Syrian British Council calls on UK government to support Turkey operation in Idlib

The Syrian British Council (SBC) has released a statement calling on the British government to support Turkey’s military operation in the north-west Syrian province of Idlib.

The statement, released yesterday, “reiterated its clear call on the UK and its allies for the need to intervene to provide protection for civilians” in the embattled province, in order to prevent the further suffering of civilians at the hands of the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad and its allies Russia and Iran.

It stated that since 1 January this year, “300 civilians have been killed in Idlib and Aleppo and nearly 900,000 people have been displaced fleeing Assad and Russian bombardment,” while citing statistics confirmed by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) that “93% of the deaths have been caused by Assad regime and its allies.”

Turkey should conquer Damascus, but knows it is a trap

It also acknowledged that the offensive by the Syrian regime and Russia – launched in April last year to capture the province from opposition forces – has been countered by the Turkish military over the past week as it took out a significant number of regime targets including over 2,000 soldiers, hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles, multiple air defence systems and chemical warfare facilities.

Touching on the consequent Turkish operation named “Spring Shield”, it said that its effectiveness in halting and pushing back the regime’s advance “has given hope to many of the innocent civilians, fleeing for their lives from the regime’s onslaught on Idlib, that their suffering may come to an end by returning to their homes.”

The SBC announced its support for the Turkish operation, calling it “a necessary intervention to protect civilians in the region” and stating that it has “repeatedly pressed for introducing a no-fly zone to prevent helicopters from dropping barrel bombs; and we see the Turkish intervention as a feasible mechanism to enforce a de-escalation zone in northwest Syria.”

Ex-UK FM: Idlib is becoming ‘Gaza in Syria’

The province of Idlib, which is the last major opposition stronghold in Syria’s nine-year-long civil war, was initially meant to be a de-escalation or safe zone, as stated under the agreement struck between Turkey and Russia back in September 2018 which was then broken by the regime and Russia.

As a result of the ongoing offensive, around a million of the inhabitants of Idlib were forced to flee north towards the Turkish border, resulting in a humanitarian crisis in which tent cities emerged, overfilled, and were rife with disease and poor sanitation in the freezing winter conditions.

Despite the fact that Turkey has now opened its border to the refugees and allowed them to make their way to Europe, the humanitarian crisis in the province continues in the face of the ongoing regime offensive and airstrikes.

The SBC therefore submitted “an urgent request for the British Government to play an active role in the humanitarian space by supporting Turkey’s efforts in northwest Syria. The aim should be to achieve a balance of power in the region in a step to pave the way to reinvigorate the political solution based on the Geneva understandings and the relevant Security Council resolutions. SBC hopes that these actions accelerate this path in order to seek stability in the region and avoid the scourges of another war.”

UN: Syrian regime committed war crimes