Turkey accuses US of betrayal in Syria

ESTABLISHMENT OF KURDISH BORDER FORCE WILL ALSO RANKLE AL ASSAD REGIME AND ALLIES RUSSIA AND IRAN

In the ever-shifting landscape of the Syrian civil war, the line between allies and enemies is rarely clear. It was further muddied this week when the US-led coalition revealed plans for a 30,000-strong security force to police Syria’s northeast borders with Turkey and Iran. The plan instantly enraged Turkey, a Nato ally of the US, because it would rely heavily on Kurdish fighters who are viewed as terrorists by the Turks.

“Is the duty of protecting Nato borders left to terror groups? We can protect our own borders,” said Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the United States of betraying an ally and threatened to attack Kurdish “terror nests” along the border.

“Those who stabbed us in the back and appear to be our allies ... cannot prevent it,” said Erdogan, according to an Anadolu report.

The establishment of the force also stands to rankle Syria’s government and its two main allies, Russia and Iran. It could derail a rapprochement between the Kurds and Damascus, who have worked together on occasion as reluctant allies against Daesh, as well as against rebels trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

With the fight against Daesh winding down, the coalition envisions that the Border Security Force would be stationed eastward, policing the militants’ traditional smuggling route between Iraq and Syria, as well as passageways with Turkey to the north. Those were once used by the group’s foreign fighters to travel to and from its so-called “caliphate.”

In his remarks, as reported by Anadolu, Erdogan said he did not “even think of calling US President Donald Trump to discuss Syria,” adding that “as long as he does not turn to me, I do not turn to him.”

The Kurds are an ethnic group whose population ranges primarily through Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Syria’s Kurds have leveraged their alliance with the US and the chaos in the country to carve out the beginnings of a semi-autonomous federation of provinces in the northern part of Syria.

Erdogan has long threatened to overrun Afrin, a Syrian town about 15 miles from the Turkish border. On Tuesday, three rebel commanders confirmed their participation in a new Turkishbacked campaign to oust the Kurds from areas in Syria’s north.

“We’ve completed preparations to wage this battle to liberate our invaded Arab lands from the terrorist separatist gangs,” Lt-Col Abdul Munem Turki, commander of the Northern Division rebel faction, said in a conversation on WhatsApp.

The rebel force, which Turki said comprised three companies totalling some 25,000 fighters, were all supplied and equipped by the Turkish army.

Turkey’s army chief, General Hulusi Akar, told his counterparts at a Nato meeting in Brussels that his country would not allow the Kurds “to be supported and armed under the guise of being an ‘operational partner’ (of the US)”.

“We expect (the US) to reverse the mistake as soon as possible,” said Akar, according to a report from Anadolu.

It was a rare moment of consensus between Ankara and Damascus, one-time friendsturned-enemies, forced together against what may now become a common enemy: the Kurds.

The Syrian government condemned the border force, describing it in a statement on Monday as a “blatant aggression upon the sovereignty, unity and integrity of Syrian lands, as well as a clear violation of international law”.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, echoed that sentiment, accusing the US on Monday of not wanting “to preserve the territorial integrity of Syria”.

However, a spokesman for the US-led coalition played down the significance of the move. “This is a natural progression from the blueprint we have already used in areas throughout northern Syria and the Euphrates River Valley,” said Col Ryan Dillon in a phone interview on Tuesday. He said the force was aimed at “monitoring unpopulated areas east toward the border where there has been freedom of manoeuvre by Daesh fighters attempting to flee.”

BY NABIH BULOS