According to Kurdish sources, Turkey is preparing for an offensive against the northern Syrian border town of Kobane.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned on Monday about the outbreak of war in Syria between Kurdish militias and Turkey. According to her, terrorists from the Islamic State (IS) organization could benefit from such an escalation. TASR received the information according to the DPA agency.
“This must not happen,” she declared on the Deutschlandfunk radio broadcast in the context of a potential armed conflict. “It would not help anyone if IS terrorists profited from the conflict with the Kurds. It would represent a security threat to Syria, Turkey and Europe,” she added.
According to Kurdish sources, Turkey and its allied militias are preparing for an offensive against the northern Syrian border town of Kobane. Fighting has been going on for some time in its surroundings and in areas in the north of Syria.
They used military force repeatedly
Turkey has repeatedly used military force against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in the past. The YPG acts as the armed forces of the Kurdish semi-autonomous administration of Rojava. Part of the Kurdish territory in northern Syria has been controlled by Ankara since 2016.
Turkey considers the YPG to be an offshoot of the left-wing Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara and many of its Western allies consider a terrorist organization. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday compared the YPG to IS and declared that neither has a future in Syria and will be “crushed in the shortest possible time”.
The allies of the Kurdish forces are the United States, which considers them an important partner in the fight against IS. Ankara has repeatedly demanded that Washington, as its NATO ally, stop supporting these militias.
In the interview, Baerbock recalled that Kurdish forces in particular contributed the most to the almost complete defeat of IS in Syria. According to her, Turkey has legitimate security interests and, like any country, wants to get rid of terrorism. However, it should not be used as a pretext to “expel the Kurds again and to provoke more violence.”
