Global alarm over Turkey’s assault on Syria as ‘it risks helping Daesh’
World leaders call for restraint, but Doha throws weight behind Ankara as thousands flee fighting
Turkey pressed its assault against US-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria on Thursday for a second day, pounding the region with airstrikes and an artillery bombardment that raised columns of black smoke in a border town and sent panicked civilians scrambling to get out.
Residents fled with their belongings loaded into cars, pickup trucks and motorcycle rickshaws, while others escaped on foot. The UN refugee agency said tens of thousands were on the move, and aid agencies warned that nearly a half-million people near the border were at risk. The Turkish Army, accompanied by the Syrian National Army, reportedly reached a depth of 8 km by midnight, with some 109 YPG/ SDF militants killed during the opening movements of Operation Peace Spring.
The offensive could undermine the “enormous progress” made in the fight against Daesh, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on called Ankara to halt the operation. “If the plan involves the creation of a socalled safe zone, do not expect the EU to pay for any of it,” he said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted the EU’s stance: “If you call this operation an invasion, then we could just open the gates and send 3.6 million Syrian refugees back to Europe.”
Simon Waldman, associate fellow at the British think tank the Henry Jackson Society and visiting fellow at King’s College London, said the operation is nothing less than an attempt to kill two birds with one stone: Solving the question of the future of Syrian refugees in Turkey while also dealing with the presence of the YPG, which Ankara claims is directly affiliated with the PKK. Qatar announced its support for Ankara in a phone call between Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and his Qatari counterpart Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah. Akar told Al-Attiyah that the operation was being conducted in line with Turkey’s right of self defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Norway announced it was suspending all new arms exports to Turkey.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “I want to express my deepest concerns about the escalation of conflict in eastern Syria. It is absolutely essential to de-escalate.” French President Emmanuel Macron said the offensive risked boosting Daesh extremists. “I condemn vehemently the unilateral military offensive in Syria and I urge Turkey to put an end to it as quickly as possible. Turkey is today forgetting that the priority of the international community in Syria is the fight against Daesh and terrorism.” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi “affirmed Cairo’s rejection of the Turkish aggression on Syria’s territory and sovereignty.” Regional foreign ministers will gather in Cairo on Oct. 12 to discuss the crisis. Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “The intervention risks greater humanitarian suffering and undermines the focus on countering Daesh.”
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio summoned the Turkish ambassador and the ministry called for an end to unilateral actions. It recalled that the only lasting solution to the crisis in war-wracked Syria was through the UN.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the assault a product of US policies.