Turkey primed to start offensive against US-backed Kurds in Syria

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Turkey primed to start offensive against US-backed Kurds in Syria

President Erdoğan’s planned attack on militias he sees as terrorists risks row with Trump

Bethan McKernan and Martin Chulov
Wed 12 Dec 2018 19.01 GMT

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said that Turkey will launch a military operation against the Kurds in northern Syria within days, in a decision that could signal a shift in Turkish-US relations and have far-reaching consequences for Syria’s future.

Long frustrated by US support for Kurdish militias that Turkey views as terrorists, Erdoğan has threatened to push deeper into north-eastern Syria since sending Turkish forces into the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in February.

The president said during a televised speech in Ankara on Wednesday that the operation was imminent. “We will begin our operation to free the east of the Euphrates (river) from the separatist organisation within a few days,” he told MPs. “Our target is not the American soldiers – it is the terror organisations that are active in the region.”

Erdoğan also expressed disappointment that US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria had not left the town of Manbij, as agreed in a US-Turkish deal brokered this year. “The Americans are not being honest; they are still not removing terrorists (from Manbij),” he said. “Therefore, we will do it.”

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/12/turkey-primed-to-start-offensive-against-us-backed-kurds-in-syria

[Turbineguy]

1. Trump has too many other problems to oppose this.

Turkey needs to come to some sort of arrangement with the Kurds. It's better for Turkey.