A Pentagon spokesperson deemed “Operation Olive Branch,” Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria to combat the U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish militia there, a “distraction” but ultimately “not a crisis” between the two NATO member countries in comments Thursday.
Turkey announced the operation last week in response to Pentagon remarks that the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF), an American-allied coalition of forces including the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), would help create a “border security force” to prevent the re-emergence of the Islamic State in the country. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group and indistinguishable from the U.S.-designated Marxist terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Unlike the PKK, the YPG has played a key role in helping the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS liberate major jihadist strongholds, including caliphate “capital” Raqqa.
In announcing the operation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to the YPG as a “horde of murderers” and claimed that Afrin is a largely Arab Sunni area colonized by Kurds. Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities inhabit the majority Kurdish area and have expressed fears that they will be ethnically cleaned out of the area if Turkey succeeds in establishing itself there. READ MORE
