When Turkish ground troops rolled into Afrin, a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria, in January, the regime was making a considered political calculation. The campaign, which Ankara called Operation Olive Branch, involves Turkish Army Forces and Free Syrian Army troops supported by an air campaign, and aims to oust fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from Afrin.

One of the reasons the Turkish presidency gave for the operation was so that it could start sending some of the 3.5m Syrian refugees living in Turkey, back to a safe zone in Syria. It was doing this in the name of “European security”.

This marks a return of rhetoric in which Turkey presents itself as useful to Europe’s security. Such rhetoric dominated Turkey’s security culture during the Cold War, when it was aligned with the West against the Soviet Union, but was abandoned in the 1990s and 2000s as it developed relations with Russia and Middle Eastern states.

Once again, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, argues that the country can help fight terrorism in Europe by stopping onward irregular migration. Today, Turkey’s message to Europe is clear: we are dealing with your threats, so you should help and allow us to address ours.

This new operation is not the first time Erdoğan’s regime has strategically used Syrian refugees in its dealings with Europe. After the collapse of the peace negotiations between the government of Turkey and the Kurdish movement in 2015-16, the Turkish Armed Forces launched military operations in south-east Turkey against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is linked to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party. According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, more than 2,000 civilians were killed and 355,000 people were displaced during these operations. Several towns were wiped off the map, including the historical city of Sur.

The regime played the Syrian refugees card to quieten criticism from Europe. The result was the March 2016 EU-Turkey refugee deal, in which irregular migrants arriving in the EU from Turkey were to be returned – with €6 billion pledged to Turkey by the EU. The deal was negotiated as journalists and academics, critical of the the military operations against the Kurds, were being targeted by Turkish authorities.

Linking refugees to Europe’s security

Erdoğan played the refugee card once again in November 2016 when the European Parliament voted to freeze negotiations on Turkey joining the EU. Realising how important it was to Europe that Syrian refugees were kept in Turkey rather than attempting the dangerous sea crossing to Greece, he said “if you go any further, these border gates will be opened”. In July 2017, the European Parliament called for the suspension of Turkey’s accession process. The issue of Turkish accession became a heated issue during Germany’s election in September 2017, when the chancellor, Angela Merkel, said she would seek to end membership talks.

With Operation Olive Branch, Syrian refugees are being used to further Turkey’s strategic interests beyond its borders – with an explicit reference made at the same time to “securing” Europe.

In the initial days of the operation, Turkey’s official presidential Twitter account explained that one of the operation’s objectives was “to ensure the safe return of displaced Syrians to their homes” and that it would “curb the flow of terrorist elements and undocumented migrants into Europe”. The logic was that once the operation was concluded, it would allow “500,000 refugees to return to Afrin”.

Reflecting on this on January 30, the Brussels representative for the ruling Justice and Development party said: “The operation will lead to the return of Syrian refugees in Turkey. The fewer refugees in Turkey, the less migrant flow to Europe.”

Reviving Cold War rhetoric

It’s unclear whether the EU and its member states’ relative silence on the operation in Afrin is related to Turkey’s strategic use of refugees. Yet, given the Erdoğan regime’s practices in recent years, it appears Turkey has revived the mentality that dominated Turkey’s security culture during the Cold War: securing Turkey means securing Europe, and by extension, NATO.

The EU recognises that its security is under threat from “illegal migrants” and terrorism. Turkey’s military operation in Syria against the Kurdish autonomous region – which is a threat to Turkey itself – will also help Europe address its own threat. The news outlet of a pro-regime thinktank, SETA, recently put this in plain terms: “If Europe and the EU want to protect their own values, then they should support Turkey’s operation.”

By broadly linking undocumented migration and terrorism, Erdoğan is reflecting an issue that has captured the EU’s security mentality in the post-9/11 era. Turkey has clearly learned that linking an issue with migration offers advantages in its dealings with the EU. It is a transit country for undocumented migrants and is likely to ask the EU to launch new mechanisms and financial aid in the area of counter-terrorism cooperation in return for preventing future irregular migration.

Turkey needs to position itself as Europe’s security provider in order to pursue its own strategic interests of weakening the Kurdish autonomous region in Syria and replacing it with a pro-Turkey or neutral “safe zone”. And to do so without invoking disturbing noises from Europe.

Turkey has embraced its position as the EU’s border guard. The regime realises that migrants contained in Turkey will be useful to further its interests both domestically and internationally. And Europe appears content, for now, to play Turkey’s neo-Cold War game.

