Turkish Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar stated on Tuesday the end of all preparations for carrying out a new trans-border operation in Syria.
“The Turkish Armed Forces have ended all preparations within the scope of employment. We will carry out all the necessary actions in Manbij and in the east of the Euphrates in due time,” the defense minister said.
“The only target of the Turkish Armed Forces is terrorists,” Akar added, referring to preparations for a military operation against the People's Protection Units YPG in northern Syria.
In the past month, Turkish forces have been massing along the Syrian border for a military strike against the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG. Ankara considers the YPG as terrorists linked to a decades-long Kurdish insurgency in Turkey.
Akar pointed out that Turkey stresses in talks around Syria with concerned countries, namely the US, the need for a swift YPG retreat from Manbij.
On June 4, Turkey and the United States signed the "road map" agreement for Manbij, which included a US commitment to pull out Kurdish “units” from Manbaj to the east of the Euphrates within a 90-day timeframe, after which the town will be placed under security supervision until a local council is formed.
In an argument to validate Ankara’s operations inside Syria, Akar said that the Adana Treaty signed between Ankara and Damascus in 1998, authorizes Turkey to carry out operations against what he labeled as “terrorists” within the Syrian territory.
The Adana Agreement was signed on October 20, 1998, by Egyptian-Iranian mediation to prevent a war between Turkey and Syria, which housed the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and established training camps for its elements on its soil.
In the same vein, Turkish analysts said Ankara had three options for a military operation targeting the Kurdish "units" east of the Euphrates.
One analyst at the Milliyet daily said the first option was to move forward with the understanding on forming a safe zone proposed by President Donald Trump in December.
The second is the activation of the Adana Agreement, proposed by Russia, which would allow for a unilateral Turkish offensive in Syria. The third is to establish a region free of terrorism on its border with Syria.
