Turkey launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria on August 24.
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No details have been given as to what a Turkish role might amount to but clearly if Raqqa is attacked then the zone approaching the Turkish border to the north of the city needs to be secured to block the withdrawal of fleeing IS forces.
He wanted to placate Turkey when he warned Syria’s Kurds to withdraw to the east of the Euphrates River and assured the Turks that there will be “no [Kurdish] corridor”.
Until now there had been few reports of clashes between Turkey or its allied fighters with IS.
The Turkish-backed forces have been advancing towards Manbij, a city around 30 km south of Jarablus that was captured last month from ISISby a US-backed coalition that includes the YPG.
If the Turkish army stays and sets up a safe zone inside Syria, it could turn out to be the biggest military operation by Turkey outside its borders since the invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974.
Faysal Dagli, an Istanbul-based political analyst and author, told VOA that instead of attacking IS, the Turkish government is actually extending its support to the group to fight Kurds.
Yet there is no coincidence to the fact that Damascus’ allies Russian Federation and Iran have raised objections only to Turkey’s attacks on the YPG in Manbij, while keeping silent on its operations in IS-held areas. But there had been indications of intense fighting with the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) militia.
Turkey asked Russian Federation for a military ground support as part of the “Shield of the Euphrates” operation in Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, TRT Haber reported September 6. The Kurdish fighters are since supposed to have pulled back east of the Euphrates.
But it remains unclear if the Syrian rebels backed by Turkey will proceed further south to take Al-Bab from IS jihadists and then Raqa itself, or to what extent the operation has U.S. support. “If they don’t retreat, Turkey will be determined and return Manbij to its owners”, said Yasin Aktay, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling AK Party, referring to Arab and Turkmen communities who lived there before civil war broke out in 2011.
Neither commented directly on the Turkish proposal, though both said they wanted to build cooperation in fighting terrorism in Syria. “Everyone is pursuing their own interests, not Syria’s”, Somaa complained.
This will be his first visit to Turkey after the military coup attempt in the country. As for an attack on the Isis Syrian capital of Raqqa, he says that “liberating Raqqa is a strategic goal for the SDF and its [YPG] allies” who would do their best to take the city, though this would be more hard following the Turkish intervention.
“We need to show we are present in the region”, said Erdogan.
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He said Turkey would have “no problem” with such action. It has stopped Kurdish expansion westwards, but there is a de facto Kurdish state in northern Syria that will be an inspiration and a sanctuary for the embattled Kurdish minority in Turkey.
