(4.12.2015) A first round of anti-war demonstrations had already taken place in 20 cities across the Spanish state on November 27. Called by the “Not in Our Name” manifesto started by the left-wing mayors of Barcelona, Cadiz, Zaragoza, A Coruna and other cities, the demonstrations were small. About 5000 marched in Madrid and 3000 in Barcelona.

Nonetheless, they showed that an organised anti-war network is already in place in the Spanish state, and that it has spokespeople of authority — like Barcelona mayor Ada Colau — ready to fight for the country to have an anti-militarist foreign policy.

Another big asset for the anti-war movement is former armed forces chief of staff Julio Rodriguez, who is standing for Podemos in the capital of Aragon, Zaragoza.

The alternative left mayors of Barcelona (Ada Colau), Zaragoza (Pedro Santiesteve), Cádiz (Jose María Gonzalez, Kichi) and La Coruña (Xulio Ferreiro) signed a manifesto launching a new anti-war movement in Spain on Monday night, in response to the terror attacks in Paris on November 13.

The new platform, baptised No En Nuestro Nombre (Not In Our Name), was launched on the domain noasusguerras.es (NoToTheirWars.es).

The brutal attacks in Paris on 13 November were designed to install a climate of fear among the population, to build walls of suspicion and hatred between neighbours, to shatter community life and to bring the politics of fear to our daily lives. If the response to such barbarism involves suspending rights, cutting back on liberties and locking ourselves in our homes, the victory of terrorism will be complete. If we respond to the pain of innocent victims by causing pain to more innocent victims, the spiral of violence will be unstoppable. If we look for culprits among our neighbours, just because they dress or think differently, if we criminalize those fleeing the same horror, we will help to reinforce the walls that fanatics want to create. We cannot allow this.

The terrorist fanaticism of Daesh (ISIS) is a function of, and feeds, racist European fanaticism, while our governments cut social rights and fundamental freedoms, and practise institutional xenophobia and indiscriminate bombings, which have been proven ineffective. We refuse to get involved in a false trade-off between rights and security. Whether here in Spain, in Paris, in Iraq, or in Syria, it is ordinary people who die while others traffic influence, weapons or their own geostrategic interests. The fanatical hatred of a few cannot be used to justify for new hatred. We refuse to be hostages to hatred, terror and intolerance; that would be to give in to terrorism.

Spanien wählt ein neues Parlament, und Frankreich erwartet militärische Unterstützung gegen den IS in Syrien. Für Ministerpräsident Rajoy ist es ein böses Dé­jà-vu.

Syrian opposition groups and rebel factions began talks in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Wednesday in an effort to form a unified front ahead of proposed peace negotiations with Syrian President Bashar Assad‘s government.

The meeting is taking place under the auspices of Saudi Arabia, a key backer of Sunni opposition blocs pushing for Assad‘s ouster.

Mr. Prime Minister, have you investigated the crime scene? How you could say “PKK did it” right after the incident? Was it not you who declared curfew at the crime scene and hindered the investigation in person?

You’ve said “if he were alive…”, he WAS alive 4 days ago and you were too busy lynching him through your media/judicial army. What is clear from the recording and testimonies is that there was nobody shooting near Mr. Elçi except the police. Why are you ignoring this?

Mr. Elçi’s coffin was covered with colors used by Kurdish people for thousand-years, not with a flag. Are you going to be “a PM for everyone” by insulting even this?

November 2015:Diese Videoanalyse zeigt detailliert wie die Attentäter vorgehen. Sie schiessen erst frontal aus nächster Nähe auf die vermeintlichen Angreifer. Diese scheinen von nichts getroffen zu werden und rennen weiter. Dann wechseln die Schützen die Pistolen um Tahir Elçi hinzurichten.

(28.11.2015) Er warb öffentlich für Frieden, Momente später war er tot: In der türkischen Stadt Diyarbakir ist der prominente kurdische Anwalt Tahir Elci erschossen worden. Regierung und Anwaltskammer sind sich uneinig, wem der Anschlag galt.

(…)

Turkish jets hit targets in the Qandil, Hakurk, Zap and Avasin Baysan areas of northern Iraq, targeting storage units and shelters for the militants, the Turkish army said on Wednesday. The region is part of Iraq‘s autonomous Kurdish entity known as Kurdistan.

It’s been 300 day since President Obama sent a draft authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) to Congress. Congresswoman Barbara Lee released this statement:

Russia, the United States and the United Nations will hold three-way talks on the Syria crisis in Geneva on Friday, the U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Wednesday.

News of the meeting was first reported by Russia‘s RIA news agency, citing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov.

Speaking during an event on the sidelines of the Paris climate talks, Kerry said despite its military and political interests in Syria, Moscow „has been constructive“ in trying to find a political settlement to end the Syrian conflict.

„I’m … traveling to Moscow in a week and will be meeting with him (Putin) and with Foreign Minister Lavrov on the subject of Syria and on Ukraine,“ Kerry said.

