{"id":16024,"date":"2018-09-23T01:22:51","date_gmt":"2018-09-23T01:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=16024"},"modified":"2018-09-23T01:22:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-23T01:22:51","slug":"turkey-may-launch-new-offensive-against-us-backed-kurdish-militia-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=16024","title":{"rendered":"Turkey may launch new offensive against US-backed Kurdish militia in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nANKARA: Turkey\u00a0is gearing up for a military offensive on Tal Abyad in Syria, according to some news reports, with video footage showing the Turkish military deploying troops near its border town Akcakale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nExperts interviewed by Arab News noted that the military deployment to the Syrian border with many tanks and howitzers was aimed at putting additional pressure on the US to accelerate the implementation of a roadmap endorsed by Turkey and the US in June for the northern Syrian city of Manbij.<\/p>\n

\nA recent agreement between Ankara and Moscow that forestalled a full-scale Syrian regime offensive against the Syrian province of Idlib also triggered Turkey\u2019s ambitious military activities along the border.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nTurkey maintains its regional alliance with Russia as leverage against US support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, seen as a domestic security threat to Turkey due to their links with the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state for more than three decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAnd the Manbij roadmap between Turkey and the US consists of the withdrawal of the YPG from the city to stabilize the region.<\/p>\n

\nTal Abyad, an Arab-majority town located to the north of Raqqa city and near the Turkish border, was captured from Daesh in 2015 by the YPG in an offensive supported by US-led airstrikes. The YPG remains a reliable American partner in Syria.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nA potential operation in Tal Abyad, if it happens, would likely mark a new phase in Turkey\u2019s military intervention in Syria by directly clashing with the YPG on the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nMete Sohtaoglu, an analyst on Syrian politics, expects Turkey\u2019s operation in Tal Abyad to start by March 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cTurkey\u2019s main objective is to wipe out all YPG presence in the east of the Euphrates. The details of the operation, if it occurs, will become clear following an upcoming meeting between Turkish and American presidents,\u201d he told Arab News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe operation is expected to begin from Turkey\u2019s southeastern border town of Suruc, then will specifically include the zone between Tal Abyad and Kobani cantons,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAlthough not officially confirmed, Trump and Erdogan are likely to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly\u2019s 73rd session, which will begin on Sept. 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAccording to Sohtaoglu, the prime condition for the US to address Ankara\u2019s concerns and withdraw its support for the YPG would be a change of policy by Turkey about Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAnkara recently gave the green light for military cooperation with Washington in Syria. Since June 18, US and Turkish troops have been conducting \u201ccoordinated independent patrols\u201d to the north of Manbij as part of the roadmap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIn a press conference on Friday, Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin announced that Turkey would soon start joint training and patrols with the US in the Syrian Kurdish-held town of Manbij, but said Washington\u2019s continuous arms support of the YPG was unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\nThe US State Department omitted the YPG and its political wing the Democratic Union Party (PYD) from its 2017 Country Reports on Terrorism, which was released on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\nHowever, some experts do not expect any decrease of US support to its local partner YPG, while mobilizing the forces alongside the border is a tactical move.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI don\u2019t expect an imminent and direct military operation to Tal Abyad. I think the recent military reinforcement intends to put pressure on the US to quickly operationalize the joint roadmap on Manbij, another Kurdish-held province,\u201d Oytun Orhan, a Syria expert at the Ankara-based think-tank ORSAM, told Arab News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nOrhan thinks that Turkey\u2019s tactical move would change the local balance in Tal Abyad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt would create a sense that the Turkish army wants to enter the area and would incite some rebels. The removal of YPG from this province would undermine the terror group\u2019s aim to create an integrated zone in this region because it will break the geographical continuity between the cantons,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nFurther increasing its geographical importance, Tal Abyad is located on an intermediate point between the major cantons of Kobani and Qamishli.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nOrhan said that Turkey already had the support of Arab tribes that took refuge in Turkey from Tal Abyad, and Ankara\u2019s ability to rally this support in an Arab-majority town would force the US to reconsider its alliance with the YPG.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIn the past, the Arab tribes that took shelter in Turkey often expressed their willingness to take part in an Turkish operation to Tal Abyad if Ankara supports them,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nLast year in March, Turkey convened a meeting of about 50 Sunni Arab tribal leaders in the Turkish southeastern province of Sanliurfa that lies to the north of Tal Abyad, and their position against the YPG was put on the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANKARA: Turkey\u00a0is gearing up for a military offensive on Tal Abyad in Syria, according to some news reports, with video footage showing the Turkish military deploying troops near its border town Akcakale.\u00a0 Experts interviewed by Arab News noted that the military deployment to the Syrian border with many tanks and howitzers was aimed at putting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":16025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}