Turkey and the US still take very different positions on the fighting Kurdish forces in Syria.
Barely a month after the traumatic July 15 failed coup attempt, Turkey launched a military operation in Syria last week.
Supported and armed by Turkey, Free Syrian Army units swiftly took control of border town Jarablus, pushing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS)southwest towards al–Bab region and advancing towards the south and west.
At the outset, the United States verbally supported the operation. In fact, according to onereport, the Pentagon even offered Turkey the possibility of a joint operation with the participation of 40 US commandos, a plan that was allegedly shelved as a result of the White House‘s slow response. But nevertheless, the US was supportive of the operation in its initial stages.
US officials called upon the Syrian Kurdish People‘s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) sister organisation in Syria, to withdraw to the east of the Euphrates river and threatened to withhold support should they not comply.
As time went on, the US has, however, changed the tone, calling on Turkey to refrain from clashing with the YPG and instead has begunurging it to focus on the common enemy, ISIL.
Both US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and the White House have expressed their displeasure with Turkey‘s targeting of YPG forces.
By August 30, the US claimed that it has reached a “loose“ agreement to stop fighting between Turkish forces and the YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition, a claim that was vehemently denied by Turkish officials.
The rationale behind the operation
Turkey seems to have four goals in mind in carrying out this operation.
First, it wants to prevent the Democratic Union Party (PYD) from establishing territorial contiguity between its cantons. The last remaining gap in PYD-held territory on the Turkish border lies between Kobane and Afrin, and forms the strategic objective of this operation.
The second goal of the operation is securing the Aleppo corridor from belligerent forces, be it YPG or ISIL.
Third, Turkey aims to clear the ISIL presence, which has posed a direct security and strategic threat to Turkey, from its borders.
Fourth, by clearing ISIL from the area and halting the YPG‘s westward expansion, Turkey aims to create breathing space for the Syrian opposition, which previously was squeezed between ISIL, the Syrian regime and the YPG.