President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (pictured) says Turkey will proceed with a “safe zone” in northeast Syria, including across two Kurdish cantons, without the US.
Erdoğan said Tuesday, at a ceremony in Ankara, that he had no choice, given a lack of progress in implementation with Washington: “We have not achieved any of the results we desired in the east of the Euphrates [River]. Turkey cannot lose even a single day on this issue. There is no other choice but to act on our own.”
After months of talks and tension, Ankara and Washington began joint operations in September on air and ground patrols of 480 km (270 miles) along the Turkish-Syrian border, extending east of the Eurphates to the Iraq border.
However, key details were still unclear and possibly not agreed. These included the depth of the zone — Turkey sought 30 km (19 miles) while the US proposed only 15 km — and operational command of the patrols.
The zone runs across the Kurdish cantons of Kobani and Cezire, which have declared autonomy amid Syria’s 8 1/2-year conflict.
Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its YPG militia as part of the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK, which has fought Turkish security forces for 35 yeqrs. It is demanding the YPG’s withdrawal from the zone.
But the YPG is the leading faction in the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces, created in autumn 2015 to remove the Islamic State from northeast Syria.
Erdoğan is promoting the zone as an area for the resettlement of up to 2 million of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. Almost all of them are Arab. He told the UN General Assembly on September 24, “Whether with the US or the coalition forces, Russia and Iran, we can walk shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand so refugees can resettle, saving them from tent camps and container camps.”
Syria Daily, Sept 25: Turkey’s Erdoğan Places His Claim for Control of Northeast
The Turkish President proposed the zone in December after Donald Trump, during a phone call with Erdoğan, abruptly decided on the withdrawal of all US troops from Syria.
But the Pentagon pushed back against Trump’s order, and about 1,000 American personnel are still in the country. Half are alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces, and half are at the US base at Tanf, in eastern Syria on the Iraq border.
Kurdish officials said last month that the YPG will pull back from a 3-km (2-mile) strip along the border, including towns such as Tel Abyad. However, Erdoğan has continued to speak of cross-border military operations against the “terrorists”.
“Terrorists Cleared Out”
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters in Ankara on Tuesday, “Processes such as the withdrawal of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) from the region, the removal of fortifications, the handing over of heavy weapons are not at the point we want.”
He did not go as far as Erdoğan in declaring a unilataral Turkish effort: “But negotiations with the US are continuing.”
However, Akar kept up the tough line over the YPG:
Our demand is purely humanitarian, there is a tragedy in Syria. We want people to return to their home in peace and security. This can happen when terrorists are cleared out….We are closely following all developments in the east of the Euphrates.
