With Turkey becoming a police state with a press less free than not only Russian Federation but perhaps also Iran, it is time to ratchet up Voice of America and other broadcasting both in Turkish and in Kurdish to fill an information gap that Erdoğan seeks to maintain.
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The city sits across the border adjacent to the Syrian city of Jarablus which is now held by ISIS.
Kurdish fighters have become USA allies in the battle against ISIS in Syria and Iraq and played a major role in driving the group out of Manbij this month.
“Turkey was and remains the first goal for Daesh, because it has been working to dry up all the sources that provide the group with foreign fighters”, said Çavuşoğlu.
Turkey has ordered residents in the town of Karkamis to evacuate after it was hit by mortars from so-called Islamic State militants in Syria.
A Kurdish-led group known as the Syria Democratic Forces earlier this month liberated Manbij, triggering concerns in Ankara that they would seize the entire border strip with Turkey.
He downplayed earlier reports that the attacker was between 12 and 14 years old, saying this could not be confirmed.
Some have suggested that the decision to strike the YPG, which Turkey says are linked to the banned militia group the PKK, is part of a plan to deter Kurdish forces from capitalizing on any attempt to destroy Daesh in northern Syria.
The bombing Saturday in the southern city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, killed at least 54 people many of them children. The Syrian Kurds have begun to carve out autonomous zones for themselves and their latest military push appears aimed at linking up their eastern territory with a western enclave.
The group has targeted Kurdish gatherings in Turkey for more than a year.
Syrian government forces are not directly involved in the battle for the border at Jarablus, having gradually lost ground in the north over more than five years of civil war.
Turkish forces have been exchanging shellfire with IS positions in the Jarablus area since Monday. A KCK statement also said those overtures are supported by “friendly” countries and non-government organizations both inside and outside Turkey.
The authorities were also looking for two individuals said to have accompanied the suspected suicide bomber into the wedding party but who then left the scene.
Anadolu Agency said Turkish artillery fired 40 rounds against IS targets in retaliation, after three rockets fired from Syria landed into an empty field in the town of Kilis.
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Some 1,500 Turkish-backed Syrian rebels are thought to be in the Turkish town of Gaziantep waiting to attack.
