Turkish military offensive on Afrin
Front course
| date | January 20, 2018 - March 18, 2018 |
|---|---|
| place | Northern Syria, Afrin |
| output | Turkish occupation of Afrin, establishment of a security zone . |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
u. a. |
|
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
 Turkey : 6,400
|
8,000-10,000 (estimates, late January) 20,000 (Kurdish number, mid-February) |
| losses | |
|
According to the Turkish army: |
According to the Turkish Army: According to SOHR: from April |
| at least 380 civilians dead (according to SOHR from December) | |
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The Turkish military offensive on Afrin ( Kurdish عەفرين Afrin ) officially began on January 20, 2018 under the name " Operation Olivenzweig " ( Turkish Zeytin Dalı Harekâtı , Arabic عملية غصن الزيتون, DMG ʿAmalīyat Ġuṣn az-Zaitūn ) on the orders of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan . The name alludes to the peace symbol of the olive branch .
The deployment took place in the context of the Syrian war and followed the Turkish military offensive in northern Syria in 2016/17 . The aim of the operation is to smash the Kurdish militias in northern Syria and, in particular, to drive the People's Defense Units (YPG) out of the border area. It ended in March 2018 with the establishment of a " security zone " controlled by Turkey . Another Turkish offensive in northern Syria followed in 2019 .
According to some lawyers, the Turkish attack is to be seen as a war of aggression that violates international law . The beginning of the invasion was accompanied by the arrests of journalists and other critics of the military operation in Turkey. Since the occupation by Turkey, the security situation for the civilian population has worsened and returning residents are unable to enter their homes because of expropriations.
background
Afrin is one of three cantons that were founded in 2014 by the Party of the Democratic Union (PYD) and other groups in the predominantly Kurdish parts of northern Syria . Afrin has no direct connection to the rest of the area controlled by the PYD or the People's Defense Units (YPG). After the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), consisting mainly of fighters from the YPG, captured the city of Manbij in August 2016 and advanced westwards towards Afrin, Turkey began Operation Euphrates Shield and conquered the area between Afrin and Manbij with allied troops .
The offensive had long been threatened by the Turkish side. The United States had cooperated with the Kurdish units in the northern Syrian border region in their fight against Salafist and radical Islamic troops and in early January 2018 announced the establishment of a 30,000-strong border guard force made up of members of the SDF military alliance. Turkey expressed fears that this could strengthen Kurdish influence on the Syrian-Turkish border and a Kurdish corridor.
Turkey justified the attack with acute security interests, in particular the fight against terrorism, which justified a preemptive strike. However, some observers see the Kurds' striving for autonomy in northern Syria ( Rojava ) and northern Iraq ( Autonomous Region Kurdistan ) as the background and therefore accuse Turkey of "deliberately destabilizing a relatively quiet region of the civil war country".
The Turkish offensive in Afrin depended primarily on the goodwill of Russia , which is allied with the Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad (see also Russian military operation in Syria ) and controls the airspace in the region . Turkish warplanes and drones could therefore only be used to support the Turkish attack on the ground with the permission of Russia. Turkey said it had reached such an agreement shortly before the offensive. Observers concluded that Russia's approval also served to weaken NATO , whose members Turkey and the USA could further clash with their opposing engagements with regard to the Syrian Kurds. Other observers saw Russia's approval as an attempt to secure a free hand in the rest of Syria, where Syrian and Russian troops have launched an offensive in Idlib .
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January 2018
Even before the official start of the operation, Turkey had moved armored units to the border of the Afrin district and, from January 14, 2018, shot at villages around the city of Afrin with artillery.
On January 20, 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that the announced ground offensive had " de facto " started. Then Manbij would be attacked. Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli cited a "daily increasing threat" against Turkey as the reason for the attack. The Turkish General Staff named the military offensive "Operation Olive Branch" and claimed that it wanted to free the residents of the northern Syrian border region from "terrorist repression". Turkey is thus making use of its right to self-defense.
In a speech, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım outlined the aims of the air strikes on Afrin in such a way that the Turkish armed forces had launched an air offensive against the Democratic Union Party (PYD), Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Islamic State in Afrin, despite the Islamic State expelled from the region.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim met Turkish media leaders on January 21, 2018 and discussed reporting on the military offensive with them. The reporting should, according to a report in the Tagesspiegel , emphasize the fight against terror and avoid reports of unconfirmed civilian losses. Some journalists critical of the government are said to have been arrested at the start of the ground offensive. On the third day of the operation, 24 Turkish critics had already been arrested for so-called propaganda activities.
