Syria cease-fire
US & Erdogan reach 5-day cease-fire deal to allow Kurd retreat
The US and Turkey reached a deal on Thursday for a five-day cease-fire in Syria so that Kurdish fighters could leave a 20-mile-deep safety zone in Syria that Turkey had demanded and would control.
The temporary agreement was announced in Ankara by Vice President Mike Pence after he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria, which came days after President Trump ordered US troops to withdraw from the area.
“I’m proud to report, thanks to the strong leadership of President Donald Trump and the strong relationship between President Erdogan and Turkey and the United States of America, that today the United States and Turkey have agreed to a cease-fire in Syria,” Pence said at a news conference with Pompeo.
The veep predicted the ceasefire would become permanent at the end of the five-day pause.
“The Turkish side will pause Operation Peace Spring in order to allow for the withdrawal of YPG [Kurdish] forces from the safe zone for 120 hours,” Pence said, referring to the Turkish incursion by its code name.
“All military operations under Operation Peace Spring will be paused, and Operation Peace Spring will be halted entirely on completion of the withdrawal.”
Pence said there was already a 20-mile-wide corridor for the Kurds to use to escape the territory that they had captured as US allies in the fight against ISIS.
“Our administration has already been in contact with Syria defense forces, and we’ve already begun to facilitate their safe withdrawal from the nearly 20-milewide safe-zone area south of the Turkish border in Syria,” he said.
“In addition, the United States and Turkey have both mutually committed to a peaceful resolution and future for the safe zone, working on an international basis to ensure that peace and security defines this border region of Syria,” Pence said.
Pence also said Turkey would work with the US to make sure ISIS doesn’t make a comeback following the escape of an unknown number of militants from Kurdish-controlled prisons.
Trump hailed the deal, saying it would save “millions and millions of lives” that could have been lost were the hostilities allowed to expand to other countries.
The assault has created a new humanitarian crisis in Syria with 200,000 civilians taking flight, a security alert over thousands of ISIS fighters abandoned in Kurdish jails, and harsh bipartisan criticism aimed at Trump in the US.
Pence said that the US would impose no further sanctions on Turkey, and that once a cease-fire was permanent, Trump would pull the sanctions he had slapped on Turkey over the invasion.
But Pompeo warned that there “remains a great deal of work to do in the region.”
“But this effort tonight sets the conditions for the successful resolution of this particular piece which created a real risk of instability,” he added.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu contradicted Pence minutes after he spoke, saying there was no cease-fire, just a five-day pause in its operation.
“We got what we wanted. Pause in Turkey’s operation in Syria is not a cease-fire. Cease-fire can only happen between two legitimate sides,” he said.
“We agree on collecting YPG heavy weapons, destroying their positions, fortifications. Within 120 hours, YPG/PKK [the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party] will leave the zone. It’s not a stop in the operation, it’s a pause. We will stop the operation when all the terrorists will leave the safe zone,” he said at a press briefing.
Noting the safe zone would be under Turkish forces’ control, Cavusoglu said, “This means that the US has approved the legitimacy of our operations and aims.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer slammed the cease-fire deal.
“President Trump is flailing,” the two Democratic leaders said in a joint statement.
“The president’s decision to reverse sanctions against Turkey for brutally attacking our Kurdish partners in exchange for a sham cease-fire seriously undermines the credibility of America’s foreign policy and sends a dangerous message to our allies and adversaries alike that our word cannot be trusted.”
Cavusoglu said Thursday’s deal includes the disarmament of the YPG and the destruction of its bases. The Turks consider the YPG a terrorist group because of its ties to an often violent Kurdish separatist movement in Turkey.
It was not clear whether the Kurds were ready to comply with the deal. Aldar Khalil, a member of the Kurdish administration’s ruling TEV-DEM party, said the YPG had previously rejected calls to withdraw 20 miles into Syria from the Turkish border, the Kurdish news site Rudaw said.
Mazloum Kobani Abdi, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said the group accepted the cease-fire agreement, the SDF-affiliated Ronahi TV reported.
But he warned that the SDF would not accept Turkish control of the 20-mile buffer zone.
“The area should not be changed, and Turkey’s goals in occupying our land should not be achieved . . . The demographics of the area should not be altered, and people need to return to their areas,” he said.