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Marso 28-Abril 03, 2018
T h e u g l y re a lity th at is emerging in Syria
The city of Afrin has already fallen.
By VIJAY PRASHAD
BEIRUT—By mid-March, Turkish forces, alongside the
remnants of the Free Syrian Army, entered the northern
Syrian town of Afrin. Fifty-eight days into the siege of this
city, the Syrian Kurdish forces were routed. They decided
to end their defense of the city and instead turn their fighting
units toward a long process of guerrilla warfare. Turkey’s
president Recip Tayyib Erdogan had a triumphant air at
a commemoration ceremony for the Gallipoli Campaign
during World War I in the northwestern province of
Canakkale. “The terror corridor has been broken,” said
Erdogan.
The phrase “terror corridor” has become part of
the vocabulary of the Turkish government. What it refers
to is the slice of land that had been taken by the Syrian
Kurdish forces that runs along Syria’s northern border
with Turkey. The Syrian Kurdish political authorities had
come to call this territory the Democratic Federation of
Northern Syria. But this formal name was not the common
one. It has been known as Rojava, or western Kurdistan. It
is this name that bothers the Turkish government, since it
harkens to a fuller Kurdish state that would include eastern
Kurdistan (in Iraq and Iran) as well as northern Kurdistan
(in Turkey). Turkey has been fundamentally opposed to
any such Kurdish state. Even a hint of it has earned the
wrath of Ankara, Turkey’s capital. It is far more useful for
the Turkish government to call the belt a “terror corridor”
than either a “democratic federation” or a province of a
future Kurdish state. The language of the “war on terror”
defines the Turkish intervention in Syria.
EXTRAJUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF ESTATE
Notice is hereby given that the estate of the
late BENJAMIN P SANCHEZ, who died on March
01, 2015 and ADELINA C. SANCHEZ, who died
on September 11, 2017 both at Los Baños Laguna
leaving a parcel of land covered by Transfer
Certificate of Title No. T-34151 located at Barrios
of Bucal and Lecheria, Municipality of Calamba,
Laguna and Transfer Certificate of Title No.
T-30902 located at Barrio of Anos, Municipality
of Los Baños, Laguna has been extrajudicially
settled by their heirs as per Doc. No. 205; Page No.
42; Book No. 167; Series of 2018, Notary Public
ATTY. CEASAR M. ANGELES.
Tambuling Batangas
March 21, 28 & April 04, 2018
EXTRA JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT
Notice is hereby given that the rights,
interests, and participation of PEDRO PELOQUERO
MANA-AY (deceased) over the 1/5 share of Lot
5763-A-2, TCT 130451 Lipa City Registry of
Deeds and as evidenced by a Deed of Absolute Sale
bearing Doc. No. 171; Page 35; Book LXX, Series
of 2016, of Notary Public, Atty. Erwin M. Layog,
of Lipa City, has been extrajudicially settled by his
surviving spouse, NENITA V. MACASAET MANA-
AY as per AFFIDAVIT OF SELF ADJUDICATION
bearing Doc. No. 221; Page No. 45; Book No. 26;
Series of 2018, of Notary Public, ATTY. NAZARIO
CESAR E. MATIRA, of Lipa City.
Tambuling Batangas
March 28, April 04 & 11, 2018
Erdogan’s Miscalculation
In 2011, Turkey’s government decided to give its
full support to the rebellion against the Syrian government
of Bashar al-Assad. Erdogan was one of the first regional
leaders to publicly call for the removal of Assad—”Assad
must go” became the familiar formula. Turkey opened its
borders to the rebels, allowing them to move supplies and
fighters into Syria. It allowed a Syrian political opposition
group to take up residence in Istanbul and it gave this
platform—mainly composed of the Syrian Muslim
Brotherhood—full political support and encouragement.
Tens of thousands of refugees from Syria streamed into
Syria. Gulf Arab and Western intelligence agencies began
to operate from southern Syria to help shape the war
against Assad.
Turkey’s Erdogan miscalculated. The entry of
Iranian and Russian armed power as well as the resilience
of the Assad government allowed it to withstand the full
force of the Gulf Arab and Western intervention through
a range of fighters. Turkey produced its own militia
group (Ahrar al-Sham) and provided logistical support
to sections of the Free Syrian Army. Neither of Turkey’s
armed groups was able to prevail. They were outflanked
by the arrival of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
from Iraq and by the al-Qaeda franchise, Jabhat al-Nusra.
Without U.S. airpower against Damascus, it was clear that
the various proxy groups of the Gulf Arabs, Turkey and
the West would not succeed.
Syrian Democratic Forces
A weakened Syrian state allowed the Syrian Kurds
who largely live along the Syria-Turkey border to create
their own political formations—the Kurdish Supreme
Council—and their own armed wing—the People’s
Protection Units (YPG). It was not easy for the YPG to
carve out the region known as Rojava. ISIS seized Kobane
in 2014, while the Turkish government intervened through
Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016-17. The expansion of
ISIS and the entry of the Turkish army suggested that the
Syrian Kurds would not be allowed to easily establish their
homeland in the north.
The Syrian Kurdish leadership realized that
it would not be better to create a Syrian rather than a
Syrian Kurdish outfit. For that reason, the Syrian Kurdish
leadership created a new political platform and a new
militia group—the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). They
reached out to Damascus and to the Russian government,
seeking to assure them that its ambitions were only to
demonstrate that Syria could be a federation and that the
northern province would merely be an autonomous part
of a future democratic and federated Syria. This did not
convince the Turks, who seemed sure that the talk of
federation was a smokescreen for the establishment of an
outpost of a future Kurdish state.
