Turkey Afrin Offensive - Operation Olive Branch | World Defense

Turkey Afrin Offensive - Operation Olive Branch

Khafee

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Turkey vows to attack Kurdish enclave in Syria within 'days'
Mr Erdogan has repeatedly accused Kurds of attempting to link Afrin with a larger Kurdish-controlled area to the east

Bloomberg
January 14, 2018


wo15-turkeyAfrin.jpg

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves to supporters of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), at a rally in Elazig, eastern Turkey on January 13 2018. Mr Erdogan has said Turkey will oust Kurdish militias from Afrin, northern Syria, as the military shelled the area from across the border. Turkey considers the YPG a terror group and an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its own borders. AP

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled Turkish forces may soon carry out an attack on a Kurdish stronghold in northwest Syria, a day after the army shelled the area.

Turkey regards the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) who control Afrin as a terrorist group with links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has long battled for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast. The Kurds received US backing in their fight against ISIL in Syria and the policy of arming them stoked tension between the NATO allies.

“In coming days, we will continue our operations in Afrin to clear our southern border” of terrorists, Mr Erdogan told a meeting of his party in Tokat province on Sunday. Turkish officials vowed similar action on several occasions last year.

Mr Erdogan added that he’s waiting for backing from allies, without elaborating. Turkey’s National Security Council, which advises on military actions, is scheduled to meet on January 17.

Mr Erdogan has repeatedly accused the YPG of attempting to link Afrin with a large Kurdish-controlled area to the east. Turkey launched its Euphrates Shield offensive in northern Syria in 2016 to push back ISIL from its border and block the convergence of the Kurdish-run regions.

An earlier peacekeeping deployment in Idlib, to the south of Afrin, denied the Kurds access to the Mediterranean Sea -- a prized target for a planned Kurdish corridor running all the way to northern Iraq.

The Turkey-PKK conflict has killed an estimated 40,000 people since 1984 and the resumption of hostilities in July 2015 killed more than 3,300 people, including state security forces, militants and civilians.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/me...kurdish-enclave-in-syria-within-days-1.695304
 

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Syria Considers US Plan on Creating Border Security Force 'Blatant Aggression'

The Syrian Foreign Ministry has slammed Washington's intention to form a 30,000-strong force inside the country with the proclaimed goal of maintaining security along its borders. The Syrian Army is poised to put an end to any form of US presence in the country, a Syrian foreign ministry source said, according to state TV.
Syria has condemned Washington's announcement of the formation of an armed militia in the northeast of the country, and regards this move a “blatant aggression on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and a flagrant violation of international law,” the foreign ministry said, as quoted by SANA.
Col. Thomas Veale, public affairs officer of the US-led coalition fighting against Daesh, said in an interview with The Defense Post news outlet that the coalition, supported by the Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Force (SDF), was working to establish a 30,000-strong force to maintain security along Syria's borders. The statement prompted Ankara's threats to launch an offensive in Kurdish-controlled Afrin in the country's north to purge terror from Turkey's southern borders.
READ MORE: Russia May 'Undertake Measures' After US Decision on Border Force in Syria
The United States-led international coalition has been operating in Syria since 2014, conducting airstrikes and establishing military bases without either UN endorsement or with Damascus' agreement. Syria has repeatedly spoken against the coalition's unauthorized presence as aggression against its integrity and statehood. The coalition's actions have led to civilian casualties.
READ MORE: US 'Playing With Fire' by Building 'Terrorist Army' in Syria — Turkish Deputy PM

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201801151060757592-syria-us-kurds-aggression/
 

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Ankara Retaliates With Artillery Fire at Afrin After Kurdish YPG Missile Attacks
15.01.2018


Turkey's President Erdogan vowed Sunday to "purge terrorism" from the country's southern borders, adding that he plans to launch an assault against Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) in Syria's Kurdish Afrin enclave "in the coming days."

Turkish armed forces have shelled YPG units' strongholds in the city of Afrin in response to rocket fire from northern Syria, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Monday.

