«The revolution, the necessity of which the Bolsheviks have always talked about, has taken place,» declared Vladimir Lenin on October 25, 1917. By analogy, yesterday it became possible to say that the operation in northeastern Syria, the necessity of which Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been talking about for years, has taken place — it has not yet been completed, but it has already begun. Surprisingly (actually not), not everyone was happy about it.
The EU countries called on Turkey to stop the operation, Lavrov called on the «Syrian Kurds» to return under the wing of Damascus, and the American White House continued its presentation of the leading global circus that it has become under the leadership of its current owner, the distinguished clown Donald Trump. In the past day, he managed to publish several contradictory tweets, accusing the Kurds on the one hand and threatening Turkey on the other. Today, his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo even stated that the USA had not given Ankara a «green light» for this operation.
But that doesn’t matter — nor does what the European Union countries are saying. After all, their statements and warnings have been observed in previous years when their strong position was actually needed — during the occupation of Crimea and aggression in Donbass, inhuman bombings, chemical attacks and mass executions in Syria and the real industry of concentration camps for Uyghurs in China. And yet — accompanied by its threatening warnings — the EU continued its trade relations with Putin’s Russia and even returned it to the PACE, began to restore consular relations with the Assad regime through individual members, and cooperated well with China. So they will eat with Turkey as they have eaten with them.
For the Turkish leadership, bringing this Syrian epic to a conclusion is not only a matter of prestige and face-saving, but literally a matter of survival, given the sharpness of the Syrian refugee issue and its impact on the domestic political situation in the country.
However, we also want to express our deep concern about the start of the «Fountain of Peace» operation in Syria. However, unlike all of the above, we do not insist on its cessation, but on its determined implementation and the achievement of all declared goals. And these are, we should remind, the creation of a safe zone up to 30 kilometers deep along the entire perimeter of the Turkish state border and the areas of Syria controlled by the communist terrorists of the YPG and the so-called SDF.
Our concern is precisely that instead of these stated goals, the operation will not be limited to capturing a few cities and conducting a series of strikes against the YPG-SDF. And there are some reasons for this, because compared to the previous «Olive Branch» operation, which we covered extensively, the current operation is being carried out more sluggishly, judging by the pace of advance of Turkish forces and the Syrian National Army into enemy territory.
Meanwhile, the placement of 2 to 4 million Syrian refugees from Turkey in the safe zone, as promised by Erdogan, is impossible in just a few new cities. It requires sufficiently large and, what is equally important, developed and protected areas. And, as we have written many times, this, in turn, requires Turkey to guarantee their political status, for which it is necessary to recognize the opposition’s transitional government as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in all the territories liberated during the operations «Euphrates Shield», «Olive Branch» and «Fountain of Peace». It is also necessary to conclude cooperation and security agreements with them and to integrate all armed groups in this area into the Syrian National Army.
In other words, it should be about the creation of a full-fledged — except for international recognition — state, a free (from the Assad regime, communists and extremists) Syrian state under the protection of Turkey, similar to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Which, like it, can negotiate for decades with the «internationally recognized» power of Damascus on the parameters of reunification, reconciliation, blah-blah-blah.
And yes, there is no need to pity the «poor Kurds» or wish them harm. As promised by the Turkish leadership, peaceful Kurds, the Kurdish people, will not be threatened in case of a successful operation. Just as after Operation Olive Branch, the Kurds will continue to live in their traditional areas, maintain their local self-government, and be represented in the central authorities of Free Syria.
Moreover, unlike the Syrian Sunni rebels, even the PKK/YPG communists are not in a life-or-death situation — as the map above shows, they will still control as much territory as they could only dream of recently, even after leaving this corridor.