Turkey wants Syrian forces to leave border areas, aide says
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Syrian government forces to move out of areas near the Turkish border so it can resettle up to 2 million refugees there, his spokesman told The Associated Press on Saturday, adding that Erdogan will raise the issue in talks next week with Syria’s ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Government troops have moved in to several locations in northeastern Syria this week, invited by Kurdish-led fighters to protect them from Turkey’s invasion. That has complicated Turkey’s plan to create a “safe zone” along the border where it wants to clear out the Kurdish fighters it considers terrorists and resettle Syrian refugees now in Turkey.
Under an agreement made by the U.S. and Turkey, a cease-fire has been in place since Friday evening to last for five days, during which Kurdish fighters are supposed to pull back from border areas. The ceasefire has been shaken by fighting in one border town, and there so far has been no sign of any withdrawals by the Kurdish-led forces.
Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said Ankara does not want Kurdish fighters to be able to continue to operate in border areas under control of Russian-backed Syrian forces. He said Syrian forces should move out of border areas because the refugees “don’t want to go back to areas under regime control.”
“This is one of the topics that we will discuss with the Russians, because, again, we are not going to force any refugees to go to anywhere they don’t want to go,” he said. “We want to create conditions that will be suitable for them to return where they will feel safe.”
Turkey has taken in about 3.6 million Syrians fleeing the conflict in their homeland but wants most of them to return.
U.S. forces were previously deployed in parts of northeast Syria alongside Kurdish-led forces, but President Donald Trump withdrew them abruptly, opening the way for Turkey’s invasion 11 days ago.
Despite the cease-fire, exchanges of fire have continued inside a key border town, Ras al-Ayn, where Turkish-backed fighters have been encircling Kurdish-led forces. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Turkish-backed fighters entered Syria on Saturday and advanced into Kurdish-held Shakariya, a village east of Ras al-Ayn that saw clashes and a Turkish strike a day earlier.
Turkey and the Kurdish-led forces traded blame for the continued fighting, with the Kurds saying the continued siege was a violation of the agreement and asking U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to ensure the deal’s enforcement.
But on Saturday evening, a medical convoy including the Syrian and Kurdish Red Crescent was allowed to pass through the Turkish-backed fighters’ cordon to Kurdish-held areas in the town for the first time — a sign of easing tensions. The convoy delivered medical supplies and evacuated nearly 40 wounded civilians and fighters. A
Turkish Red Crescent convoy entered parts of the town held by Turkish-backed forces and delivered supplies there.
Turkey’s Defense Ministry said it was “completely abiding” by the accord and that it was in “instantaneous coordination” with Washington to ensure the continuity of calm. The ministry accused Kurdish-led fighters of carrying out 14 “attacks and harassments” the past 36 hours, most in the town of Ras al-Ayn, which is besieged by allied fighters before the cease-fire. It said the Syrian Kurdish fighters used mortars, rockets, anti-aircraft and anti-tank heavy machine guns.
Turkey also said Saturday it has recaptured 41 suspected Islamic State members who had fled a detention camp amid the chaos caused by the fighting earlier this week.
On Saturday, the Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 41 suspected Islamic State members were re-captured after fleeing a detention camp amid fighting earlier this week in Syria. He said 195 other suspected IS members had already been recaptured. He said the captured IS suspects would be relocated to areas controlled by Turkey in northern Syria, including Afrin and al-Bab.