The Syrian government has condemned the Turkish shelling of Syrian territory and described it as direct support for “terrorist” groups, according to a letter to the United Nations that the Syrian state media cited.
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Turkey says it will continue to conduct strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria, despite growing pressure on Ankara to stop the shelling amid a truce deal backed by world powers.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told German Chancellor Angela Merkel by phone on Sunday that Turkey’s military will continue to respond to attacks by Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria, sources in Davutoglu’s office told Reuters.
Turkish troops have bombarded areas under the control of Syria’s main Kurdish military, the People’s Protection Units or YPG, multiple times in the past. That has alarmed Turkey, which considers the group to be an affiliate of the Kurdish PKK movement which it considers to be a terrorist organization.
The Turkish shelling in northern Syria has added to an already complicated situation in Aleppo, where regime forces have been making significant advances with backing from Russian air strikes.
“The PYD is trying to carry out an ethnic cleansing by raiding areas where there is no or little Kurdish population and works to remove non-Kurdish ethnic elements out of these areas”, Yasin Aktay, a government MP said.
Turkey has long used the Azaz crossing to funnel aid to rebel factions, and has expressed concern as both the Syrian military and the Kurds have made gains in the area, saying they would not allow the Kurds in particular to hold the area. If they are able to do so, it will be the biggest defeat for insurgents since the conflict began in March 2011. Opposition activists reported Syrian army helicopters dropped around 10 barrel bombs on the town of Daraya.
He said the move by the Kurdish fighters was aimed at uprooting “hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians” from the border region and “creating a new humanitarian crisis” that would affect both Turkey and the European Union.
Washington has been working closely with Kurdish forces in northern Syria and the Turkish attacks highlighted tensions within the US-led coalition that is battling the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
YPG fighters, backed by the West and Gulf countries, have been battling for more than a week against a ferocious Russian-backed offensive by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
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Saudi Arabia also has deployed warplanes to Turkey’s Incirlik airbase to “intensify” its operations against the IS group in Syria, a senior Saudi defence official said.
