The Syrian crisis is not the first conflict that has caused deep disagreements among NATO members. The United States’ intervention in Iraq in 2003 could be cited as the most recent source of divergence at the NATO headquarters, although one can recall the Suez incident of 1956 and France’s decision of withdrawing troops from NATO in 1966 as other important fractures within the alliance.
On the same day Turkey and the United States compromised an agreement on the situation in northeastern Syria, a Russian senior delegation was also in the Turkish capital to discuss the same issue.
Almost all countries that are strongly opposed to Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring in northeastern Syria express concerns that the move can weaken the ongoing fight against ISIL and thus may lead to the resurrection of the jihadist terrorist network.
An initiative by France and the United Kingdom to issue a condemnation statement on Turkey’s military offensive at the U.N. Security Council was stopped by the United States and Russia. This does not only reveal a big divide between U.S. and Europe when it comes to security matters, but also suggests a very rare alliance between the U.S. and Russia on an issue concerning the Syrian turmoil, although for different reasons.
On Oct. 9 at 4 p.m. local time, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the start of Operation Peace Spring with the objective of creating a safe zone along the Turkish-Syrian border and breaking the YPG’s effort to establish what the Turkish government calls a terror corridor in the enclave.
The last 48 hours have marked another very important milestone in the nine-year-long Syria crisis. U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that he issued a firm decision for the return of all troops in Syria as he informed that Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into northern Syria after a phone conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Oct 6.
Senior Turkish officials have been talking about a unilateral military into the northeastern Syria for a very long time in a bid to avoid what they call the formation of a “terror corridor” by the YPG on its border with Syria.
Turkey has tabled plans to create safe zones inside Syria on three main occasions since the civil war erupted in its southern neighbor in 2011.
Today will mark the first anniversary of the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi death squad on the premises of Saudi Arabia’s Consulate General in Istanbul. A lot has been written with chilling details on how the prominent journalist was killed and dismantled by the squad.
