PKK/PYD supporters in Germany launched a campaign last month against Turkey's ongoing counterterrorism operation in northern Syria and held demonstrations across the country in which they carried banned flags and posters of the PKK terrorist group.
any anti-personnel landmines, which are banned by the Ottawa Treaty, have been found in areas liberated from terrorists during the Turkish Armed Forces’ ongoing operation in Syria’s Afrin region.
n Monday 12 February, the Turkish Armed Forces announced that a total of 1,369 PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG and Daesh terrorists have been “neutralized” since the launch of Operation Olive Branch in Syria’s Afrin region.
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Mattis was referring to Turkey’s plan to launch a military operation in Manbij, a strategically important city west of the Euphrates in northern Syria, as part of Operation Olive Branch.
he military operation Turkey launched in Afrin, Operation Olive Branch, officially kicked off on 20 January with air raids conducted by Turkish jets against the terror group, the PKK, and its Syrian offshoot, the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
n Tuesday 6 February, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu called on the government to form contact with the Assad regime in Syria in order to resolve the country’s on-going civil war.
ccording to the World Council of Arameans (WCA), Christians in Syria are facing more and more oppression from the YPG and the so-called security forces “Asayesh.
Although terrorist incidents slowed down after the initiatives of the AK Party, with the deepening of the civil war in Syria, terrorist attacks have increased over the last three years.
he civil war in Syria has not only affected Turkey in terms of the refugee crisis it caused but has also enabled terrorist organizations to raise to the sphere, taking advantage of the chaos in the region.
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Linking the situation to the current Operation Olive Branch in the Afrin region of Syria, the FM said: “In Operation Olive Branch, we have been very strong both in the field and at the table.
The Turkish Armed Forces deployed several units to the Turkish border shared with the Afrin region, while the Turkish-backed Syrian rebels in northern Syria, who were part of the Euphrates Shield Operation, also prepared for the Afrin operation.
5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey – had Turkey not intervened in Afrin, where the YPG terrorist group have been in control since 2012 – a new wave of migration could have occurred in Europe.
The operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army in Afrin aims to clear the region of the estimated 7,000 terrorist militants.
In this scope, the most feasible alternative to carry the counter-terrorism fight across the border and prevent the PKK from becoming a regional actor in post-Daesh Syria seems to create a strategic state in Afrin.
ollowing Operation Euphrates Shield (OES), Turkey brought a new dimension to its military activity in Syria in order to minimize the PKK’s strength in northern Syria and to “de-territorialize” the terrorist group in the middle term.