Damascus on Thursday warned Turkey against launching a military operation in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin region of northern Syria, asserting that air defense forces were ready to destroy Turkish airliners.
“We warn the Turkish leadership that if it initiates hostilities in the Syrian region of Afrin, it will be considered an act of aggression by the Turkish army on the sovereignty of the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic,” Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad said in a statement published by the official news agency SANA. “He said.
“Syria will meet any hostile Turkish action or launch military action against Syria by appropriate confrontation,” he said.
“We are aware that the Syrian Air Defense Force has regained its full strength and is ready to destroy the Turkish air targets in Syria. This means that if Turkish air strikes on Syria, it should not consider itself a picnic,” he said.
“I confirm and hope that the Turks will hear well and that this message will be clear to all concerned that Afrin, especially the northern and north-eastern regions of the Syrian Arab Republic, have been immortal and will remain Syrian Arab land,” he said.
The Syrian warning comes two days after remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he threatened to conduct a military operation against Kurdish militia forces in northern Syria.
Erdogan said in a speech to the meeting of his party’s parliamentary group, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), that Turkey was prepared to conduct an operation against Kurdish militia forces in northern Syria.
“In a short time, we will destroy all the horrors of terrorism, one by one, in Syria, starting with the regions of Afrin and Manbaj,” he said.
The Turkish escalation came against the backdrop of the announcement by the United States, which is leading the international coalition against the organization of the Islamic state in Syria and Iraq, from the formation of what it called a “border security force” expected to include 30,000 fighters under the command of the “Syrian Democratic Forces”.
The Turkish authorities say the northern Kurdish city of Afrin, which is predominantly Kurdish and is home to “people’s protection units,” represents a real threat to Turkish security.
Turkey sees the People’s Protection Units as a Syrian branch of the PKK, which Ankara considers a “terrorist group” while the United States supports people’s protection units as a field ally in the fight against the organization of the Islamic state in Syria.
Turkey, along with Russia and Iran, is the guarantor of Syria’s deal to reduce tensions.
“If Ankara takes any military action, it will place its position as one of the sponsors of the settlement in the crisis in Syria and will present itself to a single degree with the terrorist groups,” he said in a statement.
Damascus rejects any Turkish presence on its soil and has repeatedly demanded that Turkish troops leave Syrian territory “immediately and without any conditions.”
Turkish forces have been in Syria since backing the opposition factions in their war in northern Syria on August 24, 2016 under the “Euphrates Shield” against Kurdish fighters and the organization of the Islamic state, despite the announcement of its end in late March 2017.
