Amidst A Tenuous Ceasefire In North-eastern Syria, Conflict Continues

The situation in north-eastern Syria continues to worsen amidst a temporary ceasefire. The ceasefire, reached on Thursday, calls for the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from an area of land that runs 30km into Syria and spans 440km of the Turkish-Syrian border. If this has not occurred by Tuesday, Turkey will continue its offensive. While the United States has backed the ceasefire, there are no direct plans for international enforcement. The ceasefire is already looking unstable, with accusations of non-compliance directed towards both the Turkish and Kurdish forces.

According to Reuters, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told supporters that Turkey will immediately continue its offensive if Kurdish fighters do not withdraw from the region: “If it works, it works. If not, we will continue to crush the heads of the terrorists the minute the 120 hours are over”. Turkey’s defence ministry claims that there have already been 14 “provocative attacks” from Syria. Kurdish forces tell a different story, and on Friday they accused Turkey of immediately breaching the ceasefire’s terms. Al Jazeera reports that Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said, “Despite the agreement to halt the fighting, air and artillery attacks continue to target the positions of fighters, civilian settlements and the hospital” in the border town of Ras al-Ain. Bali’s comments are supported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who noted that the region is “reportedly calm in most areas, with the exception of Ras al-Ain, where shelling and gunfire continued to be reported”.

Turkey’s offensive into north-eastern Syria started on 9 October 2019. Dubbed “Operation Peace Spring”, the stated goal is to create a “safe zone” on Turkey’s eastern border that is free from terrorist groups. This is a complex objective; while on the one hand, it fits well into the global ‘War on Terror’ that has been in place for nearly two decades, it is complicated by the reality of the situation in the region. Due to alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Turkish government treats the Kurdish-led SDF and YPG (the main military components of the SDF) as terrorist groups. Until recently, however, the SDF had been supported in the region by the United States, due to the significant assistance the SDF provided in the fight against Islamic State. Turkey’s offensive started mere days after the Trump Administration announced its withdrawal from the area.

Turkey’s actions have already ignited a humanitarian crisis, and it is only likely to get worse. At time of writing, the Red Cross has reported that over Turkey’s offensive has displaced 200,000 people. Amidst the ceasefire, Turkish-aligned forces have been accused of preventing medical personnel from entering the border town of Ras al-Ain, where fighting is currently fiercest. These accusations are backed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, which notes that a medical convoy has been waiting outside the town since Friday. To top it all off, thousands of Islamic State fighters are held in Kurdish jails in the region. The renewed conflict risks are seeing these terrorists freed and will likely lead to a resurgence of terror attacks in the wider area. Not only are Turkey’s actions irresponsible, but they are also reprehensible; in the supposed pursuit of a ‘safe zone’, the Turkish government is recklessly endangering and destroying the lives of thousands.

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