Erdogan vows to press Syria offensive to key Kurdish-held towns

[FarCenter]

ISTANBUL (AFP) -
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday vowed to expand Turkey's offensive in Syria against Kurdish militia to key border towns controlled by the group right up to the Iraqi frontier.

Turkey launched its operation seeking to oust Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia from the Afrin region of northern Syria on January 20 and Erdogan said Thursday its forces could now enter Afrin town at "any moment".

But Ankara has always threatened to expand the operation to the east to oust the YPG from the swathe of territory it controls right up to Iraq.

Speaking to supporters in the city of Mersin, Erdogan said the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels wanted to oust the YPG from all the towns they control close to the Turkish border.

"Once we have purged the terrorists (from Afrin) we will then cleanse them from Manbij, Ayn al-Arab, Tel-Abyad, Ras al-Ayn and Qamishli," he said in televised comments.

Manbij, the next main YPG-held town east of Afrin, is a particular flashpoint as it has an American military presence there.

Ayn al-Arab, better known by its Kurdish name Kobane, has huge symbolic importance as it was the epicentre of a struggle with Islamic State (IS) jihadists which was eventually won by the Kurds.

Qamishli is seen as the main town of the YPG-controlled region.

http://www.france24.com/en/20180310-erdogan-vows-press-syria-offensive-key-kurdish-held-towns

[tomp]

1. so, the Turks, the Syrians, and the Iraqis, have all been trying to suppress the Kurds...

...at one time or another.

How did the Kurds end up with so many powerful enemies? Why do so many regimes in the region perceive them as being so dangerous?

[FarCenter]

2. Since 1500 or so, Kurdistan was contested land between the Ottomans and the Persians

The Arabs didn't really figure in until after WW I and the Sykes Picot treaty drew the boundaries of Syria and Iraq to include parts of Kurdistan. Previously, for example, the Ottomans had ruled three provinces, Shiite Basra, Sunni Baghdad, and Kurdish Mosul, in what is now the somewhat irrational country of Iraq.