Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan announced that the Turkish military is going to create a 5,000-sq-km safe zone within Syria, expanding its operations against ISIS deeper into the Arab country.
“As part of the Euphrates Shield operation, an area of 900 sq km has been cleared of terror so far. This area is pushing south,” Reuters cites Erdogan. “We may extend this area to 5,000 sq km as part of a safe zone.”
Erdogan said that the Turkish forces are aiming to capture the ISIS-controlled town of Al-Bab, located in about 50km north-east of Aleppo city. This move is also clearly aimed against the Kurdish forces in Syria.
“Jarablus and Al-Rai have been cleansed, now we are moving towards Al-Bab… We will go there and stop [ISIS] from being a threat to us.”
Despite the fact that Turkish plans for safe or even no-fly zones in Syria have been questioned by the country’s allies, it seems that the Erdogan regime is set to continue operations inside the country.
Who cares , do you care ,?, I don’t care.
The Syrian people who are being blown to bits care.
Al Bab is very close to Aleppo , ISIS and FSA seem to be interchangeable . We will soon see what Erdogan is really up to .
If he really wants to recreate the Ottoman Empire. he’ll need to take all of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel (good luck!), Jordan, and parts of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. But I guess he needs to start somewhere.
He is invading unlawfully…whatta war mongering pig.
What are the other 53 countries doing in Syria? Invading ones airspace and raining down missiles is no different to invading by land. Seeking to carve out Statelets within Syria so that you can create satellite States is also an invasion. Now when it comes to Turkey; everyone seems to conveniently forget that Turkey as the Successor State to the Ottoman Empire has certain rights in Syria pursuant to the Treaty of Ankara (Traité d’Ankara), 20 October 1921. Turkey also has a Sovereign enclave within Syrian territory which it has the right to protect and transit to and from (through Syrian territory). Turkey also has the right to self-defence; that is the right not to be bombed by ISIS or PYD/YPG/PKK.
turkey is violating sovereign territory as well. Turkey has the right to stay out of Syria.
What was the US doing in Iraq? What did the US and coalition forces do to the President of Iraq? Who gave the US the authority to invade Iraq and install a puppet Government? Who created the Kurdistan Regional Government?
Whereas, Turkey on the other hand has international Treaty rights in Mosul and Kirkuk (under the Treaty of Ankara and the Treaty of Lausanne): being the former colonial power only 90 years ago. It also has the right to self-defence as the PKK and ISIS use Northern Iraq territory as a staging ground to attack Turkey.
What the Iraqi Government does not understand is that they are falling into a huge trap by asking Turkish troops to withdraw from a base approved by the Iraqi Government itself in the past. Turkey will view and cite this as the Iraqi Government supporting terrorism against Turkey and use it as a pretext to also intervene in Iraq with Russian backing. Putin and Erdogan have agreements and a vision for the Middle East which the West has not yet deciphered. They have agreed to jointly control the region.
‘900 sq km has been cleared of terror so far’, to be replaced with turkish terror no doubt.