MESOP NEWS BACKGROUNDER: THE HAKAN FIDAN (MIT) MEETING IN MOSCOW

Turkey Attacks Kurds as Assad Regime Takes Advantage

By Scott Lucas – eawolrview – January 21, 2018  – The Turkish military began airstrikes on a Kurdish canton in northwest Syria on Saturday, while the Assad regime and its allies took advantage by moving into a base in opposition-held Idlib Province.

Turkish F-16 warplanes pounded parts of the Afrin canton, a day after Ankara launched the promised offensive with scores of artillery shells on positions of the Kurdish YPG militia. The Turkish military said about 108 targets were struck, while Free Syrian Army rebels moved to a frontline on the Afrin border. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said “necessary activities” would be carried out on the ground from Sunday.The Government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave the ironic label “Operation Olive Branch” to the attacks, repeating its declaration that it was eliminating a “terror force” from the Turkish-Syrian border.

Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Unionist Party (PYD) and its YPG militia to be part of the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK, which has battling the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK for more than 30 years.The YPG said the strikes killed six civilians and three fighters, one from the YPG and two from its all-female affiliate YPJ. The attacks also wounded 13 civilians, a spokesman said.

“We will defeat this aggression, like we have defeated other such assaults,” the YPG asserted.

Hevi Mustafa, a senior member of Afrin’s civilian administration, said, “Most of the wounded are civilians. There are clashes. There’s artillery and shelling. Our units are fiercely responding to this occupation.”

As the airstrikes were announced, Russia confirmed that it withdrew its military personnnel from the area. The head of Turkish General Staff, Gen. Hulusi Akar, and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan visited Moscow on Thursday to discuss the impending operations with Russian counterparts.The Pentagon repeated the US line, “We encourage all parties to avoid escalation and to focus on the most important task of defeating ISIS.”

Turkey’s decision to attack was spurred last week by revelation of a US plan to train a 30,000-strong border force, half of which would be drawn from the US-supported, YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stepped back from the proposal, claiming it had been “misrepresented”, after a discussion with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, but Erdoğan used the incident to say Turkey will “drown” the “terror army” building on its border.

Erdoğan pointed at the US as he announced the latest operations in a speech to members of the ruling AKP on Saturday:

If there are some today who think that we will withdraw from our struggle for our independence and future when threatened with ‘we could lose soldiers’ and who think they will be able to persuade us to take what they dole out to us, it is our duty to show that they are mistaken.A State Department official said Rex Tillerson spoke to Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday.

A Pentagon spokesman assured that the US, despite its backing of the Syrian Democratic Forces, recognised Turkey’s security concerns about the PKK, noting that the US has designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization.

Pro-Assad Forces Move Into Abu Duhour Base

A pro-Assad offensive took advantage of the shifting battlefield to move into the Abu Duhour airbase in southeast Idlib Province, after weeks of assaults and a recent rebel counter-offensive.Pro-Assad outlets posted photographs of troops inside the base, apparently after Turkish-supported rebels had pulled back.  Through the winter the pro-Assad offensive — defying a Russian-proclaimed de-escalation zone — re-entered Idlib Province, almost of all which was taken by the opposition in spring 2015, and closed within 2 km (1.2 miles) of Abu Duhour. However, earlier this month the Turkish-supported rebel counter-offensive pushed the pro-Assad forces back, capturing a series of villages.

The sudden advance of pro-Assad units on Saturday raised speculation of a deal between Turkey and Russia. Ankara was given a free hand, with the Free Syrian Army, to move on Afrin. In return, Turkey and the rebels were to pull back from Abu Duhur and nearby points. www.mesop.de