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Turkey seeks to attack Kurds in Syria not Daesh: Pundit

A Turkish army tank drives towards Syria in the Turkish border city of Karkamis, in the southern region of Gaziantep on August 24, 2016. (AFP photo)

Press TV has conducted an interview with James Fetzer, a professor at University of Minnesota Duluth, about Turkish forces entering Syrian territory in what they say is an operation against the Daesh terrorist group in a Syrian city near the Turkish border.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: How do you feel about Turkish forces entering Syria?

Fetzer: There is treachery afoot here. Erdogan is a very devious person. Remember in the wake of the purported coup, he purged the society at all levels - the government, the judiciary, the educational system - of those he regarded as opposed to him.

This appears to me to be a sleight of hand to attack the Kurds. That has nothing to do with ISIS. That is a subterfuge. ISIS and Erdogan have been in close cooperation in the past. He and his son have made fantastic amounts of money out of buying oil from ISIS. We know that ISIS was created by the USA. This idea of US-led coalition warplanes sounds ridiculous to me. I do not believe it for a minute. Erdogan appears to me to be attacking the Kurds whom he regards as his enemies when the Kurds have been ferocious fighters against ISIS. This entire story is just fraught with deceit and deception.

Press TV: So ever since that failed coup that occurred in Turkey, many people say that Turkey seems to be more moving towards Russia. Why haven’t its policies then changed towards Syria?

Fetzer: Well that was the expected result that Erdogan had been tipped off by the Russians and, I even understand, by the Iranians [that] the coup was going to take place. But it appeared to have been an excuse for the purge. He should be turning more toward Russia, but I say again, this appears to me to be camouflaged as an effort to attack ISIS when in fact the real target is the Kurds and that is illustrated on several grounds.

Erdogan regards the Kurds as his enemies even though the Kurds have been ferocious opponents of ISIS. If you want to defeat ISIS, you want to keep the Kurds actively engaged. I regard this story as a complete obfuscation of the real situation here.


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