With Turkey insisting that the Syrian Kurds be barred from upcoming Geneva peace talks, Russia is pressing for their participation—while pursuing its grisly campaign of aerial terror.
The State Department named "bringing peace" to Syria as a 2015 accomplishment—as Russian air-strikes continue on schools, and starvation sets in behind rebel lines.
Akhtem Chiygoz, deputy head of the Tatar Majlis, is about to go on trial in Russian-annexed Crimea, in a case opponents say "flies in the face of all principles of law."
Amid counterinsurgency against Kurds in Turkey, Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin DemirtaÅ is received in Moscow—now executing a grisly counterinsurgency in Syria.
The UN resolution on a democratic transition in Syria assumes this can happen under Assad's rule. The US is now openly blocking with Russia over support for the dictatorship.
Russian naval forces got in a confrontation with Turkish vessels in the Black Sea, with control of contested oil platforms off the Crimean Peninsula at issue.
Turkey's prime minister accuses Russia of "ethnic cleansing" with air-strikes targeting Turkmen in Syria—as Ankara continues to attack Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq alike.
Kurdish strongman Masoud Barzani has invited a Turkish military force into his territory, with the apparent aim of driving the PKK from northern Iraq.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee announced that security forcesĀ killed three militants who had sworn allegiance to ISIS in a shoot-outĀ in Dagestan. (Map via La Croix International)
A growing split between secular and Islamist elements of the FSA is unfortunately mirrored by a breach between Kurds and Ankara-backed Arab and Turkmen forces.
With Moscow threatening sanctions against Turkey, plans for a Russo-Turkish free trade zone and joint gas pipeline route appear be on hold.
The situation in northern Syria is escalating amid Russo-Turkish brinkmanship, with Turkmen villages coming under intense Russian bombardment.