Source: http://theconversation.com/turkey-is-using-syrian-refugees-as-bargaining-chips-as-it-moves-against-the-kurds-90904

The post Turkey is using Syrian refugees as bargaining chips as it moves against the Kurds first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

(CNN)Kurdish families huddle on blankets in a dimly lit cave. Others hide in the rubble of a bombed-out building, gathered around a campfire. Those that have basements seek shelter there.

Afrin residents sit on blankets carpeting the floor of a cave.

“The airplane has been dropping bombs for five days now. They are dropping missiles and bombs. My dad says not to go out because of the war planes and so we are sleeping in the huts. All our homes are destroyed.”

Khaled stands outside one of the structures where civilians are seeking shelter. Children mill around behind him, restless. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), families have been prevented from leaving the area by local authorities. The humanitarian organization has had to suspend child protection services there amid the violence.

Um Muhammed, Khaled’s mother, asks why Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is bombing her people.

“What did we do to him?” she says in Arabic.

“We lost our homes our children, nothing is left … why would this happen to us? Is not this a shame that children have to live like that? We are human beings, are we not? Why are they doing this to us?”

“This is a massacre,” she adds, breaking down in tears. “Please convey our message we are pleading with the international community to stop the killing of the civilians stop the airstrikes and the war against us.”

Afrin has borne the brunt of Turkey’s attacks since January 20, when Ankara launched Operation Olive Branch to remove Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and ISIS militants from the area along its border.

The military operations have predominately targeted Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units, or YPG. The militia, which has been critical to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against ISIS, is viewed by Ankara as a terrorist organization.

A plume of smoke billows over Afrin as bombardment continues.

Turkey sees the quest by the Kurds — who are spread out in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq — to establish an independent homeland as an existential threat to its territorial integrity. And Turkey has long warned that it will not tolerate YPG control of much of its border with Syria.

Hevi Mustafa, the co-president of the executive council of Afrin, praises the resolve and confidence of the forces fighting the onslaught.

Mustafa calls the Turkish attacks “barbaric” and says she hopes the international community will hold the Turkish government accountable for the violence.

“Our soldiers are fighting fiercely. They took on the defense of Afrin themselves,” she says. “We expected this attack on our areas because we are part of a democratic project and wanting to end the Syrian crisis in this project. Of course, the Turkish government, they don’t want to end the crisis in Syria.”

A child rests after being treated in Avrin Hospital in Afrin.

On Wednesday, the SDF said an “invasion army” of Turkish fighters and terrorists with Al-Nusra, al Qaeda’s former affiliate in Syria, pounded Afrin with Katyusha rockets, targeting Afrin’s largely civilian Ashrafia neighborhood and wounded people were taken to hospitals. The SDF said civilians, from children to the elderly, were injured.

“Right now we are overwhelmed with injured and killed civilians,” says Dr. Jawan Muhammed, general manager of the hospital in Afrin.

“Our hospital is unable to cope, Our surgery rooms are overwhelmed. We conduct 18 surgeries a day. We are using up all our medical supplies because of the overwhelming number of casualties as a result of indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery fire.”

Turkish forces on Wednesday reported more deaths in the region, citing rocket fire and shelling, but blamed them on “terrorists” linked to the PKK.

A wounded Kurdish man talks on the phone at the hospital.

Turkey views the YPG as indistinguishable from the PKK and says those entities have been hiding out in Afrin since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime left in 2012.

According to the Turkish General Staff, the operation is being carried out under the framework of Turkey’s rights based on international law. The military also says avoiding civilian casualties is of the “utmost importance.”

“Only the terrorists and their shelters, barracks, weapons, tools and equipment are targeted, and all kinds of attention and sensitivity are shown to avoid damage to civilian/innocent people and to the environment,” the Turkish Armed Forces said in a statement.

The people hiding in Afrin’s caves have a different view.

One woman asks, “What are the planes wanting from us? What are they bombing us for? What do they want from us and what do they want from the little children?”

A young girl named Yasmin went into hiding with her mother and her brothers after her father was killed.

Fatima Muhammed (right), is sheltering in a cave with about a dozen others.

“It is really dark here. We are so scared because it is really noisy. They are conducting airstrikes. What did we do to them? We are just kids. Why is this our fault?” she asks.

Fatima Muhammed, bundled in a red sweater, her hair wrapped in a purple scarf, is among about a dozen people hiding out in the same cave.

“We ended up in the streets and in the caves … we can’t go back to our homes, they are all destroyed,” she says. “What kind of a country strikes civilians in this manner?”

This story has been updated to correct a misattributed quote.

CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/01/middleeast/syria-kurds-assault-civilians-intl/index.html

The post ‘This is a massacre’: Turkey’s bombs drive families into caves first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.