Turkey-Syria Border Once Again in Turmoil

On August 7, 2019, Turkish and US military officials agreed to set up a safe zone in northern Syria and construct a cease-fire passage to enable the placement of evacuated Syrians who want to return to their country.

Turkish administration has alleged that the US was not doing enough to protect the safe zone, which could accompany up to 3 million Syrian refugees who escaped the civil war since 2011. Turkey presently accommodates 3.6 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country. Ankara has so far spent $40 billion on the evacuees, according to official data.

“We made our preparations. When necessary, we can take matters into our own hands,” Turkey's Minister of Defense, Hulusi Akar said at the opening ceremony of Istanbul's National Defense University. “We need to establish a safe zone, a peace corridor, free of heavy weapons and terrorists along the border some 30-40 kilometers deep into Syria, east of the Euphrates River,” Akar stated.

“We will never allow the creation of a terrorist corridor in northern Syria, everybody should know that,” he added. “Our ultimate goal is to end the [terrorist] PKK/PYD/YPG presence in northern Syria, to establish a peace corridor and to ensure that our Syrian brothers and sisters in our country return home.”

Although both NATO associates, Turkey and US have had disagreements in the past, following Trump's policy to raise tariffs on a number of Turkish products. The US which has protected and fought alongside the Kurdish forces in the Syrian war, feel as if they are abandoning the Kurds at the hands of the Turkish army. Due to this political and military whirlpool, Trump made a stern and demanding statement via twitter, essentially warning Ankara to not take advantage of his decision: “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!).”

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman stated, "the Department of Defense made clear to Turkey - as did the president - that we do not endorse a Turkish operation in Northern Syria".

As predicted, Trump faced a backlash from Washington, particularly Nancy Pelosi the Democrat Speaker of the House of Representatives issued a statement, “The President’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Northern Syria is a deeply disturbing development that betrays our Kurdish allies who have been instrumental partners in our mission to eradicate ISIS…”

By Beka Alexishvili

Image Source: Aljazeera