ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkey will not wait for the outcome of their talks with the US officials over the establishment of a safe zone in northern Syria and is “determined” to clear its border of a “terror corridor,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday amid mounting border tensions.
“No matter what the result of talks with the US are over the establishment of a safe-zone along the Syrian border, we are determined to rip apart the terror corridor east of the Euphrates [River],” Erdogan said during a Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) meeting with provincial heads in Ankara, according to his office.
He added that his country would not “watch” idly as Americans and Europeans send military assistance to the Kurdish forces on the ground.
East of Euphrates is dominated by Syrian Democratic Units (SDF), mostly consisting of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). The group is considered as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Kurdish armed group that has fought for greater minority, cultural, and political rights against the Turkish state over the past four decades.
Turkey has called for a 40 kilometer buffer zone into Syria between Kurdish positions and its border which would be “cleansed” of the SDF. Kurdish authorities have repeatedly rejected the idea and claimed they have no ties to the PKK.
Erdogan reiterated in his Friday speech that Ankara’s aim is to “get rid of the PYD … and bring tranquility and security to Syria,” referring to the Democratic Union Party, the political wing of the YPG.
The SDF has said that they would approve Turkish involvement in such a corridor only if Turkish forces withdraw from Afrin in northwest Syria that was taken in March 2018 by Turkish forces and its Syrian proxies. It had previously been under the control of the YPG which trusted Russia or the US to sway Erdogan.
This week’s rocket attack that hit a house in the Kurdish province of Sanliurfa in Turkey made Ankara emboldened as the rockets were said to have been launched from SDF-controlled areas across the border. The SDF denied any involvement in the incident, and then its media claimed that the SDF had arrested an unnamed suspect.
US Special Envoy to Syria James Jeffrey arrived in Ankara this week to meet with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and other top officials. Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement that they have begun joint work with the United States to establish a long planned “safe zone” on Turkey’s southern border with Syria.
“Both countries’ military authorities began the joint work today at MSB in Ankara to establish a planned safe zone in northern Syria in a coordinated way,” the Turkish Defense Ministry tweeted on Tuesday.
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Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Friday that both Turkish and Kurdish forces are on alert as Turkish senior officials are threatening to conduct military operation against the SDF.
The UK-based SOHR which is opposed to the Asssd regime also said that Turkish forces continue to “mobilize at border areas such as Tal Abyad, Ras al-Ayn, and Ayn al-Arab (Kobani), and on the other side it seems that the Syria Democratic Forces are ready in case the Turkish statements in the media turn to reality on the ground and Turkey launched its military operation of which it has been talking about for many months.”
