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Swedish Journalist Joakim Medin — My Week in Regime Prisons

Quickly reacting to Turkey’s military intervention into Syria to move the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the Assad regime has denounced Ankara’s “blatant aggression”.

Late Saturday, Turkey sent 39 tanks, 57 armored vehicles, and almost 600 troops to relieve 40 soldiers in Aleppo Province at the site of the tomb, surrounded by the Islamic State. With the cooperation of Syrian Kurdish authorities — including the Kurdish militia YPG — the tomb was moved to Ashme, west of the Kurdish city of Kobane, near the Turkish border.

See Syria Developing: Turkish Military Force Enters Country To Move Tomb of Suleyman Shah

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said that Turkey informed Damascus ahead of the intervention but not wait for the Assad regime’s agreement.

“Turkey went far beyond providing all forms of support to its tools of the gangs of ISIS [the Islamic State], Jabhat al-Nusra, and other Al Qa’eda-linked terrorist organizations to carry out a blatant aggression on the Syrian territory,” the Foreign Ministry said.

The statement followed a denunciation earlier on Sunday of a US-Turkish announcement that training of thousands of “moderate” rebels will begin in late March. Washington sees the force — with 3,000 men ready for the battlefield by the end of 2015 — as a response to the Islamic State, but Ankara sees it as part of the challenge to the Assad regime.

The Turkish military convoy brought the remains of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, and artefacts to Turkey in preparation for their relocation at Ashme. One soldier died in an accident during the operation.

The site in Aleppo Province, about 37 km (23 miles) from the Turkish border, was recognized by a Franco-Turkish treaty in 1921 as Ankara’s territory. However, it was cut off by the Islamic State’s advance across northern Syria last March, and dependent on the jihadists allowing supplies to the 40 soldiers.

Opposition: Hezbollah Commander Says Assad Militia, Not His Fighters, Killed Dozens of Civilians in Failed Aleppo Offensive

A captured Hezbollah commander has denied that his forces massacred civilians during last week’s failed offensive and blamed Syrian militia, according to the opposition site al-Souria.

The commander reportedly said the militia killed dozens of people in the village of Rityan and abandoned the Hezbollah unit.

Opposition activists say up to 48 civilians were executed in Rityan and Hardantain when they were briefly occupied by Syrian forces.

Turkish Kurdish Leader: Ankara’s Meetings With Kurds Over Move of Suleyman Shah Tomb Could “Develop Relations”

Murat Karayılan, a member of the Executive Committee of the Turkish Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), has discussed how Ankara’s meetings with Syrian Kurds over the move of the Suleyman Shah tomb (see above) could lead to wider improvement of relations:

According to the statements of the [Syrian Kurdish militia] YPG General Command, Turkish officials held five meetings with Kobanê Canton officials, YPG representatives, and the co-presidents of the [Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Union Party] PYD, requesting permission and support in order to evacuate the troops at Suleyman Shah. After long discussions between themselves the PYD, YPG and Canton officials gave their approval.

I think this will be useful for both sides as it can be a pretext to develop relations.

At the same time, Karayılan indicated conditions for relations between the Turkish Government and the Syrian Kurds:

I hope that Turkey will abandon the various ways it supports and cooperates with ISIS [the Islamic State]. I also hope it will not forget the significant support provided by the Kobanê Canton, and lift the embargo [on supplies]. Rather than opening a corridor, it should open the border to trade.

Witnesses said about 300 armed YPG fighters provided a 5-km (3-mile) security corridor for the Turkish troops moving the tomb.

A spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan denied any contacts:

Our allies and the Syrian regime were notified of the operation. However, there has not been any contact or coordination with ISIL [Islamic State], YPG, or the US.

We consider PYD a terrorist organization.

Video: Relief Workers With Displaced in Daraa Province in Southern Syria

Relief workers assist displaced Syrians in Daraa Province in the south:

Tens of thousands of local people have been forced from their homes during this month’s counter-offensive across southern Damascus Province and northern Daraa Province.

Meanwhile, regime bombing of opposition-held areas has resumed after a lull because of bad weather — a strike on Inkhil in Daraa Province:

UN Envoy Returns to Damascus on Monday, But Is His Aleppo “Freeze” Plan Dead?

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura is making another trip to Damascus on Monday in pursuit of his plan for a “freeze” to fighting in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

De Mistura met President earlier last month and subsequently said that the regime was willing to back a six-week ceasefire in Aleppo, allowing humanitarian aid and raising the prospect of a longer-term political settlement.

However, the Syrian opposition rejected De Mistura’s effort, as it would not cover other opposition-controlled areas in northern Syria. Relations were further damaged when the envoy, reversing previous UN positions, said that Assad had to be part of any “political solution”. Both the Revolutionary Command Council and the Sham Front, containing most of Syria’s rebels, said they would no longer cooperate with de Mistura.

“My chances, I hope, are not super slim, because that would in a way would also reflect the chances of the Syrian people to see hope at the end of this tunnel,” Mistura said last Thursday. “The one thing I can tell them is that the UN will never give up.”