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Turkish annexation of northern Syria displaced 66,000 people

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The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says a total of 66,000 people have been displaced due to fresh fighting in northern Syria, where Turkey has been carrying out operations. 

The agency said on Sunday that 39,766 people have been forced out of their homes in the Syrian city of al-Bab and the nearby town of Tadif which Turkish forces are trying to control.

Displaced people have fled north to militant-controlled areas where “high contamination” of unexploded bombs and booby traps planted by retreating terrorists is further complicating the situation, it added.

Turkey launched a major military incursion into Syria in August 2016 in a move denounced by Damascus as a breach of its sovereignty.

Ankara claimed at the time that its military campaign was aimed at stopping Kurdish advances and driving away Daesh from the Turkish-Syrian border but since then it has occupied at least two major Syrian cities.

Turkey has lately announced plans to advance into the Syrian city of Manbij after seizing al-Bab. Manbij is currently held by the so-called Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed outfit of mostly Kurdish militants.

Additionally, OCHA estimated that 26,000 people have left their homes east of al-Bab, where Syrian government forces are engaged in an offensive against Daesh.

The Syrian army troops and allied fighters have been fighting against different foreign-backed terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the Arab country since 2011.

More than half of Syria’s population have been displaced over the past six years.

 

Turkey Davutoğlu outlines locations for potential (annexation) of Syria

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Turkish Prime Minister Davutoğlu has told Al-Jazeera Arabic that ‘safe zones’ against ISIL on Syria’s border with Turkey should protect ‘areas with n_73054_1populations over a certain density,’ marking a large region from the Mediterranean to Iraq’s border, (neo-ottoman border)

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has clarified the locations of possible internationally sanctioned safe zones near Syria’s border with Turkey, outlining a line stretching from the Mediterranean to Iraq.

“The buffer zone we mean here is not a military definition, but a humanitarian safe zone under military protection,” Davutoğlu said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Arabic on Oct. 15.

After noting that safe zones should protect “areas with populations over a certain density,” the Turkish PM mentioned the need to connect the Turkish border with northern Latakia, “certain areas in al-Hasakah,” as well as Jarabulus, Ayn-al Arab (Kobane), Tel Abyad, Idlib and Afrin to protect Syria’s Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens.

Davutoğlu stressed that the depth of the safe zone could change according to varying humanitarian situations in these areas, but he reiterated that Turkey would not take the risk of intervention alone.

“United Nations Security Council can’t take any decisions due to certain vetoes. Then, the international coalition that was created for an intervention in Syria and the coalition of the willing can take certain decisions and provide air protection [for the safe zone],” he said, recalling the internationally sanctioned no-fly zone in Saddam Hussein-era Iraq.

The Turkish government has faced international and domestic pressure as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants have advanced toward Kobane, but Davutoğlu countered the criticism by slamming his critics.

“The fall of Ayn-al Arab could really sadden us, and we will do everything to stop it, but where were they when Raqqa [the stronghold of ISIL] fell? Where where they when Jarabulus, Mosul fell?” he said.