Not that President Recep Tayyib Erdogan loves Islamic State – he used to let it use Turkey as a transit route for recruits and supplies, but that largely stopped a year ago – but he doesn’t see it as Turkey’s main enemy.
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Russian Federation criticised for the first time the Turkish military operation in Syria, joined by militias opposing the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Erdogan said he was ready to support such a plan, although he said a specific Turkish role would depend on further talks.
Three Turkish soldiers were killed and another wounded in an attack Friday on an army tank launched by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in northern Syria, the Turkish army said in a statement on state media. Their efforts are opposed by both the Syrian government and its Sunni rebel opponents, but underpinned by one of the most powerful militias in the country, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). While Washington says Turkish attacks on Kurdish-aligned militias damaged a coalition fighting the IS, Russia said Ankara’s southwards push could complicate worldwide efforts to reach a peace deal. Turkey aims to both drive Islamic State from the border, and to prevent further Kurdish gains. Washington has said it supports the effort to push back Islamic State, but the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies remain at odds over the role Kurdish fighters should play.
Erdogan and President Barack Obama briefly discussed a joint invasion of Raqqa during the G20 summit in China last weekend. “We do not have an option to step back at this point”, he added, noting that discussions with Washington are ongoing.
Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels expelled the Islamic State group from the last strip of territory it controlled along the Syrian-Turkish border on Sunday, effectively sealing the extremists’ self-styled caliphate off from the outside world, Turkey’s prime minister and a Syrian opposition group reported. “The Syrian army will have to interfere”, Semyon Bagdasarov said in an interview with Pravda.Ru.
She said according to that agreement Turkey must not go beyond Jarabuus, but it has already started military operations in the region south from Jarabulus.
Political analyst Mark Sleboda added that the U.S. continues to demand regime change in Syria, while the Russian position supports the current government.
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The HNC, an umbrella body representing more than 30 political and military forces, are seeking to wrestle power from al-Assad and unveiled a 25-page plan detailing a transition to democratic and religious pluralism in the country.
