Turkey says Syria safe zone center to start work next week: Anadolu
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, Brussels, Belgium, October 3, 2018. Photo: Reuters
ISTANBUL,— A joint Turkish-U.S. operation center to establish and manage a safe zone in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) in northeast Syria will be fully operational next week, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Friday.
Ankara and Washington have also agreed in general terms about control and coordination of air space in the region, Akar was reported as saying by Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency.
Turkey and the United States agreed on August 6, 2019 to establish a joint operation center in Turkey to coordinate and manage a planned safe zone in northeast Syria, a move that appeared to reduce the chance of imminent Turkish military action against Syrian Kurds.
U.S. Defense Department spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said Wednesday the agreement between the United States and Turkey to establish a safe zone in northern Syria will be implemented gradually, with some operations beginning soon. “The security mechanism will be implemented in stages,” Robertson said.
“The United States is prepared to begin implementing some activities rapidly as we continue discussions with Turkey.”
The goal of the zone is to create a buffer between the Turkish border and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units of Syrian Kurdistan (YPG) — which is supported by the US but is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey.
But retired general Joseph Votel, the former chief of US troops in the Middle East, has publicly opposed Ankara’s control of such a zone.
“Safe zones are generally established to protect people in conflict zones and are usually designed to be neutral, demilitarized, and focused on humanitarian purposes,” Votel wrote in the article with George Washington University Turkey expert Gonul Tol.
Turkey’s foreign minister said on Thursday that Ankara will not tolerate any delay from the US over setting up a safe zone in in northern Syria,
Turkish drones have started operating in Kurdish northern Syria where Washington and Ankara have agreed to create a safe zone, Turkey’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.
Syrian Kurds — who have played a key role in the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group — have established an autonomous region in Syrian Kurdistan (northeast Syria) amid the country’s brutal civil 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 authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
Washington has for years supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). But U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.
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 YPG forces expelled the Islamic State group from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019.
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