Turkey aims to establish safe zone in northern Syria

NEW YORK

Turkey aims to open up a safe zone in northern Syria as part of an ongoing military operation there, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday.

"Here is our goal: We want to declare a safe zone that is 95 by 45 kilometers (60 by 30 miles), or 4,000-5,000 square kilometers (2,385-3,100 square miles)," Erdogan told an NGO meeting in New York.

The targeted region includes the towns of Jarabulus and al-Rai, which have been liberated from Daesh by moderate opposition forces supported by the Turkish military since Ankara launched Operation Euphrates Shield late last month.

Erdogan said his government wants to build settlements in the safe zone for Syrian refugees in Turkey to return to their country, or for those in Syria who seek to flee the ongoing bloodshed.

He also said a UN convoy hit inside Syria earlier this week was struck by regime forces while entering Aleppo, where nearly 300,000 residents are in need of humanitarian aid amid an ongoing siege.

Assad’s culpability in the atrocity must be exposed, according to Erdogan. "We need to see this. If we are unable to see this reality, shame on us."

Erdogan's remarks on a safe zone in Syria come one day after State Secretary John Kerry demanded all flights above certain parts of the war-torn Mideast country be grounded to allow for an unimpeded flow of aid.

Kerry's words were taken to mean a partial no-fly zone, a move Turkey has demanded but one the Obama administration has been reluctant to implement, citing logistics and troop commitments.

The civil war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of victims and left the country in utter ruin.

Its neighbors have also borne the brunt of the ongoing violence, with Turkey alone shouldering the bulk of the refugee response, hosting nearly 2.7 million UN-registered refugees within its borders.

Speaking at another Turkish-American NGO later in the day, Erdogan said that as the Turkey backed offensive in northern Syria is expanding toward al-Bab, a Daesh stronghold about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south to Turkish border, some countries are asking whether Ankara had consent of Syrian regime in Damascus in its move.

“We do not recognize [Bashar al] Assad regime in Syria as a legitimate addressee,” Erdogan said. “Jarabulus people invited us; al-Rai people invited us. And now people in al-Bab invite us. That is why we intervened in these places.”

Up to now Turkish backed opposition groups have cleared nearly 900 square kilometers of Daesh and PKK/PYD elements, that is one-fifth of the desired safe zone.

Blasting U.S. support for PKK/PYD, Erdogan said he receives information the militant group is committing “ethnic cleansing” in northern Syria by demolishing, confiscating the properties of Arabs, Turkmens and other ethnic groups.

He added that the PKK/PYD’s actions in that part of the country is building up the foundation of a painful and bloody era.

Noting Turkey’s objection to the militant groups separatist actions, Erdogan said Ankara and Washington are yet to reach a common understanding in that regard.