdish Region, Prompting Threats From Turkey! Turkish Attack on Syria’s Northern Kurds Could Prompt Wider War!

• Assad Grants Autonomy to Kurdish Region, Prompting Threats From Turkey!
  by John Glaser, http://antiwar.com/ 
  The PKK will find safe-haven in northern Syria now, which could prompt an attack from Turkey, a NATO member
  Syrian President Bashar Assad, amid growing unrest, has granted control of parts of northern Syria over to militant Kurds, long branded as terrorists by Turkey, in a provocation that could lead the conflict to break out internationally.
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  Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier said that Turkey would not accept an autonomous Kurdish area in Syria, fearing separatist Kurds in Turkey would use it as a safe-haven to launch cross-border attacks.
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  Late on Thursday Turkey mobilized and deployed tanks and missile batteries on the Syrian border near the Kurdish region, with Erdogan commenting if the Kurds control these areas, “then intervening would be our most natural right.”
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  Kurdish control of these border areas are an apparent consequence of the chaos of Syria’s internal conflict, in which the US and its allies are sending aid, intelligence, and weapons to the Syrian rebels, despite numerous crimes and ties to terrorist groups.
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  Turkish military intervention against the Assad regime came close to being a reality back a few months ago when Syria downed a Turkish fighter jet that went into Syrian airspace. Turkey has shown little hesitation to attack its neighbors if they feel their Kurdish threat demands it, as cross-border attacks into Iraq’s Kurdish region in recent months has shown.
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  If Turkey, a NATO member, involves itself in the Syrian conflict in a direct and belligerent way, it could have far reaching consequences, with possible implications of a US intervention.
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• Turkish Attack on Syria’s Northern Kurds Could Prompt Wider War!
  by John Glaser, http://antiwar.com/ 
  If Turkey follows up on its threats, it could be pulled into a conflict with the Assad regime, Russia, and Iran
  Turkey this week implied that it would not hesitate to take military action in northern Syria against Kurdish groups that have gained some measure of autonomy amid the instability, but many observers have warned this would be very dangerous for Turkey.
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  Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s threats were taken seriously across the international community, especially since it has carried out similar cross-border attacks against Iraq’s Kurds it suspected of cooperating with Turkey’s Kurdish separatists (PKK), long deemed terrorists by Ankara.
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  “If you implement a hot pursuit against the PKK militias in northern Syria, the government in Syria will react very differently from the Iraqi government,” Osman Bahadir Dincer of the Ankara-based USAK thinktank told AFP.
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  Despite the Syrian regime’s troubles as of late, Turkish military action in Syria risks a harsh retaliation by the Assad regime and from Syria’s powerful allies.
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  “If Turkey brings soldiers onto Syrian soil by itself and not as part of an international operation, it would be an open provocation to Russia and Iran,” said Cengiz Candar of the daily Radikal newspaper. Unilateral action against Syria could suck Turkey into conflict with Assad, worsen the internal conflict in Syria, and aggravate the Kurdish tensions in Turkey.

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