(19.6.2014) Während der Weltöffentlichkeit wieder mal ein Terrorkriegs-Szenario im Irak um eine aus dem Nichts zu Legionsstärke aufgepoppte Miliz „ISIL“ vorgegaukelt wird, dreht sich die Krise im Irak in Wirklichkeit um die lukrativen Öl-Felder Kurdistans. Deren Ausbeutung ist von der Regionalregierung der Autonomen Region Kurdistans, unter Massud Barzani als Präsidenten und seinem Neffen Nechirvan Barzani als Premierminister, in Form eines über 50 Jahre angelegten Deals mit der Regierung der Türkei an diverse Konsortien verschachert worden, komplett an der Zentralregierung in Bagdad vorbei.

Der Deal war bereits im November 2013 über kurdische Quellen an die Öffentlichkeit gedrungen und nach einem Besuch Barzanis im türkischen Diyarbakir am 18. November 2013 und seinem dortigen Treffen mit Ministerpräsident Tayyip Erdogan unter Dach und Fach gebracht geworden.

Zwar benutzte Erdogan laut Presseberichten damals zum ersten Mal das Wort „Kurdistan“ in der Öffentlichkeit und verdeutlichte damit das wohl endgültige Ende des jahrzehntelangen türkischen Bürgerkriegs und der damit einhergehenden tödlichen Ignoranz der Nomenklatura gegenüber dem kurdischen Teil der Bevölkerung in der Republik Türkei. Doch offensichtlich fiel Erdogan, samt dem alten Schurken Barzani, nichts besseres ein als nun neues Elend anzuzetteln, diesmal im Irak.

In dem seit Jahrzehnten andauernden Tauziehen zwischen dem seit dem ersten Irak-Krieg 1991 faktisch unabhängigen (irakischen) Kurdistan und der nach der Invasion mit nur 1 Million Toten geschaffenen vorbildlich-demokratischen Zentralregierung des Irak in Bagdad spielt Kirkuk eine zentrale Rolle. Von Kirkuk verläuft die in 1970 fertiggestellte Kirkuk-Ceyhan-Pipeline in die türkische Hafenstadt am Mittelmeer.

Der nun vor kurzem angelaufene Export von Öl-Vorkommen aus dem irakischen Kurdistan – wie gesagt: ohne entsprechendes Bakschisch an die lieben Demokraten zu Bagdad – läuft über eine Ende 2013 fertiggestellte Pípeline von den Öl-Feldern Khurmalas (hier die Position von Khurmula zwischen Erbil und Kirkuk) hoch zur irakischen Grenzstadt Faysh Khabur (Fish khabur) am Dreiländereck zwischen Irak, Türkei und Syrien.

Wo genau die neue Pipeline verläuft, welches Konsortium sie gebaut hat und welches sie betreibt, darüber hüllten sich die Beteiligten in Schweigen.

Besides oil, the Kurdistan region has started to export its gas to the world market through Turkey.

(7.12.2015) Steinmeier, who is on his third visit to Kurdistan, is scheduled to meet President Masoud Barzani on Tuesday and visit refugee camps, as well as bases where German forces are training Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers.

/ Brennpunkte / Nachrichten – LN – Lübecker Nachrichten

Der russische Uno-Botschafter Vitali Tschurkin hat die Türkei vor einer militärischen Invasion in Syrien gewarnt, wie diese vor einigen Tagen im Irak unternommen wurde.

A Western diplomatic source said last week on condition of anonymity that the test of a Ghadr-110, a spinoff of the Shahab-3 missile, was held near Chabahar, a port city near Iran’s border with Pakistan.

„It was very important to call the attention of the Security Council to this situation,“ Russia‘s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said after a December 8 meeting he requested to address recent Turkish military moves in Iraq and Syria.

Syrian rebels have begun evacuating from the last area they hold in the city of Homs under a ceasefire deal reached with the government, a monitoring group has said.

Vladimir Putin: And has the submarine made underwater launches?

Sergei Shoigu: Yes, Mr President, the submarine made underwater launches because in May you gave instructions to test our new weapons in all environments where it can be used – in the air and in water. We launched Caspian Flotilla missiles from the sea. Now, we have tried and demonstrated real launches of missiles from the Mediterranean against real targets. We warned our colleagues in Israel and the United States that we would conduct these launches today. Before that, this vessel made surface launches in the northern seas, the Northern Fleet.

From the Hmeymim airfield, we actively worked on territories where militants who shot our pilot are based. As a result, all these areas have been liberated, and the Syrian Army’s special operation forces…

Vladimir Putin: Searching for the crew?

Sergei Shoigu: Yes. The Syrian service members searched the territory, detected our aircraft’s crash site, and all these bandits were leaving so fast they did not have time to take anything from the aircraft, so we discovered a parametric recorder, which we brought here and which I would like to show you.

Vladimir Putin: With regard to strikes from a submarine. We certainly need to analyse everything that is happening on the battlefield, how the weapons work. Both the Calibre missiles and the Kh-101 rockets are generally showing very good results. We now see that these are new, modern and highly effective high-precision weapons that can be equipped either with conventional or special nuclear warheads.

Naturally, we do not need that in fighting terrorists, and I hope we will never need it.

Russland hat heute erstmals seit Beginn seines Anti-IS-Kampfes in Syrien IS-Stellungen von einem U-Boot aus beschossen. Das russische Verteidigungsministerium hat kürzlich das Videomaterial des Angriffes durch das U-Boot „Rostow na Donu“ veröffentlicht. Die Marschflugkörper wurden auf zwei große IS-Basen in der Provinz Rakka abgefeuert, welche dadurch erfolgreich zerstört worden sind.