Turkish and American joint patrols begin in the “safe zone” in Syria

The US and Turkish forces began this Sunday to mobilize their first joint patrols in the so-called “safe zone” that is scheduled to be established in northwestern Syria and agreed between the two countries last month.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that this is part of the second stage of the agreement agreed by Washington with Ankara on August 7, whose ultimate goal is to put a border strip of territory under Turkish control and avoid a possible military operation in the region .

This region in the north and northeast of Syria is controlled by the Kurdish authorities, which escapes the domain of the Syrian central government.

Ankara considers the Kurds who dominate that territory east of the Euphrates River to be “terrorists” because of their ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the active Kurdish guerrillas in Turkey, and have been threatening to launch an operation in the northeast for months from Syria, even without Washington’s approval.

The first stage of the agreement was the withdrawal of the Democratic Syrian Forces (FSD), a Kurd-led alliance supported by Washington, from that area.

In recent days, the land of this “safe zone” that is situated between the cities of Ras al Ain and Tal Abyad, in northeastern Syria, has been prepared.

Although these joint patrols have begun, all the points of the agreement between Ankara and Washington are still unclear.

Kurdish authorities have reiterated that Turkey will not step on or dominate any area in northeastern Syria and Kurdish guards have been deployed in that future “safe zone” on the border with Turkey, which are part of local councils and supported by the international coalition led for the United States, which are also present on the ground.

On September 5, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened to “open the doors” and let the refugees in his country pass to Europe, unless the European Union gives economic and logistical help to resettle one million Syrians in that “safe zone.”

Erdogan wants to resettle there at least one million Syrian refugees, of the 3.6 million that Turkey now hosts.

Turkey, which already has a presence in the border area that runs from Azaz to Yarabulus and that since 2018 also controls the Kurdish canton of Afrín, also agreed in September last year with Russia, main ally of Damascus, another security zone in the northwest of the country, specifically in the Idlib region.

Source: Turkish and American joint patrols begin in the “safe zone” in Syria | Spain’s News