Turkey awaiting outcome of Trump Syria ‘safe zone’ plan

Turkey is waiting to see the outcome of US President Donald Trump’s pledge to order safe zones in Syria, and has long advocated such a plan, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said today.

Trump said yesterday that he “will absolutely do safe zones in Syria” for refugees fleeing violence. According to a document cited by Reuters, he is expected to order the Pentagon and State Department in the coming days to craft such a plan.

“We have seen the US President’s request for conducting a study. What’s important is the results of this study and what kind of recommendation will come out,” Muftuoglu told reporters at a briefing in Ankara.

“Setting up of safe zones is something Turkey has advocated from the start. The best example is in Jarablus,” he said, referring to a town near the Turkish border that was freed from Daesh by Turkish-backed Syrian fighters under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) last August.

Turkey launched a military incursion into Syria in August, sending in special forces, tanks and warplanes in a bid to drive Daesh out of a corridor of border territory and prevent militant Kurdish leftist fighters from seizing ground in their wake.

The offensive, dubbed “Operation Euphrates Shield”, drove Daesh militants from the last 100 kilometre strip of border territory they still controlled and created what Turkish officials have already been referring to as a “de facto safe zone”.

A new Syrian police force trained and equipped by Turkey started work in Jarablus on Tuesday, a sign of deepening Turkish influence in the stretch of land now controlled by Turkish-backed rebels. The police officers were filmed chanting: “Long live Turkey! Long live Erdogan! And long live a free Syria!”

Turkey has long supported the FSA in their fight against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in a complex, multi-faceted conflict. The war has divided Syrian into a patchwork of areas controlled by hardline leftist Kurdish militias, Daesh and various rebel and opposition groups, as well as the Assad regime itself.

Turkey and Al-Assad’s two main allies – Russia and Iran – backed peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana this week and are guarantors of a fragile ceasefire. But the process threatens to be derailed after a powerful rebel group crushed an FSA faction over recent days.

Asked about attacks by the Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham group, formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, on the FSA, Muftuoglu said some elements in Syria may be frustrated by progress made at Astana and may seek to disrupt the ceasefire.

It was incumbent on guarantor countries, which include Turkey, Russia and Iran, to prevent that from happening, Muftuoglu said. He also rejected suggestions that Turkey had dropped its opposition to Al-Assad remaining in power, saying the Syrian leader had no place in the country’s future.

Muftuoglu’s comments come following a statement made last week by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek who said that “the facts on the ground [in Syria] have changed dramatically, so Turkey can no longer insist on a settlement without Al-Assad, it’s not realistic.”