One of the most important developments of the past week was the step taken by Turkey aimed at helping to secure visa-free travel right for Turkish citizens to the EU’s Schengen zone countries.
Amid sound and fury over Turkey’s cross border “Operation Olive Branch” into the Afrin district of Syria, silent works on necessary amendments on the Election Law and Political Parties’ Law have almost been accomplished.
Turkey has long been fighting multiple terror organizations, mainly the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C).
“Operation Olive Branch” in Syria’s Afrin district has revealed yet another major change in Turkey’s long-standing refugee policy towards the 3.5 million Syrians who have taken shelter on Turkish soil since our southern neighbor collapsed.
Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” in Syria’s Afrin is the Turkish Armed Forces’ (TSK) third cross-border offensive in the last year and a half.
Turkey’s long-anticipated military operation in the Afrin province of northern Syria was launched on Jan. 20 with the aim of clearing the region of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish militia group that Ankara sees as a terrorist organization because of its links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Amid Turkey’s military and political preparations for an offensive into the Afrin district of Syria to combat the People’s Protection Units (YPG), Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will pay a very important visit to Iraq on Jan. 21.
A report published by U.S.-based NGO Freedom House on Jan. 16 demoted Turkey from the ranks of “Partly Free” to “Not Free” countries in terms of the use of fundamental freedoms and democratic rights.
When Turkey, Russia and Iran announced an agreement to launch a fresh initiative for a political settlement in Syria through a conference in Sochi on Jan. 29 and 30, hopes were raised for a breakthrough and an end to the years-long civil war that claimed the lives of nearly one million civilians.
