Turkey’s top security board convenes to discuss potential operation into Syria

ANKARA

Turkey’s top security board will convene on Jan. 17 to discuss a potential military offensive into northern Syria’s Afrin region against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), after the United States announced that it will help the group to establish a 30,000-strong security force.

The National Security Council’s (MGK) bi-annual meeting will be held under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and with the participation of senior governmental and military officials.

The meeting comes after Erdoğan repeatedly vowed a military offensive into northern Syria to crack down on all “terror nests,” in reference to the YPG. The government has long urged the U.S. to reverse its decision to support the YPG, which Turkey considers a terror organization and the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The MGK is also expected to discuss and advise the government to extend the state of emergency for the sixth time since it was first declared after the July 2016 coup attempt. The cabinet is due to meet after the MGK meeting and is expected to announce an extension of emergency rule.