Rebels are building a ‘National Army’ with help from Turkey

Erdogan says Ankara has finalised preparations to make more safe areas inside Syria

A“National Army” being set up by Syrian rebels with Turkey’s help could become a long-term obstacle to President Bashar Al Assad’s recovery of the northwest.

The effort is at the heart of plans by the Turkish-backed opposition to secure and govern a strip of territory that forms part of the last big rebel stronghold in Syria. The presence of Turkish forces on the ground has helped to shield it from regime attack.

Al Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has vowed to recover “every inch” of Syria, and though he has now won back most of the country, the Turkish presence will complicate any regime offensive in the northwest.

Turkey’s role has gone beyond supporting allied Syrian forces to rebuilding schools and hospitals. At least five branches of the Turkish post office have opened in the area.

The National Army compromises some 35,000 fighters from some of the biggest factions in the war. Many previous efforts to unite the rebels have failed, obstructed by local rivalries.

The National Army could be different because of Turkey’s presence on the ground. The Turkish military pushed into the northwest in two campaigns.

The first, “Euphrates Shield”, which got underway in 2016, drove Daesh from territory between Azaz and Jarablus.

The second, “Olive Branch”, captured the adjoining Afrin region from the Kurdish YPG militia earlier this year.

The area is important to Turkey because of what it views as the national security threat posed by the YPG, which it sees as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey. Al Assad says Turkey is illegally occupying Syrian land. “All the support for the National Army is from Turkey, there are no other states partnering in this matter,” Colonel Haitham Afisi, head of the National Army said.

Erdogan’s comments

Meanwhile, President Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday Turkey has finalised preparations to make more safe areas inside Syria as it did via two military incursions in the north of the country it borders. He said quarter of a million people had already returned to liberated areas in Syria.