ANKARA, Oct 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Turkey has agreed to suspend its Syria
offensive for five days and will end the assault if Kurdish-led forces
withdraw from a safe zone along the border, US Vice President Mike Pence and
Turkish officials announced Thursday after high-stakes talks.
The agreement for the 120-hour pause eased what had escalated into an
unprecedented crisis between the United States and Turkey, but critics
quickly accused President Donald Trump of again abandoning Kurdish allies.
Under the deal reached after Pence flew to Ankara, Kurdish forces will have
to withdraw from an area 32 kilometres (20 miles) deep, becoming a “safe
zone” long sought by Turkey, which brands the fighters as “terrorists”.
Trump paved the way for the week-long Turkish incursion by withdrawing US
troops but he later imposed sanctions and threatened to destroy the NATO
ally’s economy as he came under fire at home.
After talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that stretched hours longer
than expected, Pence told reporters that Turkey’s operation “will be halted
entirely on completion” of the pullout of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
and, following that, the US would withdraw sanctions.
Pence said the United States would work with the PG, the Kurdish fighters
who dominate the SDF, “to facilitate an orderly withdrawal in the next 120
hours.”
SDF chief Mazlum Abdi said the forces were “ready to abide by the
ceasefire” covering the area from Ras al-Ain to Tal Abyad.
But James Jeffrey, the US pointman on Syria, acknowledged that the Kurdish
fighters were not happy and that Washington was using “a carrot and a stick”
with threats of sanctions to enforce the deal.
“There’s no doubt that the YPG wishes that they could stay in these areas,”
he told reporters travelling from Ankara with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said more than 300,000
civilians had been displaced within Syria since the start of the assault,
calling it one of the largest upheavals since Syria’s civil war began in
2011.
The monitor said nearly 500 people have been killed including dozens of
civilians, the majority on the Kurdish side.
– ‘Hell of a leader’ –
Turkey has faced wide condemnation, with many European countries imposing
arms embargoes. EU leaders meeting in Brussels reiterated their call early
Friday for Turkey to end its assault, while noting the pause in the
offensive.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu insisted to journalists in Ankara
that Turkey was “suspending the operation, not halting it”.
“This is not a ceasefire. A ceasefire is reached between the two legitimate
parties.”
Ankara considers YPG militants to be an extension the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK) — a group that has fought a bloody insurgency inside
Turkey for 35 years.
Trump hailed the deal, reached after more than four hours of talks led by
Pence, as “a great day for civilisation”.
“I want to thank the Kurds, because they were incredibly happy with this
solution,” he said during a visit to Texas. “This is a solution that really –
– well it saved their lives, frankly.”
A day after the leak of a letter in which Trump warned Erdogan not to be a
“fool,” Trump hailed the Turkish president as “a friend of mine”, adding:
“He’s a hell of a leader.”
Erdogan on Twitter called for action to “defeat terrorism,” saying “I am
confident this joint effort will promote peace and stability in our region.”
Erdogan, who like Trump has faced political setbacks at home, found wide
domestic support for the operation.
But Trump faced accusations even from usual supporters that his withdrawal
of 1,000 US troops — practically the entire US contingent in the region —
betrayed Kurdish militants who bore the brunt of the fight against the
Islamic State group in recent years.
Trump quickly faced renewed attacks over the deal.
“President Trump’s decision to help Turkey push the Kurds out of their home
in northern Syria after all they have done to help the US defeat ISIS is
outrageous,” said Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat.
– Erdogan to head to Russia –
Erdogan wants to destroy Kurdish hopes of an autonomous enclave that Turkey
fears could serve as a launchpad for attacks on its soil.
He also wants to resettle some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees Ankara is
hosting.
Jeffrey said Turkey had promised that its presence in the zone would be
short, insisting that the United States still recognised Syria’s territorial
integrity.
“The Turks have reassured us many times that they have no intention — no
intention whatsoever, from President Erdogan personally on down today — of
staying in Syria very long,” he said.
The US pullout has strengthened both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who
for the first time sent troops to the northeast in an agreement with Kurdish
forces, and Russia — Assad’s main backer.
Erdogan will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday — when
the five-day period will come to an end — in the Black Sea resort of Sochi
as both sides seek to prevent a war between Turkey and Syria.