Turkey is preparing to launch a new military operation in northern Syria. Announced a few days earlier by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the plans for a cross-border incursion were endorsed on Thursday, May 26, by the Security Council, made up of civilian and military leaders.
No date has been given but the press release published at the end of the meeting leaves no doubt. “Existing and new operations to be carried out aim to rid our southern borders of the terrorist threat. »
The existing operations are those that the Turkish army is currently carrying out in northern Iraq in order to dislodge the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, separatist, banned in Turkey), against which Ankara has been at war for forty years. Those ” to bring “ will be in northern Syria. They will aim to drive out the Syrian Kurdish fighters YPG, supported by the United States but considered as “terrorists” by Turkey.
Three incursions into Syria since 2016
President Erdogan said it, “We must finish what has been started”i.e. extend the “safe zone”, 30 kilometers deep, conquered by the Turkish army and its Syrian auxiliaries over the course of previous interventions (2016, 2018, 2019). This is to take control of the strip of land that remains, 458 kilometers long between the region of Afrin, conquered by the Turks in 2018, and the city of Kamisli, in the East, where the Russian army has an air base.
At the heart of this strip of land is the city of Kobané, recaptured in 2014 by Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters after being besieged by the Islamic State organization (IS). Ten days ago, a Turkish military post suffered a mortar attack launched from Kobani, according to the Turkish Ministry of Defense, which had ordered reprisals after the death of a soldier.
By launching his army to attack the territories held by Syrian Kurdish fighters, Mr. Erdogan hopes for fallout. He intends to revive the nationalist feeling of the electorate and at the same time bail out his declining popularity about a year from a crucial deadline, the presidential election scheduled for June 2023, which he does not approach as a favorite.
Already used for electoral purposes in the past, the military operations in northern Syria have been able to reinforce its aura. The Turkish army has carried out three incursions into northern Syria since 2016, mainly against US-allied Kurdish fighters.
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