ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly Istanbul airport attack, but this did not prevent President Erdogan from exploiting the terror for anti-Kurdish propaganda.
Russian and US warplanes are each backing rival sides as the Assad regime and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces race to take the ISIS "capital" of Raqqa.
The US anti-missile station in Romania was officially activated, to harsh protests from Moscow—as NATO prepares to deploy German troops in the Baltic republics.
Kurds officially declared their own "Federation of Northern Syria"—to be swiftly denounced by the Assad regime, the opposition and regional powers alike.
The Syrian ceasefire announced in Munich does not apply to US or Russian air-strikes on "terrorists," and comes as Turkey and Saudi Arabia are preparing military intervention.
As Syrian regime troops and Russian warplanes advance on Aleppo, some 100,000 have fled the city for the Turkish border—prompting Turkey and Saudi Arabia to threaten intervention.
World War 4 Report offers its annual annotated assessment of Obama's moves in dismantling, continuing or escalating the apparatus of the Global War on Terrorism.
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.
Amid counterinsurgency against Kurds in Turkey, Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin Demirtaş 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.