On January 24th, a Kurdish spokesman for the SDF announced that Turkish troops had not yet completely controlled any of the villages in the region. Observers cited Kurdish counter-attacks and bad weather as the reason for the low success of the Turkish units and their allies in the first days of the ground offensive. The latter hinders the Turkish air force in supporting its own fighters on the ground.
On January 26, the Kurdish administration officially asked the Syrian government for assistance. Syria must take on the sovereign tasks and protect the borders from the "Turkish occupiers". On the same day Erdoğan announced that he would extend the offensive "over hundreds of kilometers east" via "Manbij to the Iraqi border".
On January 28, 2018, Turkish troops occupied the strategically important Mount Barsaya. This lies in the border area between Afrin and the Turkish occupied Aʿzāz . Turkish forces also attacked a dam that supplies Afrin with water and electricity. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), numerous civilians died.
On January 29, the Turkish Interior Ministry announced that 311 people had been arrested in Turkey in the past 10 days on charges of "spreading terrorist propaganda". In this context, President Erdoğan had recently insulted the doctors of the Türk Tabipleri Birliği (TTB) as "agents of imperialism", "dirt" and "terrorist lovers" because of a warning regarding the humanitarian consequences of the offensive. According to the Interior Ministry, the organization is now the subject of an investigation.
On January 31, SOHR observers reported that Turkish troops and their allies had only brought under control 11 of the 350 villages in Afrin in the past few days.
February 2018
On February 3, Turkish authorities announced the loss of a tank and the death of seven soldiers of their own. President Erdogan refused to confirm that an American-style anti-tank missile had destroyed the tank.
There were no Turkish air strikes on the region from February 5-8. This was probably related to the shooting down of a Russian plane over the Idlib region.
According to SOHR, the troops directed by Turkey had taken 15 smaller villages and the town of Bulbula ( 36 ° 46'12 "N 36 ° 49'06" E ) by February 8th .
On February 10, President Erdoğan announced the loss of a Turkish attack helicopter. According to Kurdish information, he was shot down near Rajo ( 36 ° 40'29 "N 36 ° 39'49" E ).
On February 16, 2018, during a visit to Turkey, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried to emphasize common interests with the Turkish government in the war in Syria.
Two days later it became known that the YPG and the Syrian government had apparently reached an agreement allowing the Syrian army to march into the Afrin region. On February 19, the official news agency Sana reported that Syrian militias close to the government were about to move into the Kurdish canton of Afrîn.
The conflicts in Syria were discussed at the Munich Security Conference in February 2018.
On February 19, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that he would begin a siege of Afrin in a few days. According to SOHR activists, Turkish troops were still 17 kilometers from the city at the time of the announcement.
On February 24, 2018, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a 30-day ceasefire, from which IS, the al-Nusra Front , al-Qaeda and allied groups and other terrorist organizations established by the UN Security Council are excluded. Meanwhile, Turkey announced that it would continue its military offensive despite the UN resolution.
March 2018
On March 3, 40 Syrian government fighters were killed by Turkish air forces in attacks in the Afrin region. Most died when a Syrian People's Mobilization Unit camp was hit in Kafr Jina. Turkish authorities also announced the conquest of Rajo .
On March 8, 2018, Turkish authorities announced that the city of Jindire had been taken. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on March 8th that fighting was still going on in Jindires and that Turkish artillery and air strikes had destroyed large parts of the city.
On March 10, the Washington Post reported that American officials had apparently assured Turkey that they would leave Manbij to the Turks and force the Kurds to withdraw.
On March 11, 2018, the SOHR reported that Turkish troops and FSA fighters were only 2 kilometers away from Afrin. The Turkish president again declared his intention to attack Manbij, which is under the influence of the SDF and US troops.
On March 12, 2018, the Turkish General Staff published recordings made by drones. It should be seen how YPG fighters block an arterial road and stop a column of vehicles. YPG fighters are also supposed to lead civilians away from the column.
On March 13, Turkish state media announced that Afrin had been locked in since the previous day. According to Kurdish information, the water and electricity supply was interrupted by the Turkish troops. According to SOHR estimates, around 300,000 people are trapped.
