{"id":53105,"date":"2019-10-15T19:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T13:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=53105"},"modified":"2019-10-15T16:36:04","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T11:06:04","slug":"7-pm-turkeys-attacks-on-kurds-in-syria-15th-october-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-turkeys-attacks-on-kurds-in-syria-15th-october-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | Turkey&#8217;s attacks on Kurds in Syria | 15th October, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context:\n<\/strong>Turkey\u2019s\nmilitary intervention in the Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More\nin news:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Turkey&#8217;s military launched a cross-border\noperation against Kurdish-led forces in Syria in early October, after US troops\nwho had been allied to the Kurds withdrew.<\/li><li>Turkey named the military incursion as\n\u201cOperation Peace Spring\u201d which aims to create a \u2018safe zone\u2019 that is 480 km wide\nand upto 35 km deep inside Syria.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Who\nare the Kurds?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Between 25 and 35 million ethnic Kurds\ninhabit a mountainous region straddling Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia.\nBut they have never had a widely recognised permanent nation state of their\nown.<\/li><li>Kurds make up between 7% and 10% of\nSyria&#8217;s population. For decades, they were suppressed and denied basic rights\nby President Bashar al-Assad.<\/li><li>Before the uprising against Mr Assad began\nin 2011 most Kurds lived in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo, and in three\nnorthern areas near the Turkish border &#8211; Afrin in the west, Kobane (Ain\nal-Arab) in the centre, and Qamishli in the east.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"325\" height=\"185\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/tur.jpg?resize=325%2C185&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53106\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>When the uprising evolved into a civil\nwar, the main Kurdish parties avoided taking sides. In 2012, government forces\nwithdrew from Kurdish areas to concentrate on fighting rebel factions\nelsewhere, and Kurdish militias took control in their wake.<\/li><li>In late 2014, the jihadist group Islamic\nState (IS) launched an assault on Kobane. The battle sparked alarm across the\nworld and a US-led multinational coalition against IS intervened by carrying\nout air strikes.<\/li><li>The biggest Kurdish militia, the People&#8217;s\nProtection Units (YPG), formed an alliance with local Arab militias called the\nSyrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2015. With the help of coalition airpower,\nweaponry and advisers, SDF fighters drove IS out of a quarter of Syria and\ncaptured its last pocket of territory in the country in March 2019. They also\nset up an &#8220;autonomous administration&#8221; to govern the region.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why\ndid Turkey launch an offensive?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Turkey had long threatened to launch an\noperation in SDF-held territory to create a 32km (20-mile) deep &#8220;safe zone&#8221;\nrunning for 480km (300 miles) along the Syrian side of the border.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"409\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/kur.jpg?resize=409%2C384&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53107\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It\nwants to push back members of the YPG, which it views as an extension of a\nKurdish rebel group that has been fighting in Turkey for decades and is\ndesignated a terrorist organisation &#8211; the Kurdistan Workers&#8217; Party (PKK).\nTurkey also hopes to resettle, in the zone, up to two million of the 3.6\nmillion Syrian refugees it is hosting.<\/li><li>In an attempt to avert an offensive, the\nUS and Turkish militaries agreed in August to set up a &#8220;security\nmechanism&#8221; on the Syrian side of border, an area that would be free of YPG\nfighters, but pointedly avoided using the term &#8220;safe zone&#8221;. <\/li><li>US and Turkish troops carried out joint\npatrols in the area and the YPG co-operated, withdrawing fighters and heavy\nweapons and dismantling fortifications.<\/li><li>But on 6 October, Turkish President Recep\nTayyip Erdogan told US President Donald Trump that a cross-border operation\nwould &#8220;soon be moving forward&#8221;.<\/li><li>US refused to support or be involved in\nthe operation.<\/li><li>On 9<sup>th<\/sup> October, Mr Erdogan\nannounced the start of &#8220;Operation Peace Spring&#8221; by the Turkish\nmilitary and allied Syrian rebel factions.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"328\" height=\"294\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/vil.jpg?resize=328%2C294&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53108\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What has been the humanitarian impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The area falling within Turkey&#8217;s\n&#8220;safe zone&#8221; is fertile plain that once served as Syria&#8217;s breadbasket.<\/li><li>When the Turkish offensive began, the UN\nsaid the potentially affected area included SDF-controlled territory that was\nhome to 2.2 million people, including 1.3 million in need of humanitarian\nassistance, and two government-controlled cities where 450,000 people live &#8211;\nQamishli and Hassakeh.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Detained\nIS fighters and their families in proposed \u2018safe zone\u2019:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"425\" height=\"334\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/pop.jpg?resize=425%2C334&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53109\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The\narea around the camps was hit by shells on 13 October as Turkish forces\nadvanced, prompting some of the 13,000 residents to flee. SDF officials\nreported that dozens of women and children being held at the camps because of\nsuspected links to IS, including British nationals, were among those who fled.<\/li><li>There were reports of unrest at al-Hol\ncamp, which is about 60km from the Turkish border and so would not be in\nTurkey&#8217;s proposed &#8220;safe zone&#8221;.<\/li><li>Some 68,000 people linked to IS are being\ndetained al-Hol. More than 94% of them are women and children, and 11,000 are\nforeign nationals.<\/li><li>Some of the prisons are in areas close to\nthe Turkish border, including Ain Issa, Qamishli and Derik.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\ncould be the consequences of Turkish military intervention?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems that Mr.\nErdogan is trying to bolster popularity. Since his party lost the June mayoral\nelections in Istanbul. He might be hoping that a successful military campaign\ncould bolster his popularity among Turks who are increasingly wary of Syrian\nrefugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such an\nintervention can have wide ranging consequences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It would complicate the end-game in Syria.<\/li><li>It could have spillovers into Europe where\na significant number of Kurds and Turks reside.<\/li><li>In the past century, the Kurdish quest for\nan elusive Kurdistan has led to their betrayal by a number of regional and\nforeign powers, of which the US is the most recent one. This sudden abandonment\nof SDF by the US would further diminish American credibility in the region.<\/li><li>SDF holds thousands of IS prisoners who\nmay flee, taking the advantage of the conflict and unleash their abhorrent\nbrand of terror.<\/li><li>The current hostilities have begun to\ncreating more refugees.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:\n<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/a-turkish-misadventure\/article29683319.ece\">https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/a-turkish-misadventure\/article29683319.ece<\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: Turkey\u2019s military intervention in the Syria. More in news: Turkey&#8217;s military launched a cross-border operation against Kurdish-led forces in Syria in early October, after US troops who had been allied to the Kurds withdrew. Turkey named the military incursion as \u201cOperation Peace Spring\u201d which aims to create a \u2018safe zone\u2019 that is 480 km&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-turkeys-attacks-on-kurds-in-syria-15th-october-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | Turkey&#8217;s attacks on Kurds in Syria | 15th October, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7-PM.png?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704855525},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}