(TRUNEWS) Turkey has reportedly launched a ground invasion of Syria over the memorial day weekend. Their army units are currently being spotted in vicinity of Aleppo.
Reports first broke Friday on the Al Mayadeen TV Channel that Turkish soldiers had set a checkpoint near the city of Afrin, a predominately Kurdish city located 60 km Northwest of Aleppo province. Prior to the troop movement, Turkish artillery had barraged areas of the Syrian Aleppo province including Menagh Military Airbase (50km from Aleppo), a captured ISIS airbase occupied by Kurdish People’s Protection Units near the city of Azaz. Pravda reported the strikes hit civilian homes.
On Monday, Ahmet Arac, a member of the Democratic Majlis of Syria and of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PDS) confirmed to Sputnik the validity of previous reports Erdogan’s forces had crossed the Turkish-Syrian border Friday.
“Yesterday the Turkish Army carried out rocket attacks on the positions of Democratic Forces of Syria,” Arac said. “Two days ago, the Turkish military entered the village of Hamam in Afrin area. We are ready to repel any attack. Meanwhile, FSA units are suffering serious defeat in clashes with Daesh. They have already lost control of 12 villages. If Daesh comes to Azaz, ‘Democratic Syrian Forces’ will repel the jihadists, and not allow them to enter the city.” Arac warned.
On Tuesday FARS News Agency, Tehran’s unofficial mouthpiece, reported that several units of the Turkish Army had crossed the border with Aleppo province in Northern Syria and have deployed forces in vicinity of Azaz and Marea. FNA quoted Sputnik’s Monday source, Ahmet Arac, as saying that “hundreds of the Turkish soldiers crossed the Syrian border at Bab al-Salameh border-crossing and deployed their forces in al-Shahba’a region near Marea and Azaz.”
“The Turkish Armed Forces are preparing an offensive in the Azaz and Marea regions that have been the scenes of tough battles between the ISIL terrorists and its rival group of the Free Syrian Army,” Arac said.
Arac also said the Turkish Army had carried out rocket attacks Sunday on the positions of Democratic Forces of Syria and that on Saturday Turkish military forces had once again crossed into Syria, were heading toward the Northern province of Aleppo, and had set up a checkpoint in the region.
The FNA article also stated that a large number of Turkish soldiers, accompanied by several armored vehicles, entered the territory of Syria from Jandires region, 700 meter away from the Northwestern lands of Aleppo, and set up a military checkpoint to monitor civilians’ movements in the border region.
ERDOGAN’S LINK TO ISIS
If true, these latest moves by Erdogan’s regime constitute an outright invasion of Syrian sovereignty. Syrian President Bashar Assad has previously condemned Turkey as a complicit arm of ISIS, and has said that the insurgent forces are receiving physical aid from the government of both Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
In an interview with Sputnik on March 31st Assad said:
“..Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia, have crossed all possible red lines, possibly from the first weeks of the Syrian war. Today, the war against Erdogan and against Saudi Arabia is a war against terrorists. The Turkish army, which is not even Turkish, is Erdogan’s army that is fighting today in Syria. Everything that Ankara and Riyadh have done from the very beginning can be considered aggression. Aggression in a political sense or in a military sense – providing terrorists with arms – or direct aggression with the use of artillery, and other military violations. Erdogan is directly supporting the terrorists as he allows them to move into Turkish territory, to carry out maneuvers with tanks. This concerns not only individuals, he finances them [terrorists] through Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and through Turkey itself, of course. Turkey trades oil that has been stolen by IS (Islamic State, Daesh), at the same time carrying out artillery attacks against the Syrian army – when it moves close – in order to help the terrorists. They are terrorists and when we attack these terrorists in Syria, this leads to Erdogan’s direct defeat..”
But if true, what exactly does Turkey look to accomplish by this land incursion and directly supporting ISIS? Andrei Manoilo, Doctor of Political Sciences and a Professor at Moscow State University told Pravda that:
“I think that Turkey is going to unblock a part of the Syrian-Turkish border, because the Russian and Syrian forces, as well as Kurdish units, intend to take the Syrian-Turkish border entirely under their control to cut the channels of illegal arms supplies from Turkey to the terrorist group in Aleppo. Storming a large city is always extremely difficult. Terrorists from Jabhat en-Nusra and ISIL still hold a half of the city. If they are deprived of supplies, if their channels are cut, then the group in Aleppo is doomed to destruction. Turkey does not like such a prospect, so they intend to change the situation – they need to push the Syrian troops away from the border.”
Previously, TRUNEWS has reported on the insidious relationship between Turkey and ISIS, as well as the oil trade which has fueled the barbarous terrorist organization.
A general view shows a damaged street with sandbags used as barriers in Aleppo’s Saif al-Dawla district, Syria March 6, 2015. REUTERS/Hosam Katan/File Photo
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