On March 16, 2018, Turkish armed forces dropped leaflets in Kurdish and Arabic on Afrin, according to Turkish state television. It said u. a. that civil citizens from Afrin wishing to leave would be under the protection of the Turkish armed forces. SOHR activists said Turkish troops would use artillery and their air force to attack civilians in Afrin and those fleeing the city. 35,000 people have fled to an area held by Syrian government forces within the last 48 hours before fighting between Turkish forces and the YPG.
On March 17th, SOHR activists and local medical staff reported that the only hospital in Afrin had received multiple hits from Turkish artillery fire. According to SOHR, 16 people were killed. The Turkish armed forces rejected this allegation and published drone recordings that are intended to refute the statements. However, activists from the Bellingcat network have shown that the hospital was damaged, which can also be seen in the Turkish drone footage, which focuses on a non-hospital building (“Arîn Printing House”). Further damage to the hospital is hidden by the perspective of the recording. According to the media, citing Kurdish organizations and other observers, 150,000 people were already on the run at that time.
On March 18, the Turkish General Staff announced that the center of Afrin was under the control of Turkish troops and FSA fighters. A little later, the Turkish president announced that they had gained control of the city. According to a commander of the Turkish FSA, the city of Afrin itself was not defended, the Kurdish troops had previously withdrawn. The Turkish military and allied militias destroyed the statue of the freedom fighter and blacksmith Kaveh Ahangar . On March 18, Othman Sheikh Issa, vice-chairman of the regional government, announced in a televised statement that Turkish troops in Afrin would be fighting a bloody guerrilla war.
On March 25, the Turkish President announced that he would end the operation against Afrin with the occupation of Tell Rifat .
Humanitarian aid
In the course of Operation Olive Branch, depending on the information, between 100,000 and 200,000 people fled Afrin (as of mid-March 2018). Aiders of the international Red Cross criticized that it was difficult for them to access the crisis region. According to Michael Wilk, most aid deliveries should come from the Kurdish Red Crescent and the regional self-government of the Kurds. The President of the International Red Cross, Peter Maurer, assessed statements by the Turkish Red Crescent that they would already be working well with the Kurds to be supplied as untrustworthy. The purpose of making access more difficult for Western helpers is to prevent Western media from gaining access and thus avoiding the spread of “stories about the Kurds as eternal victims”.
On March 19, 2018, the Turkish aid organizations AFAD and the Turkish Red Crescent sent employees and relief supplies to Afrin.
The Turkish Foundation for Humanitarian Aid (IHH) started on March 21, 2018 to provide civilians in Afrin with food.
Reactions
NATO
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on Turkey to "behave moderately" in the neighboring country. At the Munich Security Conference 2018, Jens Stoltenberg reaffirmed Turkey's right to defend its borders.
Syria
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad said that Syria rejects any presence of Turkish troops on its territory. In terms of military operations, Turkey is on the same level as "terrorist groups". The Turkish Air Force should not regard an attack on Syrian soil as a “walk”. The Syrian air defense had returned to its former strength and could destroy Turkish "air targets".
On February 20, 2018, Syria moved units of the National Defense Forces (NDF) supported by Iran from the towns of Nubl and Zahra bordering on Afrin to the areas around Afrin.
Syrian Arabs reacted differently to the offensive. Because the YPG also expelled numerous Arabs and arrested activists in the fight against IS, some of them support the Turkish operation. Others see it as yet another invasion of Syria and criticize the involvement of the FSA, while Eastern Ghouta is besieged and the Syrian army is displacing people in Idlib. Kurds, who initially supported the Syrian armed uprising, stress the gap between the goals of the foreign powers and those who continue to support Arab-Kurdish unity.
Turkey
The newly elected HDP co-president Pervin Buldan criticized the military offensive and called for peace during the party congress at which she was elected. The prosecution is examining a charge for her speech.
Several Turkish football clubs endorsed the action of the Turkish armed forces in Afrin.
Russia
Russia initially sent 100 military police to the region at the request of the Kurds. With the start of the Turkish offensive, the military police withdrew from there.
United States
According to reports on January 18, the United States called on Turkey "not to take any action of this kind" in response to the announced military operation. The focus when deployed in Syria must be on combating IS.
On January 24, according to US data, President Trump called the Turkish head of state and called on him to take all steps to de-escalate the situation and to avoid civilian losses and a clash with US troops. However, the Turkish side later denied that this was the content of the conversation.
