Senior US officials say Turkey and its militia allies are building up forces along the border with Syria, raising alarms that Ankara is preparing for a large-scale incursion into territory held by American-backed Syrian Kurds, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The forces include militia fighters and Turkish uniformed commandos and artillery in large numbers that are concentrated near Kobani, a Kurdish-majority city in Syria on the northern border with Turkey, the officials said. A Turkish cross-border operation could be imminent, one of the US officials said.
The buildup, which began after Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell in early December, appears similar to Turkish military moves ahead of its 2019 invasion of northeast Syria. “We are focused on it and pressing for restraint,” another of the US officials said.
Ilham Ahmed, an official in the Syrian Kurds’ civilian administration, told President-elect Donald Trump on Monday that a Turkish military operation appeared likely, urging him to press Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan not to send troops across the border.
Turkey’s goal is to “establish de facto control over our land before you take office, forcing you to engage with them as rulers of our territory,” Ahmed wrote to Trump in a letter viewed by The Wall Street Journal. “If Turkey proceeds with its invasion, the consequences will be catastrophic.”
A spokesman for Turkey’s embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The threat from Turkey has left the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who are joined with US troops in northeast Syria to hunt the remnants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in a vulnerable position weeks before the Biden administration will leave office. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Turkey last week to discuss Syria’s future with Erdoğan and seek assurances that Ankara would curtail operations against the Kurdish militants.
But US-brokered cease-fire talks between the Syrian Kurds and Turkish-backed rebels in Kobani collapsed on Monday without an agreement, according to a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF is now seeing “significant military buildups” east and west of the city, the spokesman said.
“From across the border, we can already see Turkish forces amassing, and our civilians live under the constant fear of imminent death and destruction,” Ahmed wrote to Trump.
The ouster of the Syrian leader Assad by rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was formerly affiliated with al Qaeda, left the country’s future in a state of uncertainty and kicked off renewed fighting between the Syrian Kurds and Turkish-backed rebel groups.
Assad’s fall has led to stepped-up Turkish operations against the SDF, which Ankara views as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Trump insinuated on Monday that Turkey orchestrated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s takeover of Syria, telling reporters at his residence in Florida that “Turkey did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost.”
A Turkish invasion would displace more than 200,000 Kurdish civilians in Kobani alone, Ahmed warned Trump, along with many Christian communities.
During his first term, Trump partially withdrew US troops from northeast Syria, paving the way for a large-scale Turkish invasion that killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of Syrians. The Trump administration eventually helped broker a cease-fire in exchange for the Kurds ceding miles of border territory to the Turks.
Though Trump won’t take over from President Biden until January 20, Ahmed urged the president-elect to use his “unique approach to diplomacy” to convince Erdoğan to stop any planned operation. She referenced a previous meeting with Trump, reminding him that at the time that the then-president promised “the United States wouldn’t abandon the Kurds.”
“We believe you hold the power to prevent this catastrophe. President Erdogan has listened to you before, and we trust he will heed your call again,” Ahmed wrote. “Your decisive leadership can stop this invasion and preserve the dignity and safety of those who have stood as steadfast allies in the fight for peace and security.”