Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a Turkish offensive against jihadists in the Syrian Ibid territory on Sunday. That is the only region of Syria still under the control of rebel forces, like reported by neweurope.eu.
The offensive aims to purge the territory from Turkey’s former allies, the Nusra Front, the German public broadcaster DW reports. According to the German public broadcaster, the Turkish offensive is supported by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), that is, the militia of the Syrian opposition.
The offensive follows an agreement with Russia, Iran, and the Syrian government to purge the region from Jihadists. The Nusra Front spearheads a broader jihadist front called the Tahrir al-Sham; that is the second biggest Jihadist group after the Islamic State.
The Nusra Front is Turkey’s former ally. Until last year, the organization was an Al Qaeda affiliate.
In May 2016, a Turkish court sentenced Cumhuriyet’s former editor, Can Dundar, to five years and ten months in prison for allegedly revealing state secrets. At the time, the paper published the transcripts of audio tapes confirming that Turkey provided financial and military aid to terrorist groups associated with Al Qaeda in their fight against the Assad regime.
According to Reuters, the agreement between Ankara and Moscow is that Turkey and the FSA will deal with Jihadist groups in the Idlib province, while Russia will prevent the creation of a Kurdish corridor to theMediterranean Sea. Turkey fears that the US-armed Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria may be able to create an autonomous Kurdish entity along the border with Syria. The 50,000 strong militia have been key US allies and have been armed by Washington.