On January 26, US security advisor HR McMaster is said to have assured the Turkish government, according to Turkish information, that the USA no longer wants to supply the YPG with weapons.
On February 7, 2018, Maj.General Jarrard, the commander of Special Operations in Syria and Iraq, said they would remain in the Manbij region. And let. General Paul Funk said they would strike back aggressively if attacked.
Neither General McMaster nor US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson succeeded during their visits to convince the Turks to end their offensive. As a result, the US fight with the Kurds against the remnants of the IS terrorist organization in the region on the Euphrates between Deir ez-Zor and the Iraqi border lost momentum and largely came to a standstill in February 2018 because the Kurds withdrew their associations to help them against the Turks and their allies in Afrin.
According to press reports on March 10, representatives of the Trump administration indicated to the regime that they were ready to leave the town of Manbij to the Turks and to persuade the SDF Kurds there to withdraw. In return, Turkish assurance was given that the Incirlik Air Base would continue to be used for missions over Syria. However, it had already been reported in November 2016 that the YPG and YPJ had withdrawn from Manbij and that control has been with local forces since then. In June, the YPG agreed to withdraw the remaining military advisors from Manbij after the USA and Turkey reached an agreement on this matter. The Manbij Military Council (MMC) has controlled the city since the capture of Manbij in 2016. The council is an ally of the YPG and a member of the Syrian Democratic Forces .
France
After the offensive began, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for a UN Security Council meeting to deal with the situation in Afrin and those in Ghouta and Idlib . The meeting of the UN Security Council on January 22nd ended without a joint declaration.
President Emmanuel Macron said the week after the offensive began that France had a problem with Turkey being involved in an invasion. Turkish President Erdoğan is said to have called Macron according to the Turkish media and assured him that Turkey does not want to acquire foreign territory.
At the end of March 2018, President Macron offered France to mediate in the conflict in northern Syria between YPG and Turkey. Turkey immediately rejected the offer through a spokesman for President Erdogan. French media reported that Macron had announced that French troops would be stationed in the Manbij area to work with the United States to protect the region against the advance of the Turkish army. Erdoğan himself mocked the French President by saying that he was talking " weird things ".
Germany
The German government called on Turkey at the beginning of the offensive on January 19 for moderation. According to the spokesman for the Foreign Office, Rainer Breul, the Foreign Office “is of course “ monitoring ”the situation in Syria very closely […]. [The Foreign Office] assumes and expects that Turkey will continue to show political and military restraint as before. ”Furthermore, Turkey has legitimate security interests on the Syrian-Turkish border. “These should of course also be taken into account in the context.” It is important for the Federal Government that “the focus of military activities in northern Syria is on the fight against [the Islamic State] and the successor organization […] Al-Nusra (HTS) […] lies."
Deputy government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said on January 23 that the federal government was demanding an end to the fighting and access to humanitarian aid. The German government sees “legitimate Turkish security interests on the border with Syria”.
The Vice-President of the Bundestag Claudia Roth criticized Jens Stoltenberg for the actions of NATO against Turkey and its military offensive in Afrin. She said it is a matter of credibility when a NATO member state attacks troops that are supported by other NATO countries in the fight against the Islamic State. The MPs of the Left Party wore the colors of the Kurds in the Bundestag in protest against the Turkish military offensive on Afrin at the beginning of February 2018.
On the night of March 12, 2018, there were several arson attacks on Turkish facilities. The security authorities consider the attacks to be a coordinated PKK action. The leadership of the PKK in Germany is switching to militancy more because of the dramatic situation in Afrin. The Turkish Foreign Ministry then called in the German ambassador and asked for a quick clarification.
Turkey uses various German armaments, u. a. Leopard 2 tanks, during their attacks. The acting Foreign Minister of the German Federal Government, Sigmar Gabriel , had assured in February 2018 that Germany had not delivered any armaments to Turkey because of the conflict in northern Syria. In the first five and a half weeks of "Operation Olivenzweig" alone, however, the German government approved armaments worth EUR 4.4 million for Turkey according to the findings of March 2018. This included ammunition, military aircraft, software and materials for the manufacture of armaments.
