![Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on November 14, 2021 [Murat Kula/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20211114_2_50882622_70670657.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Turkey has allegedly suspended its plans to launch a new military operation in northern Syria against Kurdish militias, following pressure against it from Russia and the United States.
According to anonymous diplomatic Turkish sources, quoted by the outlets the Syrian Observer and The New Arab, Ankara has decided to suspend the potential military operation it was planning for northern Syria, at least for a while.
Despite Turkish media continuing to propagate support for the operation and the Turkish army ready to proceed, the sources allegedly said that “Ankara has suspended operations for the time being.”
Following a shelling attack into Turkish territory from the northern Syrian region of Azaz last month, which killed two Turkish police officers, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the country had lost its patience with the Kurdish militia, the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), and will launch a new military operation against it.
Since then, talks have been under way throughout the past month, with Russia and the US—which back the YPG and its affiliated militias—reportedly applying pressure on Turkey to cease the plans for its operation.
If the reports that the military operation’s suspension proves to be true, it would come only weeks after the Turkish parliament extended the deployment of its troops to Iraq and Syria for another two years. Many also see a new Turkish offensive against the Kurdish militias as inevitable, putting into question the permanence of such a suspension.