Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly threatened a Turkish offensive on the Syrian border in recent months. Now, the invasion of Turkey is imminent. There should be no support for this from the USA. As the White House announced, US forces will not participate in the announced offensive.
After a telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Erdogan, Washington said that in the future, US soldiers will no longer be present in the "immediate area". "Turkey will soon move forward with its long-planned deployment in northern Syria," the White House said.
The US Army will "neither support nor be involved in the Turkish offensive". Therefore, the soldiers would be withdrawn from the region after the "victory" over the jihadist militia "Islamic State" (IS).
Turkey now responsible for captured IS fighters
Washington also said that the US would not accept arrested IS fighters from the region at the expense of US taxpayers. Germany, France and other European countries from which the IS followers came would not have wanted them despite pressure from Washington. Now Turkey is responsible for all IS fighters who have been captured in the region over the past two years with the help of US forces, the White House said.
In addition, Syrians who had fled to Turkey in their homeland before the war, the homecoming will be made possible, said Erdogan. He had recently announced plans to relocate two million of the approximately 3.6 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey to the planned security zone in northern Syria. A statement issued by the presidential palace in Ankara also said that Erdogan and Trump had arranged a personal meeting in Washington in November.
Security concerns of Turkey
The area on the northern Syrian borders is controlled by the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG. For the US, the Kurds have been a long-time ally in the fight against IS. Turkey sees in the YPG, however, an offshoot of the banned Kurdish workers' party PKK and thus a terrorist organization.
The presence of Kurdish troops on the border with Turkey sees Erdogan as a threat to Turkey. He justified the planned offensive with Turkish security interests.