Turkey’s
Erdogan Says He’s Ready to Risk Confrontation With US
27
November, 2014
A
defiant Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Friday that
he’s prepared to risk confrontation with the United States over
Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria, vowing to next
target a Kurdish-held town where U.S. Special Forces are stationed.
Speaking
to members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in
Ankara, a belligerent Erdogan shrugged off U.S. calls for Turkey to
limit the incursion launched a week ago, saying the next town to be
targeted after the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, where Turkish tanks have
been grinding through winter mud, will be Manbij, raising the
possibility of American troops being drawn inadvertently into the
bruising fight between Turks and Syrian Kurds.
The
Reuters news agency reports that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu said Saturday the United States needs to withdraw from
northern Syria's Manbij region immediately, suggesting that an attack
might be imminent.
On
Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed concerns in a phone
call with Erdogan about the Turkish offensive aimed at ousting
Kurdish militiamen the U.S. sees as allies in the battle against the
Islamic State terror group. Trump urged him to limit the incursion
and to avoid civilian casualties. The U.S. president, though,
acknowledged Turkey's legitimate security concerns, according to
Turkish officials, who say that Trump asked Erdogan “not to
criticize the U.S.”
Dramatic
escalation
But
speaking to AKP members, Erdogan outlined a far more expansive
operation than he’s committed to before, indicating his readiness
to order Turkish forces, along with thousands of allied Syrian
rebels, remnants of the Free Syrian Army that led the fight against
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to drive right across northern
Syria all the way to Iraq.
FILE
- U.S. forces take up positions on the outskirts of the Syrian town
of Manbij, March 7, 2017.
FILE
- U.S. forces take up positions on the outskirts of the Syrian town
of Manbij, March 7, 2017.
That
would mean attacking east of the Euphrates River the Kurdish
stronghold of Rojava, which Syrian Kurds hope one day will become
their own independent state. It would mark a dramatic escalation of
Turkey’s offensive - as well as adding a massive complication in
the already complex Syrian conflict.
“We
will rid Manbij of terrorists, as was promised before. Our battles
will continue until no terrorist is left right up to our border with
Iraq,” Erdogan said.
Turkish
officials refer to Kurdish militiamen with the People’s Protection
Units (YPG) as a terrorists. They say the YPG is an affiliate of the
Turkey’s own outlawed Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade-long
insurgency against Ankara.
The
Turkish offensive, oddly named Operation Olive Branch, “will
continue until it reaches its goals,” Erdogan pledged. He made no
reference to the fact that as many as 2,000 U.S. troops are stationed
in Manbij or nearby. We will “walk on our road until the end,”
Erdogan added.
Turkey
shares a 911-kilometer-long border with Syria, around two-thirds of
which is under YPG control. Manbij is some 100 km east of the
mountainous pocket of Afrin, which has been the focus of the Turkish
offensive so far. U.S. troops have been located in Manbij since 2016,
when Islamic State militants were driven from the city by the YPG
with American assistance.
Kurdish
officials say they are ready to deploy militiamen from Rojava to
reinforce about 10,000 YPG fighters in the crowded city of Afrin,
which would mean weapons, including anti-tank missiles, supplied by
Washington for use against jihadist militants being turned instead on
the Turks and their Syrian rebel allies.
FILE
- Turkish tanks are parked near the Syrian border at Hassa, in Hatay
province, Jan. 24, 2018, as part of the "Operation Olive
Branch."
FILE
- Turkish tanks are parked near the Syrian border at Hassa, in Hatay
province, Jan. 24, 2018, as part of the "Operation Olive
Branch."
'Confusion
and conflict'
On
Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington would
continue to pursue talks with Turkey and hoped to find a way to
create a “security zone” that would meet Turkey’s “legitimate”
security interests.” Senior Pentagon officials visited Ankara this
week and sought to try establish a clear line between Afrin and other
Kurdish-held territory and between different YPG units. Major Adrian
Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that “the
armed Kurdish groups in Afrin” are not part of the U.S.-backed
coalition against Islamic State.
But
some analysts say that distinction is false, and former U.S. envoy to
Turkey James Jeffrey says there is “confusion and conflict” in
Washington about what steps to take.
Gonul
Tol, an analyst with the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based
policy research organization, says that persuading Erdogan not to
move on Manbij will likely prove extremely difficult. He argues one
of the driving factors behind the offensive is Erdogan’s goal of
“galvanizing [Turkish] nationalists ahead of critical 2019
elections.”
Syrian
Kurds have accused both the U.S. and Russia of stepping aside when it
comes to Afrin, which has an estimated population of more than
300,000 after having been swelled by refuges from other parts of
war-torn Syria. Russian advisers were based in Afrin but were
withdrawn by Moscow just days before Operation Olive Branch was
launched. Erdogan claimed last week that he and Russian President
Vladimir Putin have an agreement over the Turkish incursion.
A
Kurdish official told al-Sharq al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned pan-Arab
newspaper, that the Kremlin brokered a meeting between the YPG and
the Syrian government 48 hours before the Turkish offensive. He said
the Kurds were told to hand over Afrin to President Assad as a way to
avoid a Turkish attack and it was when they refused that the Russian
military advisers were removed from Afrin.
FILE
- Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) chat with
members of U.S. forces in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish
border, Syria, April 29, 2017.
FILE
- Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) chat with
members of U.S. forces in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish
border, Syria, April 29, 2017.
Russia
has been wooing the Kurds but appears now to have chosen the Turks in
the conflict with the Kurds. Russian analysts say Turkey is more
important in Moscow’s plans for ending the Syria conflict in a way
that benefits its ally Assad.
“Afrin’s
defenders have a poor hand to play,” according to Aron Lund, an
analyst at the Century Foundation, a New York-based think tank. He
says that while the Turks risk getting bogged down during the
offensive and the YPG could drag out an insurgency, the Syrian Kurds
face a powerful foe in Turkey “whose goal is not to win concessions
but to destroy it.” Kurdish leaders may have no option but “to
negotiate with Moscow and Damascus, self-interested actors whose
assistance will come at a steep price, if at all,” he says.
Operation
Olive Branch is enjoying widespread public support in Turkey. Three
of the country’s four main parties support the incursion amid a
media frenzy backing the offensive. Ankara has moved against critics,
and dozens who oppose the offensive, including at least five
journalists, have been detained. Erdogan has pledged to “crush
anyone who opposes our nationalist struggle.”
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