After Donald Trump’s announcement that US troops would withdraw from northern Syria, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave permission to start a military operation in the region. This invasion will bring to the creation of a 32km-deep safe zone, to stabilize the area and to fight terrorist groups, belonging to Kurdish organisations and Isis.
Turkish military forces have been stationed for days at the border between the two countries, and the order to proceed was given today after a phone call between the US and Turkish presidents.
On Twitter, Erdogan stated “The mission is to prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border, and to bring peace to the area”/ He added that this operation will “preserve Syria’s territorial integrity and liberate local communities from terrorists”.
On the other hand, this operation is causing a surging number of critiques. US western allies and even US Republican Parties members have strongly criticised Trump’s decision, but the toughest protest is coming from the Kurdish side.
Indeed, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) denounced attacks to civil areas by Turkish warplanes, creating “huge panic among people”. According to them, rather than liberating local communities from terrorists, the invasion is putting at risk, their long battle against Isis, since many terrorists are imprisoned in the area and may now be liberated.
The SDF have lost an estimated 11,000 fighters in battling Isis and they succeeded thanks to the Americans’ help. Kurds represented the main opposition to Isis expansion and fought on the frontline, also defending a West, which now they consider to be abandoning them.
In the meantime, Syrian forces are moving below the hypothetical “safe zone” and Kurds are now located between two armies. The general situation is quickly changing, while Syria is falling again into chaos.
#Peace.Love.Syria