Two months after the offensive began, on March 22nd, Chancellor Angela Merkel sharply criticized the Turkish approach and warned Turkey to be proportionate. At the same time, Federal President Steinmeier telephoned President Erdogan and promised to accelerate the improvement of bilateral relations between Germany and Turkey. According to a report in the Handelsblatt , it is possible that these two statements could be part of a carrot-and-stick tactic called for by many EU politicians, while another big wing is calling for relations with the country to be severed completely.
Throughout Germany there were repeatedly smaller and larger Kurdish demonstrations against the military operation, including at the beginning of March 2018 with around 7,000 participants in Berlin, in Hanover for the Kurdish New Year celebrations in 2018 with around 11,000 participants, or in Cologne at the end of January 2018 with more than 20,000 participants.
Switzerland
Beat Jans , National Councilor of the Social Democratic Party, and Edibe Gölgeli, Grand Councilor of the City of Basel, condemned the military offensive in Afrin in a statement by the SP Switzerland and saw this as an opportunity to fundamentally reorganize Switzerland's relations with Turkey. Also Tonja Zürcher, Grand Councilor of the City of Basel and Sibel Arslan , National Councilor for the BastA party ! condemned Turkey's military offensive and demanded that Switzerland, as guardian of the Geneva Conventions , take decisive action on behalf of the Kurdish population of Afrin. On April 11, 2018, the Grand Council of Basel passed a resolution with 72 to 11 votes in which it condemned the Turkish offensive in Afrin with clear words and demanded that the Swiss Federal Council advocate respect for international humanitarian law and demands this from Turkey.
Luxembourg
On March 19, 2018, the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg Jean Asselborn condemned the olive branch military offensive in an interview with Der Spiegel. He said that Turkey is not acting for self-defense purposes, but is attacking Syria militarily. He also said that NATO members should put pressure on Turkey to openly present their plans to NATO. He is also against the YPG , which is not seen as a terrorist organization by the USA , the EU or the UN and which was and is an important ally in the fight against IS, is declared the enemy.
European Union
The European Parliament has condemned Turkey for its military operation in northern Syria. The MPs warn the Turkish leadership against continuing the “disproportionate measures”. In the paper they also criticize the arrest of many critics of the advance.
Kurdistan Autonomous Region
The Parliament of Kurdistan of Iraqi Kurdistan condemned the military offensive in a meeting on 30 January. On Sunday, February 11, 2018, a parliamentary delegation consisting of four parties visited Afrin and promised humanitarian aid.
Egypt
Egypt condemned Turkey's military action, describing it as a serious threat to Syria's sovereignty.
international law
The German legal scholar Anne Peters , Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law , sees the Turkish military offensive as a breach of international law , since Turkey acts without the consent of the Syrian government or authorization from the United Nations Security Council. Turkey could also not invoke its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations , since no armed attack within the meaning of this provision had occurred. International lawyer Stefan Talmon from the University of Bonn also sees Turkey's attack on Syria's democratic forces as a violation of international law.
The Scientific Service of the German Bundestag stated that in view of the existing doubts about the existence of a self-defense situation according to Article 51 of the UN Charter and the proportionate action of the Turkish armed forces in northern Syria, Turkey's appeal to the right of self-defense stands on very "clayey" feet.
Allegations of human rights violations
Since the operation began, allegations have been made against the Turkish army that it committed war crimes and that Turkish border guards were shooting at civilians fleeing at the border. A Turkish government official rejected this. In late January, members of the SDF accused the Turkish army of using banned napalm bombs . Turkish officials denied this allegation. The BBC reported looting by pro-Turkish troops in Afrin after Afrin was taken by them on the morning of March 18, 2018.
Videos and photos of executions of Kurdish prisoners and the mutilation of Kurdish soldiers were spread on social media.
During the offensive, UNHCR referred to reports that civilian casualties had been fired in Afrin and expressed concern that according to other reports Kurdish fighters would prevent civilians from fleeing. There is concern about the high risk of civilians who are practically trapped, killed, injured, trapped in the fighting, used as shields or displaced.
Pro-Turkish forces were accused during the conquest of members of the mostly Kurdish religious minority Yazidi zwangszukonvertieren and destroy their places of worship.
Arrests in Turkey
The Turkish government indicted and arrested 300 critics of Operation Olive Branch in the first 9 days of the offensive.
As of February 12, 2018, 666 people had been arrested for being critical of the operation.
