The following is a list of reactions to the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria.
A day prior to the operation, all Turkish opposition parties except the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) voted to extend the military's mandate on Syria. Opposition party leaders Meral Akşener (Good Party), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (Republican People's Party), and Temel Karamollaoğlu (Felicity Party), as well as the junior government partner, Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahçeli, expressed their support for the military operation. [1] Akşener, Kılıçdaroğlu, and Bahçeli were directly informed of the operation by Turkish President Recep Erdoğan immediately after its launch. [2] On 14 October, Turkish Minister of National Defence Hulusi Akar visited the opposition parties and informed them about the ongoing operation. [3]
After the start of the operation, the opposition CHP began to criticize its implementation. A CHP spokesman lambasted Erdogan for "driving [Turkey] to the Middle East swamp" [4] while CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu criticized the government for uniting the world against it with an "adventurous foreign policy." [5]
Meanwhile, on 15 October Good Party leader Meral Akşener urged the government to make peace with Syria through dialogue with Bashar al-Assad. [6]
The HDP condemned the operation from the start, calling it an "extremely dangerous and wrong step" and stating that "Turkey is being dragged into a dangerous and deep trap". [7]
Erdoğan rejected international criticism and said referring to the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen: "Let me start with Saudi Arabia. Look in the mirror first. ... Did tens of thousands of people not die in Yemen?" He also called Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi a "democracy killer" after the Egyptian Foreign Ministry called the offensive an "invasion." [8]
This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations .(October 2019) |
The Turkish lira weakened to 5.88 against dollar on 10 October as investors fretted about negative international reaction to the offensive. Turkey's BIST100 Index was down 0.64% [149] On 14 October, BIST100 Index was down by 5 percent. [150] Although on 15 October, Turkish lira raised against dollar and BIST100 gained 1.71% after Trump administration announced sanctions on Turkey. Analysts describe the sanctions as "relatively light" and "window dressing". [151] [152] The Turkish lira firmed to 5.75 against the dollar on 18 October after the ceasefire deal with the US where as BIST100 Index was up 3.82%. [153]
On the other hand, Brent crude was up 22 cents at $58.44 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $52.59, down 4 cents. [154]
The Republic of Turkey (Türkiye) and the United States of America established diplomatic relations in 1927. Relations after World War II evolved from the Second Cairo Conference in December 1943 and Turkey's entrance into World War II on the side of the Allies in February 1945. Later that year, Turkey became a charter member of the United Nations. Since 1945, both countries advanced ties under liberal international order, put forward by the US, through a set of global, rule-based, structured relationships based on political, and economic liberalism. As a consequence relationships advanced under G20, OECD, Council of Europe, OSCE, WTO, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, IMF, the World Bank and the Turkey in NATO.
Italy-Turkey relations are the relations between Italy and Turkey. Both countries are members of NATO and the Union for the Mediterranean and have active diplomatic relations. Relations between Turkey and Italy date back centuries in the form of various predecessor states.
Belgian–Turkish relations are foreign relations between Belgium and Turkey. Belgium has an embassy in Ankara, a consulate–general in Istanbul and two consulates in Antalya and İzmir. Turkey has an embassy in Brussels and a consulate–general in Antwerp.
The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided conflict in Syria involving various state-sponsored and non-state actors. In March 2011, popular discontent with the rule of Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by the government's security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the crisis had escalated into a full-blown civil war.
International reactions to the Syrian civil war ranged from support for the government to calls for the government to dissolve. The Arab League, United Nations and Western governments in 2011 quickly condemned the Syrian government's response to the protests which later evolved into the Syrian civil war as overly heavy-handed and violent. Many Middle Eastern governments initially expressed support for the government and its "security measures", but as the death toll mounted, especially in Hama, they switched to a more balanced approach, criticizing violence from both government and protesters. Russia and China vetoed two attempts at United Nations Security Council sanctions against the Syrian government.
This is a broad timeline of the course of major events of the Syrian civil war. It only includes major territorial changes and attacks and does not include every event.
Turkey's involvement in the Syrian civil war began diplomatically and later escalated militarily. Initially, Turkey condemned the Syrian government at the outbreak of civil unrest in Syria during the spring of 2011; the Turkish government's involvement gradually evolved into military assistance for the Free Syrian Army in July 2011, border clashes in 2012, and direct military interventions in 2016–17, in 2018, in 2019, 2020, and in 2022. The military operations have resulted in the Turkish occupation of northern Syria since August 2016.
