Syria

Turkey urges Syrian Kurds to fight Assad gov’t

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Turkish officials have reportedly called on the Syrian Kurdish fighters to join the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighting to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani, seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc, Sanliurfa Province, October 5, 2014.
Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani, seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc, Sanliurfa Province, October 5, 2014.
Turkish media say the appeal was made during a meeting between Leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Salih Muslim and officials from Turkey’s intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), in Ankara on Saturday.

Muslim, the leader of the main Syrian Kurdish political party, has traveled to Ankara to garner Turkey’s support in the face of an offensive by ISIL Takfiri militants against the Syrian border town of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani to Kurds.

The meeting came as the city’s Kurdish defenders say they are expecting a new ISIL assault to capture Kobani.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which opposes the Syrian government, said on Sunday that the Takfiris seized part of a strategic hill overlooking the southern entrance to the besieged Kurdish town on Syria’s border with Turkey late on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a Kurdish member of the Turkish parliament has pleaded for help to save Kobani from the Takfiri ISIL attacks amid ineffective US-led airstrikes.

“We call on the international community, democratic organizations in Turkey and the Turkish government to support the fight for Kobani and to stand together for the people of Kobani,” Sebahat Tuncel, the co-chairperson of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said on Saturday.

Syrian Kurdish fighters also have called on all Kurds across the region to take up arms against the ISIL militants.

This is while the Turkish government does not allow Kurdish fighters to cross the border into Syria and join the fight against the ISIL militants.

Turkey is said to be among regional countries supporting ISIL.

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