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Turkey insists it will continue its offensive against Kurdish militants in Northern Syria despite the declaration of a temporary cease-fire between Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army rebels and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is comprised largely of rebel militias from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD.
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Turkish officials have also angrily denounced U.S. officials for speaking of “Turkey and the PYD ... as if they are equals.”
"We are not aware of such an agreement. If the U.S. announced such a thing that means they are trying to present terrorist organizations as formal parties as if we deal with them," a senior Turkish Armed Forces official told the government-owned Sabah Daily.
Launched days after a deadly suicide attack in the southeastern city of Gaziantep killed at least 35 people and targeted a Kurdish wedding, Operation Euphrates Shield aims to “cleanse” a 56-mile zone along the shared border of Syria and Turkey, creating a buffer zone between the two countries.
Backed by the U.S. Air Force, Turkish armor and infantry entered Syrian territory on August 24, quickly seizing the Islamic State group-held town of Jarabulus alongside anti-government rebels while also shelling Kurdish targets.
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While statements delivered Tuesday by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter calling on Turkey to “stay focused” on fighting the Islamic State group, making it appear that the United States was blindsided by the altogether predictable targeting of its YPG allies by its Turkish NATO partners, Kurds are crying foul over the apparent stab in the back by Washington.
Some analysts have claimed that the U.S. is backing Ankara over the Kurds in an attempt to woo its volatile ally following Turkey's rapprochement with Russia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserts the U.S. played a role in July's failed military coup, and has mended diplomatic fences with Russia, at the same time the U.S. is leading a NATO campaign to amass weapons and troops on the Russian border to protect Western Europe, the Obama Administration asserts.
Ankara has warned that any armed presence of Kurdish forces west of the Euphrates river was a “red line” that would provoke a cross-border operation by the Turkish Armed Forces. Turkey shelled the border town of Azaz in northern Syria as Kurdish forces advanced against the Islamic Group.
Kurds were shocked, however, when their U.S. partners supported Ankara's warnings to withdraw their forces from Manbij and other areas west of the Euphrates.
The Kurdish militias in Syria are affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who have faced a counterinsurgency campaign waged by the Turkish state for over three decades. In the past year, Ankara has escalated its efforts to crush all forms of Kurdish resistance in the eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey. The PKK's political arm, the KCK, released a statement a day after the operation was launched blasting Turkish collaboration with the IS group to invade Jarablus, target Kurds and attack the "democratization of Syria." It also denounced Turkey's allies for turning a blind eye.
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Turkey's Failed Coup Provides for New Opportunities
While Syria's Kurds have, in recent months, worked in varying capacities with the Syrian Arab Army, the Free Syrian Army, the Russian Aerospace Forces and the U.S. military, it now seems that there is little daylight between major players in the Syrian civil war when it comes to the contentious question of Kurdish autonomy.
Speaking to The Guardian about recent developments, PYD official Abdula Salam Ahmad noted: “This was a result of a consensus between Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey to foil the gains the Kurds have made in Syria. Turkey is not happy with the recent victory in Manbij ... Turkey wants to stop the Kurds.”
The cynical geopolitical calculations seem to strengthen the old adage: “Kurds have no friends but the mountains.”
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