According to the media, on Sunday night, YPG militias fired a large number of missiles targeting settlements in the bordering to Turkey Syrian region of Azaz controlled by the opposition Free Syrian Army. The assaults caused material damage, but there were no reports of casualties. Ankara's forces, which were deployed in northern Syria after the completion of its anti-terrorist Operation Euphrates Shield, conducted punitive strikes at YPG targets in Afrin.

Turkey has been shelling the Afrin district of Aleppo targeting the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) for three days in a row, with the Turkish army sending military equipment to the country's border with Syria under strict security measures. The latest attack comes amid Ankara's statement that it plans to carry out a military operation in the northwestern Syrian regions of Manbij and Afrin controlled by Kurdish militia forces.
Ankara considers the YPG militia to be a terrorist organization since it is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), banned in the country. Previously, Ankara had repeatedly condemned Washington for military support of supporting and supplying arms to Syrian Kurds, however, Erdogan expressed hope that the US would not "take sides with" the YPG militias during the upcoming operation in Afrin.

https://sptnkne.ws/g3sB
 

Khafee

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US 'Playing With Fire' by Building 'Terrorist Army' in Syria - Turkish Deputy PM
© Sputnik/ Hikmet Durgun

15 Jan 2018

The plans of the US-led coalition to form new "Border Defense Force" have sparked angry reaction from Turkey as Ankara has repeatedly accused the US of arming some of Syrian Kurds, which the Turkish side regards as terrorist groups.

The US is creating a "terrorist army" under the guise of border security forces in northern Syria, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Monday.

"This is not the fight against Daesh and terrorism, but their support," Bozdag wrote on his Twitter page.


Ankara's resentment was prompted by the article published on the Defense Post news website on Saturday, in which the spokesman of the US-led coalition fighting against Daesh said that the coalition was engaged in training of a 30,000-strong force on the Syrian territory currently controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to maintain security in controlled area along the Syrian border.
According to the coalition, the half of the planned force will be retrained SDF fighters, an alliance of militias in Syria dominated by the Kurdish YPG (People's Protection Units), which Ankara regards as a terrorist group associated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), banned in the country.

On Sunday, a Turkish senior official told Reuters that it was reason why the US charge d'affaires was summoned in Ankara on Wednesday, as relations between Washington and Ankara remain strained due to US military support for the Kurdish YPG units.

https://sptnkne.ws/g3nQ
 

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Turkish President made his last warning :

" To our fellow allies, if you walk with terror organisations badges in Syria we will burry you together with the terrorists"!

https://www.sabah.com.tr/gundem/2018/01/15/cumhurbaskani-ankarada

Such a strong words. I hope he is not referring to the US, Germany and whoever else working with the Kurds. Trump is a monster, a big one which Erdogan can't face. Just hope Erdogan doesn't drag Turkey into such a mess.
 

Atalay

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Such a strong words. I hope he is not referring to the US, Germany and whoever else working with the Kurds. Trump is a monster, a big one which Erdogan can't face. Just hope Erdogan doesn't drag Turkey into such a mess.

We will see, if only empty words he will loose even his job as President. Trump is a toothless Shark.
 

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We will see, if only empty words he will loose even his job as President. Trump is a toothless Shark.

Trump is no toothless my friend. Every promise he made during his campaign has already fulfilled. Diplomacy is always the way to go.
 

Atalay

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Trump is no toothless my friend. Every promise he made during his campaign has already fulfilled. Diplomacy is always the way to go.

My friend, he made a U-turn in term of Climate Agreement, he didn't created penalty customs for EU-products.
Even Canada challenged him . He can only threaten Pakistan, North Korea or Turkey. Pakistan and Turkey have much to lose.
But North Korea is a beast, if he attacks KIM ; Kim will for sure ruin his own brothers in the South.
 

Lieutenant

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My friend, he made a U-turn in term of Climate Agreement, he didn't created penalty customs for EU-products.
Even Canada challenged him . He can only threaten Pakistan, North Korea or Turkey. Pakistan and Turkey have much to lose.
But North Korea is a beast, if he attacks KIM ; Kim will for sure ruin his own brothers in the South.

Those small issues you mentioned are not actually of his interest. Trump only takes, he doesn't give.
 
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