Othman Sheikh Issa, co-chair of the Afrin executive council reading the self-administration statement.
On March 18, the Kurdish self-administration in the Afrin area announced in an official statement that its forces will shift its strategy against the Turkish Army and the Free Syrian Army from a direct confrontation to guerrilla tactics.
“Our forces are present all over Afrin’s geography. These forces will strike the positions of the Turkish enemy and its mercenaries at every opportunity …Our forces all over Afrin will become a constant nightmare for them,” Othman Sheikh Issa, co-chair of the Afrin executive council, said in a televised statement, according to Reuters.
The Kurdish self-administration once again criticized Russia and accused it of “actively” participating in the Turkish attack on Afrin by “opening the [Syrian] airspace” for Turkey. The administration even said that Russia had “sacrificed the people for its interests in Syria.”
Russia had kept several units of its military police in the Afrin area for more than a year and participated in a long negotiation between the self-administration in the area and the Damascus government. However, the self-administration controlled by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) had rejected all Russian suggestions over the course of the negotiations.
Local observers doubt that the Kurdish forces will be able to carry out any serious military operations against the Turkish Army in the Afrin area anymore. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have fully collapsed in the area and withdrawn from the city of Afrin without a real fight.
