“Going down to the southeast to Raqqa will mean for Turkish armed forces a very, very long trajectory of logistical support”, Gursel said.
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Ankara’s tactics have been criticized by its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the U.S. and also by Russian Federation, with which it recently remedied ties.
In comments published Wednesday in the Turkish daily “Hurriyet”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had told US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in China that Ankara would support a joint operation to take Raqqa, the Syrian city which is the de facto capital of the IS militant group.
He said the operation against IS “could gain some degree of depth” with Turkey still pressing for a no-fly zone on the Syrian side of the border.
Turkey’s military said late on Tuesday that three Turkish soldiers were killed when two tanks were hit by rockets fired by Islamic State. Ankara also wants to check the advance of USA -allied Syrian Kurdish fighters in the region.
“It will not be a massive 30,000, 40,000 soldiers entering into Syria”, said Turkish political columnist Semih Idiz of the Al Monitor website. We said this would not be a problem from our perspective, ” he said, stressing, “More discussions would follow”.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara after a cabinet meeting, Canikli also said that a total of 110 Islamic State and Kurdish militia fighters have been killed since Turkey began its military campaign in Syria on Aug.24.
Turkey started an operation inside Syria, targeting both Kurdish and IS rebels. Four others were wounded, it said.
Erdogan has attempted to reset the American-Turkish diplomatic paradigm since accusing Washington of being responsible for a “sea of blood” in Syria in February, now hoping to cooperate on the ground after American officials warned the YPG to stay east of the Euphrates River, far from the Turkish border.
Still, Erdogan may be betting that Turkish participation will marginalize the effectiveness of Kurds in the region in the future, analysts say.
Tension is high in southeastern Turkey since the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and European Union – resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July previous year.
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For its part, Turkey’s government has knowingly allowed assistance to filter to ISIS across its southern border.
