Turkey insists it has reached an agreement to work with the United States to bring the fight to Manbij, Syria, as part of its post-Afrin efforts to expand its aggressive military operation to other Kurdish-held areas further east and into Iraq if necessary.
On Monday, a day after the Turkey military seized Afrin, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Ankara’s intentions to extend its so-called operation.
“We will continue this process until we entirely eliminate this corridor, including in Manbij, Ayn al-Arab, Tal Abyad, Ras al-Ayn and Qamishli,” warned Erdogan.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu cautioned that Turkey will expand its offensive into Iraq if necessary to clear out the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) terrorists from areas like Sinjar if necessary, reported Hurriyet Daily News.
“If this plan [stabilization] is not realized, the only option left will be to clear [the area of] terrorists. This is not just valid for Syria, but also for Iraq,” said Çavuşoğlu.
Turkey considers the U.S.-allied People’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) to be terrorists affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK).
Critics like United Nations envoy Nadia Murad, a Yazidi who survived atrocities at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), have described Turkey’s actions as war crimes that amount to “ethnic cleansing and genocide.”
Turkey and Syria share a border, particularly along areas with a robust Kurdish population.