As of February 19, 2018, 786 people had been arrested in Turkey for criticizing the offensive (e.g. on social media ) or for protesting against it. According to the HDP, more than 350 of its members have been arrested since the offensive began.
See also
- Turkish military offensive in Idlib governorate
- Turkish military offensive in northern Syria 2016/17
- Freedom of the press in Turkey
- Chronicle of the civil war in Syria 2018
- Kurds in Turkey
literature
- Thomas Schmidinger: Battle for the Kurdish Mountain - Past and Present of the Afrin Region . Bahoe Books , Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-903022-84-3
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Afrin completely under Turkish control FAZ. from March 24, 2018
- ↑ Son dakika: Afrin harekatını Corgeneral İsmail Metin Temel yönetecek! In: milliyet.com.tr , accessed January 21, 2018.
- ↑ Bahjt Abedo: Our forces restrained mercenaries, resistance continues . In: Hawar News Agency . January 26, 2018. Archived from the original on January 27, 2018. Retrieved on January 26, 2018.
- ^ SDF launches revolutionary operation in Afrin . In: Hawar News Agency . January 21, 2018. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved on February 7, 2018.
- ↑ Commander of "Jaysh al-Thuwar": We fight cowardice to the side, do not believe the false news . In: Hawar News Agency . January 21, 2018. Archived from the original on January 22, 2018. Retrieved on February 7, 2018 .
- ↑ مصدر في غرفة عمليات "عفرين" يوضح لنداء سوريا حجم مشاركة "الجيش الوطني" ودوره في المعركة. In: Nedaa-sy.com. January 19, 2018, accessed January 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Erdogan: Operation in Syria's Afrin has begun. In: Al Jazeera. January 21, 2018, accessed January 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Eric Schmitt, Rod Nordland: Amid Turkish Assault, Kurdish Forces Are Drawn Away From US Fight With ISIS. In: The New York Times. February 28, 2018, accessed on September 23, 2018 .
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ a b c [2] SOHR from April 2018
- ↑ [3]
- ↑ "Syria war: Thousands flee Turkish assault on Afrin enclave" BBC January 23, 2018
- ↑ Erdoğan threatens to attack the Kurdish militia. In: Zeit online , January 14, 2018; accessed on January 20, 2018.
- ^ Syria: How Turkey conducts settlement policy. In: tagesspiegel.de . June 12, 2018, accessed July 10, 2018 .
- ↑ The city of Afrin in northern Syria: Peace, so far. In: tagesspiegel.de . July 2, 2018, accessed July 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Thomas Pany ": " Model Afrin ": Human rights violations and fighting between militias. In: heise.de . July 10, 2018, accessed on July 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Syria: Erdoğan announces ground offensive against Syrian Kurds . In: The time . January 20, 2018, ISSN 0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed January 21, 2018]).
- ↑ Neue Zürcher Zeitung - "Six Answers to the Turkish Invasion of Syria" , by Ivo Mijnssen, published January 24, 2018, accessed on March 23, 2018
- ↑ Ulrich Schwerin: Syria: For Turkey, Afrin is just the beginning. In: zeit.de . March 19, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2018 .
- ↑ Turkey: Erdogan are all means against the Kurdish state. In: tagesspiegel.de . October 28, 2016, accessed March 23, 2018 .
- ↑ "We have a deal with Russia" . Wiener Zeitung of January 22, 2018.
- ↑ Mark Lander and Carlotta Gall: As Turkey Attacks Kurds in Syria, US Is on the Sideline . The New York Times January 22, 2018.
- ↑ Evrensel.net January 20, 2018.
- ↑ Turkey shoots at Kurdish villages. In: Tagesschau.de , January 19, 2018.
- ↑ Turkey attacks Kurds in Syria. In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 14, 2018; accessed on January 20, 2018.
- ^ Syria: Turkey ground operation in Afrin begins 'de facto'. In: BBC.com , January 20, 2018.
- ↑ Erdoğan announces ground offensive against Syrian Kurds. In: zeit.de , January 20, 2018, accessed on January 21, 2018.
- ↑ "Operation Olive Branch" - Turkish military offensive against Kurds has begun. In: faz.net , January 20, 2018, accessed January 21, 2018
- ↑ "AP has deleted two tweets that referred to Turkish airstrikes on Islamic State forces in Afrin, Syria ..." . Associated Press on Twitter January 20, 2018.
