Unanimous support for ‘Olive Branch’ operation
THE main political figures in the TRNC were unanimous this week in their support for Turkey’s “Olive Branch” military operation in the Afrin region of northern Syria, which was launched last Saturday.
President Mustafa Akıncı said Turkey’s right to take measures to secure its border “cannot be overlooked”.
Issuing a statement on the matter, he said that the war in Syria was entering its seventh year and that Turkey felt the need to undertake the military operation because she “saw the threat of terrorism”.
Mr Akıncı also used the statement to condemn a headline in the Turkish Cypriot daily Afrika that likened both the action in Syria and Turkey’s intervention in Cyprus in the 1970s as an “occupation”.
“Had July 20 [1974] not have happened, Cyprus would have become an island of Greece,” he said. “We cannot call an operation which prevented [this] an ‘occupation’.”
Incumbent Prime Minister Hüseyin Özgürgün, leader of the National Unity Party (UBP), said: “Our greatest wish is for the Turkish Armed Forces to finish the Afrin operation . . . with success. The Turkish Cypriot people are in their hearts together with motherland Turkey and the Mehmetçik [Turkish Tommy].”
Republican Turkish Party (CTP) chairman Tufan Erhürman said that he hoped the Afrin operation would be “completed in a manner which protects the territorial integrity of the Republic of Turkey and Syria and for regional security to be achieved”.
He continued: “Our hope is for the environment of terrorism and conflict not to give way to more loss of life in the region and for respect to be shown to the regional countries’ territorial integrity”
Democrat Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Serdar Denktaş said: “May Allah hold and assist the Turkish troops. . . Those who never say a word against America, Russia, the British and the Germans; who do not share any border with Syria but who are swarming in the Middle East, for whatever reason, always become ‘peace lovers’ against the Turkish army.
“Had the same Turkish army not come in 1974 [in Cyprus] and . . . intervened against Greek Cypriot attacks against our communal existence, we would, today, maybe not have been able to write our own surnames in our own language.”
People’s Party (HP) leader Kudret Özersay said: “Turkey has . . . given the message that it will not hesitate . . . to undertake what is needed to protect its own security and territorial integrity. I think that this is also important in connection with future deterrence. I hope that results are gained early and that peace is secured in the region.”
Social Democratic Party (TDP) chairman Cemal Özyiğit said: “I hope that we reach the days where peace prevails in a short period of time.
“Unfortunately, it is innocent people who pay the highest price of every development experienced under the shadow of guns. Having peace and security for the Turkish and Syrian peoples is the most important thing for us.” A number of civilian groups also issued statements in support of Turkey.
PRESIDENT Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday promised to sweep militants from the length of Turkey’s Syrian border, saying that Ankara could extend its current military operation in northwest Syria all the way east to the border with Iraq.
Speaking to provincial leaders from his ruling AK Party, Mr Erdoğan said that after its ongoing operation in Afrin, in Syria’s north-west, Turkey would continue to the east, including the town of Manbij.
US soldiers are currently positioned in Manbij along with the Syrian Kurdish YPG, considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey.
Turkey urged the United States on Thursday to halt its support for YPG fighters or risk confronting Turkish forces on the ground in Syria, some of Ankara’s strongest comments yet about a potential clash with its Nato ally.
The remarks, from the spokesman for Mr Erdoğan’s government, underscored the growing bilateral tensions, six days after Turkey launched its air and ground operation, “Olive Branch”, in Afrin.
In Washington, the Pentagon said that it carefully tracked weapons provided to the YPG and would continue discussions with Turkey.
“We carefully track those weapons that are provided to them, we ensure that they, to the maximum extent possible, don’t fall into the wrong hands and we’re continuing discussions with the Turks on this issue,” joint staff director Lieutenant-General Kenneth McKenzie told reporters. General McKenzie said Turkey’s operation into Afrin was not helpful and was taking focus away from fighting Islamic State.
Turkey’s targeting of the YPG, which it views as a security threat, has opened a new front in Syria’s multi-sided civil war. The Syrian Kurdish group is a main part of a US-backed rebel alliance that has inflicted recent defeats on Islamic State militants.
Any push by Turkish forces towards Manbij, part of a Kurdishheld territory some 100 kilometres east of Afrin, could threaten US efforts in north-east Syria and bring them into direct confrontation with US troops deployed there.
The United States has around 2,000 troops in Syria, officially as part of an international, US-led coalition against Islamic State.
The Kurdish-led autonomous administration that runs Afrin on Thursday called on the Syrian government to defend its border with Turkey in Afrin despite Damascus’ stance against Kurdish autonomy.
“We call on the Syrian state to carry out its sovereign obligations towards Afrin and protect its borders with Turkey from attacks of the Turkish occupier,” it said in a statement on its website.
The Syrian government has said it is ready to target Turkish jets in its airspace, but has not intervened so far.
It suspects the Kurds of wanting independence in the longrun and does not recognise the autonomous cantons they have set up in northern Syria.