When the United States sought an ally on the
ground in the fight against ISIS, Washington’s generals
settled upon the Syrian Democratic Forces. It was the SDF,
with close air cover from the United States, that fought
tenaciously against ISIS in northern Syria. Officials in
Washington and in Damascus agree that without the SDF,
it would have been much more difficult to defeat ISIS in
northern Syria and to free Raqqa from ISIS hands.
It is a sign of the complexity of this war in Syria
that the Syrian Kurds would provide their fighters to
defeat ISIS under the cover of U.S. warplanes. The United
States, which is an ally of Turkey through NATO, used its
airplanes to strengthen the position of the Syrian Kurds
in northern Syria. The Assad government allowed this to
occur because it had little choice and because it perhaps
recognized that this put Turkey into a bind. The Syrian
Kurdish position would never be able to be sustained.
There is no powerful country—neither the U.S. nor
Russia—that would protect the Syrian Kurds once they
had created Rojava. Betrayal of the Kurds, whether in
Iraq or in Syria, is a hallmark of contemporary West Asian
history.
Destruction
The Turkish army and its Free Syrian Army allies
have already begun a campaign within Afrin to destroy
the emblems of Syrian Kurdish rule. Kurdish statues have
been destroyed and Kurdish political figures have been
arrested. It is clear that the Turkish army has been given
free rein to attack the confidence of the Syrian Kurdish
population. It seeks to send a symbol across Rojava that
the Turkish government will not stand for any kind of
Kurdish independence along its borders.
There was no sign from the United States that
it would help its Syrian Kurdish allies. No pressure was
put on the Turkish government and no U.S. aircraft flew
over Afrin to protect it from superior Turkish firepower.
In Astana (Kazakhstan), before the final assault on Afrin,
Turkey, Russia and Iran met to acknowledge some realities.
Turkey would be allowed to take Afrin and defeat the
Syrian Kurdish forces. The Syrian Army, which sat outside
Afrin, did not intervene to protect this Syrian city from
the Turkish intervention. Meanwhile, as part of the deal,
Turkey has promised not to intervene when the Syrian
Army—with Russian and Iranian support—will move into
Idlib in northern Syria. When the Syrian army has come
close to defeating rebel groups across the country, it has
allowed fighters to leave as long as they go to Idlib. It is
this city that will be one of the main last fights of this war
on Syria. It is now clear that Turkey will not intervene to
protect the rebels in Idlib. It is the price that the Turks are
now willing to pay to ensure that the Syrian Kurds lose
their Rojava.
Bravery led Othman Sheikh Issa, co-chair of the
Afrin Executive Council to say, “Our forces all over Afrin
will become a constant nightmare” for the Turkish army.
The Syrian Kurdish leaders had ordered their fighters to
leave the city and begin guerrilla operations. But this order
was disobeyed by a section of fighters who tried to hold
the city. They recognized that the fall of Afrin is more than
a blow to their ambitions. It might very well set back the
Syrian Kurdish political cause back by a generation.
Satur’s lawyers seek his dismissal from DOJ list
By RAYMUND VILLANUEVA
MANILA — Lawyers have asked the Manila Regional
Trial Court Branch 19 to dismiss the petition against
former Representative Saturnino “Satur” Ocampo in
connection with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ)
move to have the Communist Party of the Philippines
(CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) proscribed
as terrorist organizations.
In a notice of special appeArance filed
Wednesday, March 20, the Public Interest Law Center
(PILC) said the respondent in the DOJ petition were
the CPP and the NPA and not Ocampo.
“Obviously, there is a material discrepancy between
the statements in the summons and the allegations in
the petition,” the PILC motion said.
“The summons indubitably designated
movant Ocampo as a party respondent, in the stead
of the actual respondents, the CPP and the NPA,” it
added.
Ocampo was among hundreds listed in the
DOJ petition as “known officers” of the CPP and
the NPA the Rodrigo Duterte government wanted
proscribed as terrorist organizations.
The PILC however denied Ocampo is a party
to the instant [DOJ] proceeding.
“The Honorable Court cannot indulge
on the drastically erroneous premise that movant
is a respondent, as there is no basis whatsoever to
implead him,” the PILC said.
The lawyers said Ocampo vehemently denies
he is an officer, a member or even a representative
the CPP and the NPA and therefore has no legal,
vested, material interest insofar as the petition for
proscription of the CPP and NPA is concerned.
In the PILC motion’s prefatory statement,
Ocampo said, “I am Saturnino Ocampo. Journalist. I
am NOT a terrorist.”
PILC said Ocampo cannot be made party to
the instant proceeding against the CPP and the NPA
that are entities with personalities separate from his.
“[N]othing in the [DOJ] petition and its
annexes indicate that movant Saturnino Ocampo is
indeed an officer, member or representative of the
CPP and NPA,” PILC said.
The PILC said annexes to the DOJ petition
naming Ocampo as one of the members of the CPP
Central Committee were all issued in 2006 and has
also failed to prove he still remains as member or
officer of the CPP and the NPA.
Ocampo
served
as
Bayan
Muna
Representative in the 12th to 14th Congress in 2001
to 2010. He currently serves as the chairperson of the
Makabayan Coalition that has seven representatives
in the 17th Congress.
Ocampo’s lawyers have also denied he has
committed any terrorist act.
“It is respectfully prayed of the Honorable
Court that the instant Petition BE DISMISSED
for lack of jurisdiction over the person of movant
Saturnino Ocampo and for failure of the petition to
state a cause of action against him,” PILC said.
The PILC motion is the first to be filed
against the DOJ petition to have the CPP and the
NPA proscribed as terrorist organizations.