AANES–Syria relations concern the military and political relations between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab Republic and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), a de facto autonomous multi-ethnic region in northern and eastern Syria. The Syrian government does not officially recognise the autonomy of the AANES, and advocates a centralist approach to the governance of Syria. The NES seeks the federalisation of Syria. For most of the Syrian civil war, there has been a non-aggression pact between the military of Syria and the Syrian Democratic Forces, with occasional confrontations and some cooperation against Islamist groups, in particular against the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army. While the two sides co-operated militarily under Russian supervision since 2019, with Syrian and Russian troops stationed along the Turkish border to prevent further advances, political negotiations have ended in failure. The Syrian government has no authority or institutions in North and East Syria outside of its two security boxes in Qamishli/Qamislo and Al-Hasakah/Heseke. The Autonomous Administration does not allow the Syrian Government to hold elections in areas under its control.
The February 2016 Ankara bombing killed at least 30 people and injured 60 in the capital of Turkey. According to Turkish authorities, the attack targeted a convoy of vehicles carrying both civilian and military personnel working at the military headquarters during the evening rush hour as the vehicles were stopped at traffic lights at an intersection with İsmet İnönü Boulevard close to Kızılay neighborhood. Several ministries, the headquarters of the army and the Turkish Parliament are located in the neighbourhood where the attack occurred. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) took responsibility for the attack and said they targeted security forces. Censorship monitoring organization Turkey Blocks reported nationwide internet restrictions beginning approximately one hour after the blast pursuant to an administrative order. The attack killed 14 military personnel, 14 civilian employees of the military, and a civilian.
Operation Euphrates Shield was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces in the Syrian Civil War which led to the Turkish occupation of northern Syria. Operations were carried out in the region between the Euphrates river to the east and the rebel-held area around Azaz to the west. The Turkish military and Turkey-aligned Syrian rebel groups, some of which used the Free Syrian Army label, fought against the forces of the Islamic State (IS) as well as against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from 24 August 2016. On 29 March 2017, the Turkish military officially announced that Operation Euphrates Shield was "successfully completed".
The Turkish Armed Forces and its ally the Syrian National Army have occupied areas of northern Syria since August 2016, during the Syrian Civil War. Though these areas nominally acknowledge a government affiliated with the Syrian opposition, in practice they constitute a separate proto-state under the dual authority of decentralized native local councils and Turkish military administration.
Operation Olive Branch was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the majority-Kurdish Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Protection Units (YPG) of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The air war and use of major artillery ended as the Arab and Turkmen militias of the SNA entered the city of Afrin on 18 March 2018, and the SDF insurgency in Northern Aleppo began.
The Northern Syria Buffer Zone was a temporary Syrian Civil War demilitarized zone (DMZ) established on the Syrian side of the Syria–Turkey border in August 2019 to maintain security along the border and to dissuade a prospective Turkish invasion of the self-proclaimed Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. The DMZ was administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their military councils and enforced by United States Armed Forces and Turkish Armed Forces personnel.
The 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, code-named Operation Peace Spring by Turkey, was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and later Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in northern Syria.
2010s in Syria political history refers to events during the 2010s in political history of Syria.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from September–December 2019. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
In January 2020, Turkey militarily intervened in support of the United Nations-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) of Libya in the 2014–2020 Libyan civil war. Military intervention was approved by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on 2 January 2020, which passed a one-year mandate to deploy troops to Libya. Turkish military deployments to Libya began on 5 January.
This article overviews the 2010s in Middle Eastern political history
Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952, has its second largest army and is the host of the Allied Land Command headquarters. The Incirlik and Konya Airbases have both been involved in several NATO military operations since their establishment. The current Ambassador to NATO is Zeki Levent Gümrükçü.
On 20 November 2022 the Turkish Air Force launched Operation Claw-Sword, a series of airstrikes against Syrian Democratic Forces and Syrian Army positions in Northern Syria and against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions in Northern Iraq. The airstrikes were launched following the 2022 Istanbul bombing on 13 November, that the Turkish government say was conducted by Kurdish separatists.
{{cite news}}
: |last3=
has generic name (help)