Recent airstrikes on Kurdish targets are “just the beginning,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised in a fiery address in which he warned of an imminent invasion in areas of Syria and Iraq where Ankara has a “right to take care of” its security concerns.
Turkey’s “determination to secure all [its] southern border” with a “safe zone” is “stronger today than ever before,” Erdogan insisted before lawmakers in parliament on Wednesday. “While we press ahead with air raids uninterrupted, we will crack down on terrorists also by land at the most convenient time for us.”
Ankara has been pounding regions of Syria and Iraq for four days with strikes they claim have resulted in 254 “terrorists” being “neutralized.”
Erdogan’s comments serve as the latest signal that tensions in northern Syria are likely to ratchet up in the near term – a prospect which has been greeted with alarm among many factions, especially Kurdish.
On Wednesday, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder expressed “deep concern” over the recent Turkish strikes, claiming that in at least one instance they “directly threatened the safety of US personnel.” However, he reiterated that the US recognizes what he described as Turkey’s “legitimate security concerns.”
Gen. Mazloum Abdi, commander of the so-called “Syrian Democratic Forces,” called on Biden the same day to intervene to prevent Turkish forces from intervening, telling Politico “the president himself” has a “political and humanitarian responsibility” in terms of “protecting the cities [and] protecting the Kurds.”
“So far, statements that have been put out are not enough to stop the Turkish plans to launch new operations against us,” Abdi claimed.
Senior Russian negotiator Alexander Lavrentyev has described the Kurdish population as “hostages of the United States,” and said blame for their current predicament ultimately lies with Washington.
"Without the US presence, the Kurdish issue could have been resolved very quickly,” Lavrentyev said.
The diplomat indicated the Russian Federation has directly requested that Turkey refrain from launching a ground offensive, telling reporters Wednesday that “we hope our arguments will be heard in Ankara and other ways of resolving the problem will be found.”