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25-05-2022
ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Ankara is planning to launch a new military operation in Syria in an effort to link up two areas already under Turkish control, raising fears of renewed fighting on the Turkey-Syria border.
Speaking following a cabinet meeting on Monday, Erdogan said the operation would aim to resume Turkish efforts to create a 30km (20 mile) “safe zone” along its border with Syria.
“We will soon take new steps regarding the incomplete portions of the project we started on the 30km deep safe zone we established along our southern border,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan did not provide further details but said the operation would begin after Turkey’s military, intelligence and security forces completed their preparations.
The area targeted by the proposed military operation is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group that includes the People’s Protection Units, a Kurdish armed group also known as the YPG.
Turkey views the YPG as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), a group Turkey considers a “terrorist” organization. The PKK has waged an armed uprising against Turkey since 1984 and tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict.
In response to Erdogan’s comments, the SDF said that there had been no “strategic change” in northern Syria, and that Turkey was attempting to “undermine stability” in the region.
Turkish forces have launched three major incursions into northern Syria since 2016, taking control of areas along the border in what it says is a bid to secure its frontier from threats from ISIL (ISIS) and the YPG.
Human rights groups have criticized Turkey’s past military operations in northern Syria, and the last major incursion displaced thousands of civilians. In 2020 the United Nations urged Turkey to investigate “possible war crimes” carried out by armed groups in areas under its control.
Erdogan’s comments come as Turkey raises its objections to Sweden and Finland’s proposed membership in NATO, accusing the two countries of supporting the PKK and other groups that Turkey views as “terrorists”.
Sweden and Finland, along with other European countries, imposed restrictions on military sales to Ankara following its incursion into Syria in 2019, a move criticized by Turkey.
Earlier this month, Erdogan also said that Turkey would build infrastructure in northern Syria to house one million Syrian refugees, as the debate over Turkey’s approximately 3.6 million Syrian refugees continues in the country.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already been pledged that his country would not drive Syrian refugees back to their home country despite pressure from opposition parties amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the country.
More than 3.6 million Syrian refugees have taken shelter in Turkey since 2011 when an uprising turned into a bloody war, killing nearly 400,000 and displacing more than half the country’s population.
Last week, the main opposition CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said his party would return Syrian refugees to their homeland within two years of him coming to power.
“We will protect up to the end these brothers who fled the war and took refuge in our country” no matter what the CHP leader claims, Erdogan said in a televised address.
“We will never expel them from this land. Our door is wide open to them. We will continue to host them. We will not throw them into the lap of murderers.”
Erdogan is facing rising public anger over the refugees and is wary of the issue dominating next year’s presidential elections.
Turkey has welcomed nearly five million refugees in total, including Syrians and Afghans, but their presence has caused tensions with locals, especially as the country is in economic turmoil with the weakening lira and soaring energy and food prices.
Last week, Erdogan announced that Turkey would build enough local infrastructure in northwestern Syria to house 1 million refugees, in addition to the tens of thousands of units already built.
The Idlib region in northwest Syria, home to some three million internally displaced people, is under the control of opposition groups that have been backed by Turkey for years and remains the last rebel-held pocket in Syria.
It is unclear how many Syrians have so far returned to their country since hostilities relatively subsided. In 2021, the UN refugee agency verified or monitored the return of about 36,000 refugees to Syria. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
