Ankara Attack: New Details (Photos, Maps and more detail on the fallout between Turkey, the US and Russia)

by Scott Creighton

(map from the BBC article, here)

The first thing I noticed when I saw this map showing the location of the bomb blast was just how secluded it looked. I decided to take a closer view with Google Earth.

As you can see from the first map, it would appear the three buses carrying military personnel left the military training academy, made it about two blocks up Merasim St. and then stopped at that intersection where they blew up. It’s hard how many lanes are traveling north. If it is only one, did a car pull up behind them or was it parked on the side of the road waiting for them? If it’s two lanes, did it pull up next to them?

Here are some photos from the scene. You can see how relatively secluded the area is. It’s certainly not a busy, downtown-type street. Also notice… where is the car from the “car bomb” that supposedly caused all of this?

There is the one car that looks like it was damaged by the heat or took part of the blast as collateral damage but it certainly doesn’t look like it was “packed with explosives” as we are being told the car bomb was. The doors and the roof are still attached.

Merasim at that point is a tree-lined street with few if any buildings right on the roadway. Very little chance of collateral damage. It certainly seems it would have been easy to cut off traffic to that stretch of the road even at rush hour. Özel Akay Hastanesi is a private hospital less than 2 miles away.

Less than 4 miles away is the scene of the July 2015 blast near Genclik Park, attributed to “ISIS”, which occurred around the same time as the PKK attack that kicked off the renewed hostilities between the Turkish government and the Kurdish separatist group. The Genclik Park attack took place during a peaceful demonstration and took the lives of 30 people.

The BBC has put together a list of recent terror attacks in Turkey:

• January 2016: At least 10 people, mostly German tourists, are killed in a suspected IS suicide bombing in Istanbul
• October 2015: More than a hundred people are killed in a double-suicide bombing at a Kurdish peace rally in Ankara
• July 2015: In the predominantly Kurdish town of Suruc, near the Syrian border, over 30 people are killed in a suicide bombing, again blamed on IS

Turkish President Erdogan is saying they will retaliate against whomever is responsible for the attack. That will certainly provide the regime change actors in the region all the justification they need to continue bombing in Syria if “ISIS” claims responsibility in spite of the cease-fire that is supposed to go into effect tomorrow.

Over at RT, there is a Kurdish regional PKK commander who claims he has “proof” that Erdogan and the recently re-elected AKP government of Turkey have been supporting “ISIS”. He came out with this story just yesterday, right before the bombing. His theory is that Erdogan is getting “ISIS” to bomb the Kurds on his behalf.

You kind of have to have a story like that because otherwise, “ISIS” attacking Turkey makes no sense at all.

We’ve been told that Erdogan supports “ISIS” over and over again in the MSM. We’ve also been told they are funding “ISIS” by buying their stolen Syrian oil (which is actually being bought by the Israelis)

And lastly, we have been told over and over again, that Turkey is not bombing “ISIS” in Syria and Iraq but rather, they are targeting the Kurdish YPG, our new favorite “freedom fighters”, who are in fact, combating “ISIS”

So… without the handy story from the Kurdish regional commander, how much sense does it make that “ISIS” would attack Turkey?

It makes no sense.

Now, keep this in mind: the regional commander gives us a little insight into the big plan:

“…The Kurdish commander maintains that “Turkish authorities think this way: if 3 million Syrian Kurds gain independence, then 20 million Turkish Kurds would want to do the same immediately.”

To prevent this scenario and dishearten Kurds striving to form a state of their own, Turkey’s ruling AKP party would do anything within its powers, including “inciting militants of Ahrar ash-Sham and Jabhat Al-Nusra [Al-Nusra Front] to attack Syrian regions inhabited by Kurds,” Karayılan said.” RT

Yes, that’s a confirmation of sorts of the idea that the Kurds have independence in mind during all of this. What I have been saying all along about Obama and the West building a new nation, what I call “Greater Kurdistan” to rival Saudi Arabia in the region and to connect one long pipeline from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

There is an interesting story over at al Monitor by Semih Idiz which gives us a little more background into the recent history of the conflict. It appears things aren’t so rosy between NATO, the US and Turkish interests regarding what they are doing in Syria.

The Turks are bombing and shelling our new “freedom fighters” and Uncle Obama is getting a little miffed about it.

“Ankara wants to prevent the Kurdish group, which it considers a terrorist organization allied with the Kurdistan Workers Party, from gaining more territory along Turkey’s border with Syria. In a separate development bound to further increase tensions, Turkey also shelled Syrian military positions across the border from Hatay province around the same time it unleashed its campaign against the YPG.

A complication for Ankara, however, is that both the United States and Russia are supporting the YPG, albeit for different reasons. YPG fighters have advanced against the Islamic State (IS) east of the Euphrates River with US air support, while Russia has been using them against anti-Assad forces west of the Euphrates. al Monitor

At first glance it would appear that the Russians are assisting the Kurdish YPG in the west as they attack anti-Syrian regime change terrorists but that might not be the intended consequence of the Russian actions. It might be that the Kurds are simply taking advantage of the opportunity the Russian bombing campaigns present in order to take more land from Syria.

What comes next in the article is of the utmost importance:

Davutoglu told reporters Feb. 14 that he had laid Turkey’s demands on the line during a phone conversation with US Vice President Joe Biden earlier that day. To wit, the YPG is to stay clear of the town of Azaz, a stone’s throw from Turkey, and evacuate adjoining areas. It must also abandon attempts to sever the corridor between Aleppo and Turkey, which Ankara says it needs to provide support to refugees. Ankara also insists that the YPG evacuate the Menagh air base near Azaz, recently captured with Russian support, and has threatened to make the base inoperable by shelling it if the YPG does not abandon it.

Davutoglu said he also told Biden that the YPG does not represent Syrian Kurds. “Those who define this as a Turkish-Kurdish conflict only aim to lay the groundwork for a conflict among brothers in the Middle East,” he claimed.

The White House readout of Biden’s conversation with Davutoglu stated, “The Vice President noted US efforts to discourage Syrian Kurdish forces from exploiting current circumstances to seize additional territory near the Turkish border, and urged Turkey to show reciprocal restraint by ceasing artillery strikes in the area.” The reference to the “Syrian Kurds” and the attempt to address Turkey and the YPG equally have angered Ankara. al Monitor

Clearly what is happening is the Turkish authorities do not like the idea one bit of the Kurdish YPG taking and holding more Syrian land on their border especially not at a time when the Turkish Kurds are involved in what appears to be a regime change operation right down there on the border as well.

They certainly don’t want them controlling an airbase right on their border and it would appear they are willing to bomb the US’s new favorite “freedom fighters” in order to stop them from “seizing additional territory” from Syria.

Why would that be? Because they know the whole point is to create Greater Kurdistan via joining together:

• Iraqi Kurdistan (came about due to illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003)
• Syrian Kurdistan (pending but underway)
• Turkish Kurdistan (pending but underway)

So we have a serious conflict of interests between the Obama Coalition of the Willing and the Ergodan AKP government with regard to Kurdish land-grabbing in Syria.

Add to that a new terrorist bombing which may end up providing the pretext for the military to step in and take over in a coup.

It should be interesting what develops in the next 24 hours over there.