-"For Erdoğan, attacking the Kurds has become synonymous with building popular support, and, as the next election looms, his foreign policy is being increasingly driven by the domestic agenda."

-The extraordinary swing of support behind NATO in western countries is based around a carefully constructed image of NATO as standing up for a people under attack, and as preventing capitulation to bully-boy tactics. It was an image that never had any substance, but now Turkey is very publicly tearing it to shreds.

Sarah Glynn looks at the EU Conference on supporting Syria, noting the presence of Turkey, Iran and the US, all party to Syria's troubles, and the absence of AANES, the only ones trying to build a real democracy there.

The most alarming military developments this week were the intensified attacks on the Yazidis in Şengal (Sinjar), in northwest Iraq. These were carried out by the Iraqi army, but it is Turkey that is most insistent on destroying Yazidi autonomy, and Turkey was behind the scenes, pulling strings.

Sarah Glynn's weekly news review: "For those challenging Turkish aggression, opportunities for high level diplomacy are distinctly limited, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t get international support, nor that that support doesn’t matter."

-On Sunday night, the northern mountains of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq came under heavy bombardment from Turkish warplanes and howitzers, and Turkish helicopters ferried in soldiers as Turkey launched its anticipated attack on the PKK’s guerrilla bases. But it is not only the guerrillas in their mountain tunnels that are under attack. The Kurds and the Kurdish freedom movement are under attack across all parts of Kurdistan. And although Turkey is their biggest enemy, it is not their only enemy in what has become a complex battleground of competing powers.

Sarah Glynn takes a look at this week's ongoing brutal campaigns against the Kurds in Syria, Turkey and Iraq as Turkey gears up for fresh military actions in N. Iraq and Assad targets Kurds in Aleppo.

Last Sunday, as progressives tried to come to terms with Viktor Orbán’s decisive re-election as prime minister of Hungary, Turkey’s President Erdoğan telephoned his congratulations and discussed hopes for further enhancing bilateral relations, including in the defence industries. Orbán and Erdoğan are members of a growing group of right-wing authoritarian populists, and both Erdoğan’s supporters and those hoping to see him defeated have been examining the Hungarian example for clues about what could happen in Turkey’s next election, which has to take place by June 2023. That the Hungarian opposition – like the main opposition in Turkey – consisted of an alliance of six different parties has given Erdoğan’s camp a revived confidence.

Another HDP MP loses parliamentary immunity for exercising their freedom of expression.

Sarah Glynn looks at how the US displays a complete absence of support for NE Syria in fighting ISIS, noting that they still remain silent about Turkey's continued attacks on the region although it is clear Turkey itself supports ISIS.