The Turkish president has threatened to “open the gates” for Syrian refugees in his country to migrate to Europe if the continent’s countries label Turkey’s military campaign in north-easternSyriaan “occupation”.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğanwarned European leaders he would “open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way” during a combative speech at a meeting of lawmakers from his Justice and Development (AK) party.
Ankara would continue to imprison the Islamic State detainees in the territory it captures and try to repatriate them to their country of citizenship, Erdoğan said, adding that wives and children would undergo deradicalisation programs.
As he spoke, Turkish warplanes and artillery continued to strike border towns in north-eastern Syria on Thursday, hours afterits troops crossed into the regionto wrest it from US-backed Kurdish forces.
There were reports of gunfire throughout Thursday morning as the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) clashed with Turkish soldiers on the outskirts of the towns of Tel Abyad and and Ras al-Ayn.
Turkey’s state-run news agency claimed that Ankara-allied Syrian militia had taken control of a small town near Tel Abyad called Yabisa, describing it as “the first village to win freedom”. Another village, Tel Fander, was also in the militant group’s control, the Anadolu news agency said.
The SDF claimed to be successfully repelling Turkish troops from entering at least two other towns. The Turkish ministry of defense said on Thursday morning it had achieved its targets so far. “Operation continues successfully as planned,” it tweeted.
Turkish troops crossed the border into north-eastern Syria on Wednesday evening after an earlier barrage of airstrikes and artillerysignalled the beginning of a long-planned operationto establish a 20 – mile buffer zone between the two countries. The Turkish military later said it had hit 181 “militant targets”.
Video footage showed civilians fleeing towns with columns of smoke rising in the background and jet trails visible in the sky. Kurdish activist groups estimated tens of thousands of civilians had fled their homes after the beginning of the Turkish offensive.
Erdoğan said on Thursday his troops had killed 109 SDF fighters. The SDF operations center had earlier put the casualty figure at three fighters and eight civilians. Local humanitarian groups said another 25 civilians had been injured. Pictures and video from border towns shared on social media showed wrecked buildings and bodies in the rubble.
Turkey’s offensive was triggered by a callbetween Donald Trump andErdoğanon Sunday, in which, the Turks claim, Trumphanded over leadership of the campaignagainst Isis in Syria to Ankara. The American president announced on Sunday night that US troops would withdraw from the region.
Gülnur Aybet, one of the Turkish president’s senior advisers, told CNN: “President Trump and President Erdoğan have reached an understanding over precisely what this operation is. ”Aybet added that Trump“ knows what the scope of this operation is ”.
Hours after the bombing began, Trump issued a statement mildly criticizing the offensive aimed at Kurdish forces, which for nearly five years fought alongside the US against Isis.
“The United States does not endorse this attack and has made it clear toTurkeythat this operation is a bad idea, ”the statement said, before noting:“ There are no American soldiers in the area. ”
In remarks later, Trump presented the invasion as a historical inevitability, saying Turks and Kurds “have been fighting each other for centuries”.And he downplayed the US debt to Kurdish fighters, saying: “They didn’t help us in the second world war, they didn’t help us with Normandy… but they’re there to help us with their land. ”
He said Isis fighters who escaped Kurdish custody would be “escaping to Europe […] they want to go back to their homes”.
Trump tweeted on Thursday morning that ahead of the Turkish offensive the US had extricated from Kurdish custodytwo Isis detaineeswho were members of “the Beatles”, a gang of four jailers who were allegedly responsible for the torture and beheading of prisoners, including the American photojournalist James Foley.
The UN security council is due to convene on Thursday to discuss the offensive at the request of its five current European members, but it is not expected to deliver a strong rebuke to Turkey, given tacit Russian support and US ambivalence.
Turkey says it is seeking to establish a 20 -mile (32 km) wide buffer zone along the border against the threat of what it says are Kurdish terror groups as well as Isis. It also hopes to resettle Syrian refugees in the zone.
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