Iran called Wednesday for a quick end to Turkey’s military offensive in northern Syria, saying the continued presence of Turkish forces will only escalate the conflict.
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Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said all relevant parties had been forewarned of Turkey’s operation in Syria, including the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a bitter enemy of Ankara who had been informed by its ally Russian Federation.
But on Wednesday Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik said Ankara did not accept a ceasefire with the Kurds.
“We agreed on a ceasefire with the Turkish state via the United states and the global coalition” that is fighting the Islamic State group, said Ali Hajo, spokesman of the Jarablus Military Council.
The predominant targeting of YPG-controlled areas seems to have caught US officials by surprise and the United States is calling on Turkey to cease those military operations.
Two US defense officials told AFP that SDF forces had “all” withdrawn east of the Euphrates, but they said some Kurdish people remained to the west.
Turkey, meanwhile, said it killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” in strikes on Sunday.
Kalin said the Jarabulus operation had killed a “myth” that the Kurdish militia was the only effective force on the ground in the fight against I.S., adding: “The moderate Syrian opposition, if supported, could put up an effective fight”.
Chillingly, Turkey has said that as a “sovereign nation” fighting a terrorist organization (YPG), they are going to “cleanse” a 90-km strip of northern Syria.
While Syria’s Kurds have, in recent months, worked in varying capacities with the Syrian Arab Army, the Free Syrian Army, the Russian Aerospace Forces and the US military, it now seems that there is little daylight between major players in the Syrian civil war when it comes to the contentious question of Kurdish autonomy.
On Monday, the Turkish air force launched air strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq, state media said.
The Turkish authorities worry that gains made by Syrian Kurds toward autonomy in Syria would rile Kurdish separatists inside Turkey even more.
The de-mining operation on the Syrian side of the border was easily visible from the Turkish border town of Karkamis, with the controlled explosions creating huge white-and-grey clouds of smoke and dust.
After US claims that Kurdish components of the SDF had mostly moved east of the Euphrates, Turkey swiftly demanded that the SDF retreat east of the Euphrates, seeming to indicate that Ankara believes the move did not happen.
Washington described weekend clashes between Turkey and the pro-YPG forces as “unacceptable” and urged them to concentrate on combatting I.S. Turkish media reported that Ankara summoned the USA ambassador to protest the criticism. The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.
Washington has been alarmed by Turkey’s week-long incursion into Syria, saying it was “unacceptable” for its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally to hit militias loyal to Kurdish-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that Washington supports to fight against Islamic State.
Turkey considers the YPG to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – a group striving for an independent Kurdish state in Turkey – which Ankara has declared a terrorist organisation.
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Seemingly caught off guard now, the U.S. has gone back and forth in its support for Turkey’s actions and has risked alienating both its allies.
