A Turkish military tank is seen near Mount Barsaya, northeast of Afrin, Syria January 23, 2018 © Khalil Ashawi / Reuters
On July 1, the Turkish military deployed large reinforcements at a key base in the northern countryside of Syria’s Aleppo.
The base in question is located to the south of the town of Azaz. It is considered to be one the Turkish military largest bases in Syria. The fresh reinforcements included several battle tanks and armored personnel carriers.
The Turkish military and its proxies has been preparing to launch a new operation against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for more than a month now. The main targets of the operation will be the towns of Tell Rifaat and Manbij in the northern Aleppo countryside.
Click to see full-size map. Source: (@Suriyakmaps) on Twitter, Via Google Maps – TerraMetrics.
Click to see full-size map. Source: (@Suriyakmaps) on Twitter, Via Google Maps – TerraMetrics.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed on July 1 from Madrid in Spain, where he has been attending NATO summit, that Turkey will not hasten to stage a new military operation against the SDF in Syria.
“No need for hurry. We don’t need to do that,” the president told journalists. “We already work in the area. As you know we have ongoing [operations] in northern Iraq as well as northern Syria”.
Erdogan went on to say that Turkey would begin its new military operation against the SDF in Syria “when the time is right”.
Just a day earlier, the president said that Turkey will conduct a military operation in Syria in an “understandable” way to the international community.
While Erdogan’s new remarks indicate that Turkey is not in a hurry to kick off a new operation against the SDF, they do show some serious determination. Russia has already warned Turkey that any new operation will worsen the humanitarian crisis in Syria, push Kurds in the country towards separatism and trigger Damascus. These warnings are clearly being ignored by Ankara.
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