Small Wars Journal

Turkey's Erdogan Defiant in Face of Sanctions and Arms Embargo, Warning Offensive to Continue Until 'Objectives Met'

Tue, 10/15/2019 - 1:46pm

Turkey's Erdogan Defiant in Face of Sanctions and Arms Embargo, Warning Offensive to Continue Until 'Objectives Met' by Raf Sanchez – The Telegraph

Turkey’s president has said he would not stop his offensive on northern Syria until “all our objectives had been achieved", defying US sanctions, a European arms embargo and increasing international isolation.

Turkey is in the seventh day of its assault against the Syrian Kurdish forces, which has so far forced more than 150,000 people to flee and left some 60 civilians dead.

"God willing, we will quickly secure the region stretching from Manbij to our border with Iraq and ensure that, in the first stage, one million, and then two million Syrian refugees return to their homes of their own free will," Mr Erdogan said in a televised speech.

Turkey plans to establish a buffer zone stretching hundreds of miles across the Turkey-Syria border to free the area of Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) it considers terrorists.

Mr Erdogan has said he wants to repatriate many of the 3.6 million refugees that it is hosting from the Syrian conflict, however critics have said it could amount to ethnic repopulation…

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