Turkey says it downed unidentified drone on Syrian border
ISTANBUL,— Turkey’s air force on Sunday downed an unidentified drone on the Syrian border after it breached Turkish air space six times, the defence ministry said.
“An unmanned aerial vehicle which violated our air space six times (on Saturday)… was downed by two of our F-16s which took off from Incirlik” air base in southern Turkey, the defence ministry said, sharing pictures of the downed drone.
The ministry said it was not known who the drone belonged to but said it was grounded at 1324 (1024 GMT) local time.
“The wreck of the drone was found at the Cildiroba base” by the Turkish gendarmerie in the Kilis province near the Syrian border, the ministry said.
The Turkish air force shot down a Russian Su-24, aircraft, in the Turkey-Syria border area in 2015, sparking an unprecedented crisis in the two countries’ relations.
That was condemned by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “stab in the back” but the two countries later reconciled and worked together on the Syrian crisis although they remain on opposite sides of the conflict.
Turkey backs rebels seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad while Moscow is one of the few remaining allies of the regime in Damascus.
Safe zone
The Turkish military conducted two offensives in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) in northern Syria against IS and Kurdish militia forces in 2016 and 2018.
The flags of Turkey and Syrian rebel groups were raised in the Kurdish Afrin city and a statue of Kurdish hero Kawa, a symbol of resistance against oppressors, was torn down.
In 2016, the Turkish troops entered northern Syria in an area some 100 km east of Afrin to stop the Kurdish YPG forces from extending areas under their control and connecting Syrian Kurdistan’s Kobani and Hasaka in the east with Afrin canton in the west.
In January 2018, Turkish military forces backed pro-Ankara Syrian mercenary fighters to clear the YPG from its northwestern enclave of Afrin. In March 2018, the operation was completed with the capture of the Kurdish city of Afrin.
The flags of Turkey and Syrian rebel groups were raised in the Kurdish Afrin city and a statue of Kurdish hero Kawa, a symbol of resistance against oppressors, was torn down.
Residents of the Kurdish city and Human right groups accuse Turkey and pro-Ankara mercenary fighters of ethnic cleansing, kidnappings for ransom, armed robberies and torture.
Turkey fears the creation of a Kurdish autonomous region or Kurdish state in Syrian Kurdistan could encourage separatism amongst its own Kurds, according to analysts.
The two NATO allies, Turkey and the United States, reached a deal last month to establish a safe zone between the Turkish border and Syrian areas east of the Euphrates river controlled by the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The United States views the YPG as a close ally in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group.
The Kurdish PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, considered the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and U.S. has provided them with arms. The YPG, which is the backbone of the SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
The Kurdish forces expelled the Islamic State from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019. But in December 2018 U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.
But Ankara says the YPG is a terrorist militia linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to launch a cross-border offensive against the YPG if the plans to realise a safe zone with Washington fail by the end of this month.
Erdogan planned to meet with US President Donald Trump on the margins of the annual UN General Assembly meeting in New York but a bilateral meeting did not take place. The Turkish leader only attended a reception given by Trump for the heads of state.
Turkey’s top national security council bringing together civilian and military leaders was due to meet on Monday under Erdogan’s leadership, with the Syria issue expected to figure high on the agenda.
Erdogan has said up to three million Syrian refugees could be returned to a “safe zone” it is seeking to establish in northern Syria.
The country is already playing home to more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees — the highest number in the world — and there have been signs of a public backlash over their presence after eight long years of war in its neighbour to the south.
Analysts however say the scheme for a safe zone planned to be 30 kilometres deep and run 480 kilometres (300 miles) along the north of Syria is unrealistic as Washington is struggling to balance its ties with Ankara and the Kurdish militia.
Syria’s Kurds have established a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Syria during the country’s eight-year war.
In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish and Arab authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | AFP
Comments
