Turkey’s incursion helped the rebels take Jarablus from the Islamic State group, but clashes subsequently broke out in the area between Turkish and Kurdish forces – both USA -allies.
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Turkey would not accept a “terror corridor” on its southern border, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said early Friday, referring to terrorist groups such as Daesh and the YPG/PKK.
Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish force an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a domestic group that Ankara has declared a terrorist organization. “They are Syrians. And they formed to defend not only the Kurdish people”.
But if the Kurds are to stand any realistic chance of establishing their own state, they must first reassure countries like Turkey, which hosts a significant Kurdish population in its eastern and south-eastern provinces, that such a state would not pose a threat to the territorial integrity of its neighbours.
The debacle that is U.S. Syria policy is today on naked display.
Western officials have expressed alarm that the fighting between the USA allies has diverted their attention from the fight against the Islamic State group.
Macer Gifford, a British citizen who said he had voluntarily joined the YPG to fight the Islamic State, criticized the Obama administration, saying in a Facebook post that it had abandoned “tried and tested allies” and had now “granted the Islamic State a lifeline”.
Turkey had previously warned that it would continue bombarding the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara sees as a terror organisation linked to separatist rebels, unless they moved east.
Pentagon officials lodged protests from the Pentagon over the Turkish military move putting US special forces advisers who are working with the Kurds in danger.
The Islamic State group’s Aamaq news agency said the “martyrdom” attack occurred in the village of Kuliyeh, west of the Syrian border town of Jarablus, which the rebels captured from the IS last week.
“We continue to work very closely with our coalition partner and ally Turkey in trying to address their concerns about this situation”, spokesman Peter Cook said.
“Although the fight against terrorism.is a principle for all peace-seeking governments, it can not and must not justify military operations on another country’s territory without coordination with its central government”, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said.
Iran, a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, urged Turkey to quickly wrap up its campaign, calling it a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
Though Pentagon sources told The Wall Street Journal that they were taken by surprise by the Turkish assault, the clash was predictable due to US policy in Syria.
The weird part is that Turkey had more than two years to “banish” ISIS, so the fact that Erdogan chose this exact moment to take actions is curious.
The straw that broke the camel’s back as far as Euphrates Shield is concerned was that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), whose backbone is the YPG, demonstrated their intention to continue marching west of the Euphrates after taking Manbij, despite US guarantees to Ankara to the contrary.
“Turkey does not differentiate on the basis of nationality when it comes to membership in terrorist organisations”, said Yunus Akbaba, an adviser to Yildirim.
How can the US build a firmer foundation for finishing the campaign against the Islamic State? “Both of them are critical to it”, Votel said.
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The YPG are “Syrian forces”, he said.
