Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced on Friday that, once the Turkish military has successfully occupied Syria’s Afrin District, and cleared it of Kurdish “terrorists,” it would be handed over to its “real owners.”
He was a bit vague on who that was, beyond “Syrians,” and it’s not clear if that means whatever non-Kurdish Syrians live in the Afrin District, or if it simply means they’ll hand it over to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels.
In Turkey’s previous invasion of northern Syria, in which they seized part of Aleppo Province from ISIS, they handed over all that territory ultimately to the FSA and its allied rebel factions.
This could be increasingly problematic for Syria’s government, as the Kurds hold about 25% of the country, and Turkey intends to invade all of that. If that all ends up rebel territory it potentially greatly extends the Syrian War.
“Real owners” could mean the Syrian government. Not.
It might be a bargaining chip – they want to force the Syrian government to cooperate in their war on the Kurds.
No it’s a Sunni Muslim Erdogan that wants his Sunni proxy force F.S.A. inside Syria equipped and ready for action as his own buffer between Assad’s Shiite militias supported by Iran and Hezbollah. To call it or pretend it’s anything else is insane. Everyone with eyes and a brain can see what’s happening and put it together from the action Turkey is taking and the comments it’s government is making.
That’s not completely clear to me, in that Turkey doesn’t have bad relations with Iran now. More significantly, Erdogan had infinite opportunities in the past 6 years of the war to go in like this and force the collapse of the Syrian government. He never took them. Turkey helped the rebels, but that was more doing a favour to the CIA, not so much his own objective. Turkey always insisted upon maintaining the integrity of the Syrian state, and has talked about the possibility of improving relations with the Syrian government. The stumbling block always seems to have been the Kurds.
Turkey had the opportunities but the whole point was to do it undercover without the international community taking notice. But once the cat was out of the bag and Trukey was thrown under the bus and exposed by the Ru.ss for sponsoring terror, they owe to its neighbors a huge favor and an “Olive Brach” to Ass.ad.
Nevertheless, they’re going after the Kurds and the Americans, not after the Shia and Baathists. It would be most illogical for Turkey to be attacking American sponsored forces if they want to undermine the Syrian government. They’re strengthening the Syrian government and Shia militias by driving out the Americans.
Logic has no place in Middle East politics. Tur.key made an about face to overthrowing Ass.ad because they got caught by their neighbors for doing it. The Ru.ss exposed them on the international stage.
This was never about Shite vs Sunni.
Why do you think Turkey was the mastermind trying to overthrow the Syrian government? I think they were just playing along to make their allies happy. Israel and he CIA wanted the Syrian government overthrown. Turkey just wanted to hit the Kurds.
I agree. I don’t think they were the masterminds but they made a deal with the Saudis and the galactic empire to get the spoils of war not to mention a promise of a pipeline going through Turkey to the Mediterranean after Ass.ad fell.
But when that deal didn’t go through because of the multinational defense Syria got not to mention NATO not backing them after they shutdown the Ru.ssian jet, it was clear they signed up on a bad deal.
Turkey is willing to extend an “olive branch” to Ass.ad government because he is far more safer than having 30 to 40K armed Kurds sitting under their belly.
The U.S. and Turkey were destined to shadow-war over Kurdish destiny; its a waypoint on the road to finish with Russia and dominate the World Heartland, the natural seat of a world empire.
Erdogan’s actions are no surprise to anyone familiar with MacKinderan-Spykman geopolitical imperatives. This particular segment of Spykman’s rimland arc of instability is prone to be hot thanks to Sykes-Picot deliberately not making a Kurdistan.
Col. Ralph Peters infamous map of a remade Middle East has a Kurdistan plunked in the middle with half of Turkey. Its one of many NATO wargame scenarios, and, Turkey is a NATO member and probably understands its not all ‘just joking, its a sim’; its real.
“Plans for Redrawing the Middle East: The Project for a “New Middle East”” – Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Nov. 18 2006, GlobalResearch. ca
There are lots of ME maps showing the distribution of the Kurds. They have patches of Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Armenia. Anywhere from a third to half of Turkey is mixed Kurdish.
“Here’s The New Kurdish Country That Could Emerge Out Of The Iraq Crisis” – Jeremy Bender, Jun. 19, 2014, Businessinsider. com
Most critically, Kurdish Eastern Turkey just happens to encompass the headwaters of both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The region is also called the Amenian Highlands – no Armenians there now of course. Some Kurds of the Armenian Genocide era were very helpful with that, siding then with the Turkish government.
Turkey’s lock on ME water has been understood for decades, especially by the U.S.. The key to unlocking that lies with the Kurds; fears of Kurdish rebellion have been tacitly stoked by the West.
“The World; Where Kurds Seek a Land, Turks Want the Water” – Stephen Kinzer, Feb. 28, 1999, NYtimes. com
Turkey doubtless believes must act to prevent the Kurds from becoming independently empowered by the U.S. and NATO and turning against them – and every other country in the ME with a Kurdish minority.
Ocalan’s Rojava was a non-statist entity and the only non-mercenary Kurdish vision, their best hope for peace, and it died the moment they accepted American intervention and to be American proxies.
The U.S./Israel/NATO militarists would ultimately want a client Kurdistan state, not a Rojava, better yet, an informal client state like the IS was that doesn’t have to live on CIA ratlines and more naturally has world sympathy.
Hence the name Operation Olive Branch…
Clever of Erdogan, if so.
I figured it was the local wood used for a switch.
This has also been interpreted by the Kurds as a threat of ethnic cleansing. I’m not sure if that is a fair understanding or gross propaganda, but it deserves to be addressed and resolved.
There are a lot of Kurds who live in Afrin. However, they are of Syrian nationality so the Syrian government should be responsible for their security.
Manbij is Syrian territory, not Turkey’s.
Tell Turkey to gobble gobble gobble back to its own territory.
But the Syrians aren’t strong enough to repel the Turkish Army and the Kurds will be chased out so the way will be clear for Al Queda to operate. and for US forces to oversee them.