A new Turkish operation is firmly rejected, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in conversation with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar, according to a Pentagon statement. Recent airstrikes there have already directly endangered the safety of US personnel. According to Ankara, Akar said in the conversation that the target of the action was “terrorists”.
For nearly two weeks, Turkey has been carrying out airstrikes in northern Iraq and northern Syria against the Syrian-Kurdish militia YPG and the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had also threatened a ground offensive. Ankara blames the YPG and PKK for an attack in Istanbul in mid-November. Both groups rejected this.
The US is working with Kurdish militias in Syria in the fight against the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS). There is therefore great concern that the Kurdish militias will retreat in the event of a Turkish offensive and that IS can become stronger as a result. A ground offensive would “seriously jeopardize the world’s hard-won gains against ISIS and destabilize the region,” Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said a few days ago.
Turkey has launched four military offensives in northern Syria since 2016. According to the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Turkey does not want to clarify the “Kurdish question” along its borders with its military superiority, but rather “destroy the entire political and military movement of the Kurds”. Turkey justifies its actions with a “terrorist threat” to the country from Syria and Iraq.
Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s main ally in the Syrian civil war, had also recently demanded restraint from Turkey.
(SDA)