Why Turkey has launched ‘Operation Peace Spring’ in North Eastern Syria

The Syrian crisis has already entered its ninth year.  As an adverse consequence of civil war, terrorist organisations have gained foothold in Syria, in the neighborhood of Turkey.

DAESH and PYD/YPG are at the forefront of terrorist activities. PYD/YPG is the offshoot of PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by EU and NATO.

DEASH and PYD/YPG forcefully displaced local people, changed demographics and even set up so-called “local administrations”.They opened harassment fire on Turkish borders by using snipers and advanced weaponry.

Turkey has so far successfully conducted two major counter-terrorism operations, namely ‘Euphrates Shield’ in 2017 and ‘Olive Branch’ in 2018 in northwest of Syria.

With these operations, Turkey cleared an area over 4.000 square kilometers from DEASH and PYD/YPG terror organizations which allowed more than 360,000 Syrians to return their homes.

But even then the threat of terrorism from Syria which targets Turkey’s borders has not yet ended.

Turkey has been exposed to more than a hundred cases of attacks by PYD/YPG from the east of River Euphrates.

They have been smuggling explosive devices, weapons and ammunition into Turkey with the aim of empowering PKK-affiliated units to commit deadly terrorist attacks.

Turkey had negotiations with the United States on establishing a safe zone free from terrorists in Northeastern Syria along the Turkey-Syria border.

Unfortunately, despite the efforts of Turkey in goodwill, negotiations regarding the legitimate security concerns of Turkey were inconclusive.

Under these circumstances, Turkey was obliged to take necessary steps on its own to eliminate the terrorist threats.

Hence, Turkish Armed Forces launched the third counter-terrorism operation namely “Operation Peace Spring” on October 9.

The operation is being carried out on the basis of international law, in accordance with the right of self-defense as enshrined in article 51 of the UN Charter and the relevant Security Council resolutions.

 The operation will target only terrorists and their hideouts, shelters, emplacements, weapons, vehicles and equipment.

All precautions are taken to avoid collateral damage to the civilian population. This operation will continue until all the terrorists have been wiped out of the region, the border security has been ensured and local Syrians have been liberated from the tyranny of PYD/YPG as well as DEASH.

This operation will also provide the opportunity for at least one million displaced Syrians, including Kurds, Arabs, and Christians to return to their ancestoral lands after having been subject to ethnic cleansing by PYD/YPG.

Ali Davatoglu is the Turkish ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania