Erdogan beating drums of war in Syria

Mahmud al-Batakoshi

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is beating the drums of war in Syria, taking advantage of the fragility of security and military conditions in the neighboring country.

Erdogan mobilizes his army to launch a fourth military operation in northern Syria.

The Turkish parliament has agreed to extend an authorization for the government to counter security threats in other countries.

The authorization also allows the Turkish army to take action against organizations that stage attacks against Turkish troops in foreign territories.

Kurds

Erdogan threatened the Kurdish People’s Defense Units with military escalation, claiming that they pose threats to Turkey.

Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, vowed on October 13 to expel what he described as the ‘terrorists’, in reference to the People’s Defense Units.

Turkey, he said, would do everything possible to defend itself against threats posed to it by the units.

Çavuşoğlu also lashed out at the US and called on it to change its ‘wrong policies’.

“The Americans do not want to fight ISIS in Syria,” the Turkish foreign minister said. “They are in Syria only to provide great support to the Kurdish People’s Defense Units.”

Çavuşoğlu’s remarks coincided with the Turkish artillery bombardment of the Kurdish forces’ deployment areas in the northern and northwestern countryside of Aleppo, specifically in the vicinity of the Minaj military airport and the outskirts of Tal Rifaat and Afrin countryside.

Mobilizing for war

Turkish media revealed that Ankara had started preparations for war by bringing together over 35,000 soldiers.

These soldiers, it said, would participate in a military operation in northern Syria to fight the PKK.

They will also fight the leaders of Syrian opposition factions in the Euphrates Shield, Peace Spring and Olive Branch, the Turkish media said.