Kurds, Turkey and Syria

[BoyGenius]

Erdogan requested the US mediate negotiations with the Kurds. Pence and Nationals Security Advisor Robert Oâ€Brien will lead that effort.

[BoyGenius]

Very disrespectful for Pelosi to stand up and point her finger at Trump in a hostile manner like this. It's obvious who the out of control child in this photo is, and it isn't Trump … it's Pelosi https://t.co/Me1EhcVODE — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 16, 2019

Senate Minority Leader @SenSchumer says that President @realDonaldTrump, during their meeting, called @SpeakerPelosi a "third rate politician" and said to them, referring to the situation with the Kurds, that "there are communists involved and you guys might like that." pic.twitter.com/Ir4H5f1eDN — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 16, 2019

Do you think they like me? pic.twitter.com/TDmUnJ8HtF — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2019

[zigbee]

 in 1978 Abdullah Öcalan formed the Kurdistan Workers†Party (known by its Kurdish acronym, PKK), a Marxist organization dedicated to creating an independent Kurdistan. Operating mainly from eastern Anatolia, PKK fighters engaged in guerrilla operations against government installations and perpetrated frequent acts of terrorism. PKK attacks and government reprisals led to a state of virtual war in eastern Turkey during the 1980s and â€90s. Following Öcalanâ€s capture in 1999, PKK activities were sharply curtailed for several years before the party resumed guerilla activities in 2004. In 2002, under pressure from the European Union (in which Turkey sought membership), the government legalized broadcasts and education in the Kurdish language.

Peace talks and a cease-fire initiated in 2013 between Turkey and the PKK appeared promising at its outset, but talks faltered. While Turkey renewed its crackdown on the PKK, PKK-aligned Kurds were strengthening their self-governance in northeastern Syria amid the continued civil war in Syria and the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; also called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS]). In August 2016 Turkey launched an incursion into northwestern Syria and maintained an active military presence there in the years that followed, in part serving to prevent the Kurds in northeastern Syria from extending their reach westward. It began preparing to expand its mission into northeastern Syria in 2018 but held off from launching an offensive in anticipation of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region at a later date.