- ↑ Caroline Mortimer: Turkish warplanes bomb Kurds in Syria . Independent from January 20, 2018.
- ↑ Markus Bernath: Erdogan's war against the critics . Tagesspiegel.de of January 22, 2018.
- ^ Campaign against Kurds: No place for critics in Erdoğan's war . The January 22, 2018 standard
- ↑ Bethan McKernan: Turkey-Kurdish conflict: British YPG volunteers head to front line as thousands flee Syrian war . The Independent.co.uk on January 25, 2018.
- ↑ a b Daniel Steinforth: Kurds ask Asad for assistance against Turkey . Neue Zürcher Zeitung from January 26, 2018.
- ↑ tagesschau.de: Northern Syria: Erdogan extends offensive. Retrieved January 26, 2018 (German).
- ↑ a b zeit.de: Turkish military takes Berg in Afrin
- ↑ "Syria war: Turkey arrests hundreds for criticizing Afrin offensive" BBC January 29, 2018
- ^ "Despite hundreds of aerial and artillery strikes ... the Turkish forces, the factions and the Gray Wolves control during 11 days 3% of villages of Afrin area" SOHR from January 31, 2018
- ↑ Fighting in northern Syria is getting harder , derstabndard.at of February 4, 2018
- ^ "Russia apparently closes airspace for Turkish Afrin offensive" new Germany from February 6, 2018
- ↑ Sebastian Bähr: Russia apparently closes airspace for Turkish Afrin offensive (new Germany) . ( neue-deutschland.de [accessed on February 7, 2018]).
- ^ "9 days of wars of ambushes and sudden attacks and the path of battles of Afrin becomes in the interest of the Kurdish forces claims the lives of 75 fighters of the factions and the Turkish forces soldiers" SOHR of February 8, 2018
- ^ "Turkish military helicopter shot down in Syria during operation against US-backed Kurdish forces" The Independent.co.uk of February 10, 2018
- ↑ USA and Turkey want to normalize relations
- ↑ spiegel.de February 17, 2018: Observers and Kurds accuse Turkey of using poison gas
- ↑ spiegel.de February 18, 2018: Kurds ally with Assad - against Turkey
- ↑ FAZ.net February 19, 2018: Kurds want to fight Turks with Assad troops
- ↑ sueddeutsche.de: Assad supports the Kurds against Turkey
- ↑ sueddeutsche.de February 19, 2018: Everyone against everyone
- ↑ spiegel.de February 18, 2018: Three days of maximum uncertainty
- ^ "Erdoğan announces the siege of Afrin" Die Zeit online from February 20, 2018
- ↑ Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List | United Nations Security Council Subsidiary Organs. Retrieved February 25, 2018 .
- ↑ Russia agrees: UN Security Council adopts resolution on ceasefire in Syria . In: FAZ.NET . February 24, 2018, ISSN 0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed February 25, 2018]).
- ↑ deutschlandfunk.de February 25, 2018: Turkey wants to continue offensive in Afrin despite UN resolution
- ↑ Anne Barnard, Hwaida Saad and Carlotta Gall, "Turkish Warplanes Said to Kill 40 Pro-government fighters in Syria" New York Times of March 3, 2018
- ↑ Kirsten Ripper: "Turkey takes Jindires - Kurds pull fighters from Rakkah" , Euronews of March 8, 2018
- ↑ "The mad shelling escalates on Jendires in Conjunction with the desperate efforts of the Turkish forces to take the control of the 5th town in Afrin area" SOHR from March 8, 2018
- ↑ a b Karen DeYoung and Kareem Fahim: "US moving to repair relations with Turkey, endangering ties with Kurdish allies" , Washington Post, March 10, 2018 (English)
- ↑ "Turkish troops in front of Afrin - The Turkish army has reached the outskirts of the Syrian city of Afrin in the war of aggression against the Kurds. But President Erdogan wants more: the city of Manbij is next on the agenda." DW 11 March 2018
- ↑ YPG prevents civilians from escaping from Afrin Anadolu Agency of March 12, 2018
- ↑ Turkish troops surround the Kurdish city of Afrin , Süddeutsche Zeitung of March 13, 2018
- ↑ Turkish armed forces drop leaflets via Afrin TRT German of March 16, 2018
- ↑ "The number of casualties of Afrin's massacre increases to 22 persons including 7 children as a result of the Turkish shelling on the city and the people displaced from it amid ongoing fighting in its north" , SOHR from March 16, 2018 (English)
- ↑ "Turkish Air Force apparently fires at hospital in Afrin" Welt, March 17, 2018
- ↑ Turkish drone recordings to refute attack on hospital in Afrin , Anadolu Agency of March 17, 2018
- ↑ "Did Turkey Bomb Afrin's General Hospital?" Bellingcat from March 19, 2018 Original: bellingcat.com
- ↑ zeit.de
- ↑ Afrin Center under the control of the Turkish Armed Forces and FSA fighters Anadolu Agency from March 18, 2018
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- ↑ Ostseezeitung from March 23, 2018 - "From Paradise to Hell"
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- ^ Help for Afrin Anadolu Agency from March 21, 2018
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- ↑ The Invasion of Afrin Means the End of Syrian Unity , Loubna Mrie , Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, February 2018
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- ↑ Reuters: Trump Warns Erdogan to Avoid Clash Between US, Turkish Forces. New York Times January 25, 2018.
