A statement by a raft of Kurdish groups including the Democratic Union Party (PYD) – sister organisation of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – urged the global community to press Turkey to withdraw its troops.
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Turkey, which is fighting a Kurdish insurgency at home, has openly said the operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield” has a dual goal of driving away Islamic State and preventing Kurdish forces extending their areas of control along the Turkish border.
“The Turkish occupation of Jarablus is a confirmation of its expansionist ambitions and its hostility towards all Syrian components and a blatant statement of its intention to cut parts of the Syrian territories and include it to Turkey”, it said.
For its part, the Syrian government condemned the Turkish military intervention as flagrant violation to the Syrian sovereignty, while the Kurds said the aim of Ankara was not to fight the IS but to curb the momentum of the Kurdish groups.
“The Turkish government should concentrate on Daesh instead of using the Syrian conflict to solve its internal problems”.
Turkish troops are now shelling ISIS and Kurdish targets in northern Syria. Ankara claims Syrian Kurds have links to the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish authorities.
There was more heavy fighting Monday along the Turkey-Syriaborder, but two US allies seem more intent on fighting each other than ISIS.
Kurdish officials are saying that Syrian Kurdish fighters and the Turkish military have agreed on a temporary cease-fire in the volatile northern Syrian region, near the town of Jarablus.
Turkey has long feared a strong Kurdish presence near its borders, which was one of the main reason it crossed the borders with its tanks and Syrian rebels it was training.
The Kurdish-led forces seized Manbij from IS earlier this month after a 10-week campaign. One video appears to show members of the Kurdish group? captured and humiliated by rebel fighters.
Turkey then sent its troops, aiding Syrian rebels to move in on the next IS-held town, across it borders, prompting clashes between the two US -allies and raising concerns they would distract from the fight against IS.
The battle in northern Syria now pits USA ally Turkey against the Kurdish-led force – a US -backed proxy that is the most effective ground force battling IS militants in Syria’s 5-year-old civil war.
The comments by Ibrahim Kalin published on Tuesday by the pro-government Daily Sabah came a day after the US urged Turkish troops and Kurdish forces in northern Syria to halt their fighting, saying it hinders efforts to defeat the Islamic State group.
French President Francois Hollande told a gathering of French ambassadors that nearly a year after Russian Federation intervened behind the regime of Bashar al-Assad, ‘today it is Turkey that has made the choice to deploy its army on Syrian territory to defend against Daesh (ISIS)’.
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“The absolute urgency is a halt to fighting and a return to negotiations”, Hollande said.
