SOHR: Turkey’s Threat To Invade NE Syria Is Pro Forma Announcement

A source of the Turkish-backed armed Syrian opposition factions (also known as the Syrian National Army, SNA) said on Monday that Turkey’s remarks about a potential military operation against northeast Syria was a pro forma announcement.

The official of the National Front for Liberation (a part of the SNA), who preferred to be unnamed, said, “Postponing the operation and not starting it so far is due to an American and a Russian pressure on Turkey.”

This comes to “force Turkey to either waive some specific claims or give up some Syrian areas run by the Syrian opposition factions in turn for allowing it to launch the potential operation,” he added.

He further explained that news have been circulated by local and Turkish media websites about “the place and date of the potential military operation was mere words.”

On May 23, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara would soon launch new military operations along its southern borders claiming to create a 30-km deep Safe Zone in response to threats coming from this region.

The Turkish Safe Zone is an area of 30-35 km (19-22 miles) on its southern border deep into Syrian territory that Turkey started establishing in 2019, claiming that it aims at settling Syrian refugees in, as well as to keep it free from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which it regards as terrorists.

The Turkish president has threatened to invade the areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) seven times between October 2019 and May 2022, according to a statistic released by Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).