Erdogan warns European Union as Turkish offensive in Syria enters Day-2

Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the European Union (EU) that he would let millions of Syrian refugees cross into the bloc if it criticized the military operations as the Turkish offensive in Syria, launched by him aimed at pushing the Kurdish forces away from its border, entered its second day on Thursday. Erdogan also claimed the Turkish army had killed 109 Kurdish fighters on the first day of the country’s invasion of northern Syria.

The operation dubbed Peace Spring by the Turkish government began Wednesday at around 4 pm local time with air raids and shelling while a ground offensive, involving Turkish soldiers and allied Syrian rebels, began at 11.30 p.m., Efe news reported. Addressing his AKP party, Erdogan said Turkish troops had killed 109 “terrorists” and had captured several YPG fighters. The YPG, a Kurdish militia known officially as the People’s Protection Units, had been a key United States ally in the fight against the Islamic State in northern Syria but Ankara views them as indistinguishable from its more habitual enemies, the Kurdistan’s Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency in southeast Turkey. The Turkish government refers to the YPG as a terror group. “We will bring peace and security to wherever we want to go,” Erdogan told party members in a televised speech. “The operation continues in the region of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn,” he added, in reference to two of the cities where the Turkish forces began their operations on Wednesday.

The military invasion of northern Syria, which came after United States President Donald Trump decided to withdraw American troops from the region, has been met with criticism. Erdogan reacted to this with a pointed threatening to the EU: “I say it again. If you try to label this operation as an invasion, it’s very simple, we will open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way.” Turkish authorities want the “safe zone” to extend 32 km into northern Syria, stretching from the Euphrates River to the Iraqi border. As well as using the area to re-home some of the roughly four million Syrian refugees in Turkey, the government wants to avoid the creation of a Kurdish statelet along its border. Erdogan accused Brussels of not upholding its end of a financial deal that in 2016 destined funds to Ankara in exchange for Turkey controlling the flow of migrants into Europe.

US President Donald Trump’s announcement that American troops would withdraw from northern Syria effectively green-lighted Erdogan’s plans to establish a “safe zone”. (IANS)

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