Erdogan is using heavy airstrikes against the Kurdish militia YPG and the workers’ party PKK in neighboring countries. Now another level of escalation is imminent. The Turkish president is considering sending ground troops to Syria and Iraq.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also considering ground offensives after airstrikes on Kurdish positions in Syria and Iraq. There is no question that one is not limited to air operations, “a decision must be made on how many forces from the ground forces have to participate, and then steps are taken,” Erdogan said, according to the state news agency Anadolu. He wasn’t more specific.
Turkey took action against the YPG and the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK on Sunday night with numerous airstrikes in northern Iraq and northern Syria. At least 35 people were killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. Kurdish militias had announced retaliation.
Turkey reported shelling on the border with Syria on Monday. Three people were killed and six injured in the province of Gaziantep, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said. The governor of Gaziantep blamed the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG for the shelling. Kurdish activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported exchanges of fire with Kurdish militias and heavy Turkish shelling in rural northern Aleppo region and in Kobane.
The Turkish government linked its airstrikes to an attack on Istanbul’s Istiklal shopping street a week ago on Sunday. She sees the YPG and PKK as masterminds behind the attack, both of whom had rejected it. The investigations in Turkey are still ongoing. The Turkish government classifies the YPG and PKK as terrorist organizations.
Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir, among others, had sharply criticized the Turkish attacks on Kurdish positions. He wrote on Twitter: “Erdogan’s bombs on Kurds, which successfully fought IS terrorists, are intended to distract attention from the economic disaster in Turkey.”
