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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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24Aug16
Turkey's Military Plunges Into Syria, Enabling Rebels to Capture ISIS Stronghold
Turkey sent tanks, warplanes and special operations forces into northern Syria on Wednesday in its biggest plunge yet into the Syrian conflict, enabling Syrian rebels to take control of an important Islamic State stronghold within hours.
The operation, assisted by American airstrikes, is a significant escalation of Turkey's role in the fight against the Islamic State, the militant extremist group ensconced in parts of Syria and Iraq that has increasingly been targeting Turkey.
By evening, Syrian rebels backed by the United States and Turkey declared that they had seized the town of Jarabulus and its surroundings, which had been the Islamic State's last major redoubt near the Turkish border. Numerous fighters posted photographs and videos of themselves online with the green, black and white flag adopted by the Syrian opposition as they walked through empty streets where the black flag of Islamic State still flew; it appeared that most of the militants had fled without a fight.
The offensive had two immediate goals: To clear Islamic State militants from their remaining border stronghold, and roll back recent advances by Syrian Kurdish militias that Turkey considers an equal or greater threat because of their links to its own domestic Kurdish insurgents.
Yet it had deeper reverberations, signaling a broad and volatile reshuffling of alliances in and around Syria that has been brewing over recent months.
The United States is rebalancing its relations with two allies that consider one another enemies, Turkey and Kurdish militias, throwing a bone to Turkey, which has been angry over deepening American cooperation with the Kurds. For embattled Syrian rebel groups not affiliated with the Islamic State or Al Qaeda, it is an opportunity to show that they could be effective partners against extremists — and for some, to take back their home villages. Turkey got long-requested American approval and air support to seize part of an area it has long coveted as a buffer zone.
And with Russia, the Syrian government's main ally, issuing only a tepid condemnation of Turkish incursion, there were signs that Moscow and the Washington could be testing baby steps toward a compromise. Both have floated a suggestion that vetted Syrian rebels could fight extremists in exchange for a role in a somehow expanded or reformed Syrian government — but it has been received with skepticism by the Syrian combatants.
There were myriad other possibilities, all related to Turkey's recent exploration of rapprochement with Russia and Iran, backers of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. "The push for Jarabulous seems intimately linked to Turkey's fast-moving but secretive regional diplomacy," wrote Aron Lund, an analyst for the Carnegie Middle East Program.
With the full picture still unclear, the new front simply added another complicated twist to an already dizzyingly multisided war. The Syrian government was left to issue an angry statement as yet another party plunged into its territory. It was unclear whether it had been sidelined or had given tacit approval.
At the White House, President Obama's chief spokesman, Josh Earnest, called the Turkish assault "an indication of important progress" in the campaign against the Islamic State.
Earlier, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signaled support for the operation.
He had traveled to the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Wednesday to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a time of high tensions between the two countries after the failed coup in Turkey last month, in which news media drummed up suspicions that the United States was involved and relations reached a low not seen since World War II. Turkey is demanding the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric in self-exile in Pennsylvania whom Turkey accuses of leading the plot.
But the timing of the joint offensive and some strong words of support from Mr. Biden seemed to show an easing of the strains.
Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, Mr. Biden said Syrian Kurdish militias, an important American ally in the fight against the Islamic State, would have to meet a Turkish demand by withdrawing to the eastern side of the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria.
"We have made it clear to Kurdish forces that they must move back across the river," he said. "They cannot and will not get American support if they do not keep that commitment. Period."
It was an unusually sharp warning from the United States to the Kurdish-led forces, which American officials have repeatedly called their most reliable partner on the ground against Islamic State. In return, the United States got something it has pushed for in vain for years, getting Turkey to take a more proactive stance to battle Islamic State fighters on its border, which for years it allowed them to cross with impunity. The solution appeared to be allowing Turkey to try to clear the area of both Islamic State and Kurdish militias.
Turkey has also signaled an even bigger shift in recent days — that it is prepared to take a more aggressive diplomatic role in Syria, working alongside Iran, Russia and the United States to seek an end to the war.
The Turkish government has long insisted that Mr. Assad would have to step down before peace talks could be held. But lately, Turkey has softened its stance, indicating that it would accept a role for Mr. Assad during a political transition.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the operation as a breach of Syria's sovereignty. Russia, in a notably softer reaction, said it was "deeply concerned." It did not refer to the rebels as "terrorists," a label it has applied to all opposition groups in the past, but as "opposition fighters."
The rebels involved in the operation appeared to be mainly from the groups fighting to unseat Mr. Assad that the United States, Turkey and other allies support through a covert operations center in Turkey, and identify themselves as part of the Free Syrian Army. The F.S.A. is more a brand than a command structure, led by army defectors and others who say they reject the extremist ideologies of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
They are the subject of a longstanding dispute between Russia and the United States; Russia has often targeted them, saying they are legitimate targets unless they move far from the fighters of the Qaeda-linked group until recently called the Nusra Front.
Turkish officials were adamant that they would continue operations in Syria until they had neutralized what they see as threats against national security.
One thing they view as a threat is any Kurdish advances to link two separate Kurdish enclaves along Turkey's border, currently separated by a strip of Islamic State territory running from the Euphrates west to the northern suburbs of Aleppo.
Wednesday's operation inserted the mainly Arab, Turkish-backed rebels into the part of that gap that Kurds had been eyeing.
Turkey said one rebel fighter was killed in the incursion but that no Turkish troops died.
But the apparent ease and speed of the operation belie complexities ahead. It is not uncommon for Islamic State fighters to withdraw quickly from a place only to leave behind sleeper cell, infiltrate back in or launch harassing attacks later. It appeared they had not put up much of a fight on the ground or taken advantage of the elaborate fortifications they had built in and around the town.
The operation started at 4 a.m., officials said, with Turkish and United States warplanes pounding Islamic State positions in Jarabulus. American F-16 and A-10 warplanes were used, especially effective in close-air support. The special operations troops entered Syria to clear a passage for a ground operation by Turkish-backed rebel groups, the state broadcaster TRT reported.
The assault came days after Turkey vowed to "cleanse" its borders of the Islamic State, after a deadly suicide attack at a Kurdish wedding killed at least 54 people. The militant group was blamed for the attack.
Jarabulus has been a vital supply line for the Islamic State.
"Turkey is determined for Syria to retain its territorial integrity and will take matters into its own hands if required to protect that territorial unity," Mr. Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara on Wednesday. "We have only ever sought to help the people of Syria and have no other intentions."
[Source: By Tim Arango, Anne Barnard and Ceylan Yeginsu, International New York Times, 24Aug16]
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 | This document has been published on 25Aug16 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |