{"id":27268,"date":"2018-12-28T22:22:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T22:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27268"},"modified":"2018-12-28T22:22:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T22:22:49","slug":"turkish-syrian-forces-edge-close-to-each-other-in-manbij","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27268","title":{"rendered":"Turkish, Syrian forces edge close to each other in Manbij"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nANKARA: With Syrian regime forces\u2019 entry into the strategic northwestern city of Manbij on Friday amid Turkey\u2019s massing of troops along the countries\u2019 border, strategic cards are being redistributed.<\/p>\n

\nIsolated by the US announcement of a full withdrawal from Syria, the Kurdish militia that controls the area recently asked the regime for help ahead of a potential Turkish offensive.<\/p>\n

\nThe Syrian national flag has reportedly been raised in the center of Manbij, which is located on the western bank of the Euphrates river and about 30 km south of the Turkish-Syrian border.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara considers the Syrian-Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG) an extension of the Turkish Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK), which is outlawed in Turkey and has waged a bloody insurgency for more than three decades. Moscow does not regard the YPG as a terrorist group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nTurkey\u2019s Defense Ministry said the YPG cannot make statements on behalf of the region\u2019s people or \u201cinvite other elements\u201d to take control of it.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara said regime forces\u2019 entry into Manbij is a \u201cpsychological act,\u201d but Moscow said it is a positive step for the region\u2019s stability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nA high-level Turkish delegation \u2014 comprising the defense minister, foreign minister, national intelligence chief and presidential adviser \u2014 will head to Moscow on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nRussia will also host the leaders of Iran and Turkey early next year to discuss the Syrian conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nNihat Ali Ozcan, a security analyst at Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, said he does not anticipate a direct clash between Turkish and Syrian regime troops. \u201cIt\u2019s more likely that the Ankara-supported Free Syrian Army (FSA) and regime forces may fight,\u201d he told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\nThe FSA, which has moved to the outskirts of Manbij, is expected to be an essential part of a potential Turkish military offensive. Ozcan said Ankara will not react ahead of the meeting with Russian officials.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara will ask Moscow to allow it to use Syrian airspace, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reported on Friday. But experts say if not managed properly, the crisis may deepen in the coming days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIf the Syrian regime goes eastward to limit the movement of Turkey and the FSA, it may lead to a clash between Turkey and Syria, and subsequently between Turkey on the one hand, and Russia and Iran on the other,\u201d Ozcan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nRussian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Wednesday said Moscow and Ankara are in close coordination over Syria, \u201cincluding military counterterrorist operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nTimur Akhmetov, a researcher at the Russian International Affairs Council, told Arab News that if Moscow encourages the Syrian regime to retake Manbij, it would be a sign of Russian mistrust of Turkey\u2019s intentions in northern Syria.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nSoner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute, said a clash between Turkish and Syrian regime forces is very unlikely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe regime wants to take back all of Syria, and Turkey wants Rojava (a semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northeast Syria) to disappear. The regime is overwhelming Rojava as it takes the rest of the country. Ankara will just sit and watch this from the sidelines,\u201d he told Arab News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAnkara has prioritized restraining Kurdish nationalist ambitions in regions bordering southeast Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nCagaptay said what happens in Manbij will be the blueprint for what happens elsewhere in Rojava.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANKARA: With Syrian regime forces\u2019 entry into the strategic northwestern city of Manbij on Friday amid Turkey\u2019s massing of troops along the countries\u2019 border, strategic cards are being redistributed. Isolated by the US announcement of a full withdrawal from Syria, the Kurdish militia that controls the area recently asked the regime for help ahead of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27268","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\/27268","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=27268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}