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Syrian Kurds 'Highly Concerned' About Possible Turkish Incursion

Sirwan Kajjo

   WASHINGTON - The Trump administration said late Sunday that Turkey
   "will soon be moving forward" with its plans to carry out a military
   operation in northern Syria to combat Syrian Kurdish fighters that
   Turkish leaders see as a threat.
   "The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the
   operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS
   territorial 'Caliphate,' will no longer be in the immediate area," the
   White House said, citing a Sunday phone call between President Donald
   Trump and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
   U.S. forces have backed Kurdish fighters in the battle to reclaim
   control of areas from Islamic State fighters in Syria.

   Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led military alliance that
   controls nearly one quarter of Syria's territory, said Sunday that any
   Turkish incursion into Syria would throw the entire region into
   indefinite instability.

   "We see these Turkish threats as extremely serious," said Mustafa Bali,
   a spokesman for the SDF.

   "We fear that mass killings would be committed against our people if
   Turkish forces invaded this part of Syria," he told VOA.

   Unilateral action

   On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his threats
   to launch a military offensive in northeast Syria to expel Syrian
   Kurdish fighters from Turkey's border.

   "We've made our preparations, we've completed our operation plans,
   given the necessary instructions," he said during a meeting of his
   ruling AK Party.

   Turkey views the People's Protection Units (YPG), the main force within
   SDF, as an extension of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers' Party
   (PKK), which has been fighting for greater rights in Turkey's
   Kurdish-majority southeast for decades.

   The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United
   States and the European Union.

   But the U.S. makes a distinction between the PKK and YPG, backing the
   YPG-dominated SDF in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) terror
   group in Syria.
   

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