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- ^ Rod Nordland: On Northern Syria Front Line, US and Turkey Head Into Tense Face-off . In: The New York Times . February 7, 2018, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed March 20, 2018]).
- ↑ Eric Schmitt and Rod Nordland: "Amid Turkish Assault, Kurdish Forces Are Drawn Away From US Fight With ISIS" NYT, February 28, 2018 (English)
- ↑ "YPJ and YPG withdraw from Manbij" , hawarnews.com (English) (Memento of the original from November 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ "Kurds deny Turkish reports of YPG withdrawal from Manbij" , The New Arab of March 13, 2018 (English)
- ^ "Kurdish militia YPG withdraws from Manbidsch" , Zeit Online from June 5, 2018
- ^ French calls for emergency Security Council meeting on Syria . Retrieved January 21, 2018.
- ↑ FAZ.net: Turkey threatens to expand the offensive in Kurdish areas.
- ↑ "Syria war: Turkey suffers deadliest day in Afrin offensive" , BBC of February 4, 2018 (English)
- ^ "Syria war: France offers to mediate between Turkey and Kurds" BBC of March 29, 2018
- ↑ Syrie: vers l'envoi de soldats français au secours des Kurdes Le Parisien of March 29, 2018
- ↑ Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper and Alissa J. Rubin: "Trump Orders State Dept. to Suspend Funds for Syria Recovery" New York Times, March 30, 2018
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- ↑ Federal government sees “legitimate security interests” of Turkey , Welt / N24 of 23 January 2018.
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- ↑ The left wears the colors of the Kurds
- ↑ coordinated-action-of-the-PKK-attack-series-on-turkish-institutions-continues-
- ↑ Operation Olivenzweig: War against the Kurds - Made in Germany. In: www1.wdr.de. October 8, 1981. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
- ↑ Berlin approves arms delivery to Turkey despite the Syria offensive In: Der Standard. 15th March 2018.
- ↑ "Report: Germany continued to deliver weapons to Turkey" DW of March 29, 2018
- ↑ Chancellor Angela Merkel criticizes the actions of Turkey Deutsche Welle of March 22, 2018.
- ↑ Ozan Demircan, Moritz Koch: Afrin: Merkel criticizes Turkish mission in Northern Syria - rapprochement endangered . In: Handelsblatt . March 22, 2018 ( handelsblatt.com ).
- ^ Protests in Berlin: Demonstrating: Right, Left, Kurds and Google opponents. In: tagesspiegel.de . March 3, 2018, accessed March 24, 2018 .
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- ^ A turning point in the relationship with Turkey . In: SP Switzerland . ( sp-ps.ch [accessed February 17, 2018]).
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- ↑ KRG delegation arrives in Afrin as Turkey offensive softens Kurdish split , article by al Monitor from February 13, 2018
- ↑ Kurdistan Parliament delegates: Similar to Kirkuk, world remains silent over attack on Afrin , message from www.kurdistan24.net of February 12, 2018
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- ↑ reuters.com accessed on February 12, 2018
- ↑ www.voanews.com (January 28, 2018)
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- ↑ Patrick Cockburn: Yazidis who suffered under Isis face forced conversion to Islam amid fresh persecution in Afrin. In: The Independent . April 19, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2018 .
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- ↑ spiegel.de: Turkey arrests hundreds of opponents of the Syria offensive