As the Turkish artillery started shelling enemy positions, the Turkish ground troops are amassing at its border with Syria, preparing for an invasion of the province of Afrin, where it claims Kurdish forces have gathered 30,000 men strong ‘terrorist army’.
As we’ve informed you yesterday, Turkish President Erdogan has already been in contact with Russian authorities, whom he believes hold sway over Syrian airspace, to ask ‘permission’ to fly over the northern zone with his air force in order to bomb out the Kurdish troops.
Turkey starts shelling northern Syria amid opposition from Damascus pic.twitter.com/KRtZ8YPyP7
— Press TV (@PressTV) January 19, 2018
Turkey has for months claimed that the Kurdish YPG fighters from Afrin, whom the US supports, are regarded as a terrorist group.
Meanwhile, the Syrian government of Bashar Al-Assad is warning against a possible invasion of the Turkish army and has stated it would shoot down any Turkish jet.
New footage from #Afrin pic.twitter.com/sK0bx5TW6g
— Mutlu Civiroglu (@mutludc) January 19, 2018
The de-facto proxy war that the US and Russia have fought in Syria is now turning against them as another great force in the region, Turkey, threatens to take matters into their own hands before any group at its border becomes too powerful.
Mr. Rizan Habou, of the Syrian Democratic Council in Afrin, stated: "When the villages in Afrin are shelled, the civilians including women and children are forced to leave their houses and go to the relatively safer surrounding open space and farmland till the shelling stops."
"The YPG and the civilians will defend Afrin to the last moment."
‘Tomorrow or tonight’ - Turkish Defence Mininister on Turkey's commitment to carrying out the military operation in Afrin pic.twitter.com/36pXwmVOon
— Ruptly (@Ruptly) January 19, 2018
Turkey's military and intelligence chiefs are still negotiating with Moscow to try and get Russian agreement for allowing Turkish planes to use the Russian-controlled airspace above Afrin.
Moscow’s support is key in this operation. Not only is Putin the key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he also has a battalion of soldiers stationed at the Afrin airport.
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As the Nazi treated Jews and murdered them…. so have the Truks done the Kurds and even earlier in the 20th century.