“A military land deployment in Syria is possible at any time,” said Ibrahim Kalin, close adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Saturday. “We continue to support the political process” that was initiated by the meeting between the two Turkish and Syrian defense ministers in Moscow at the end of December, “but a ground operation remains possible at any time, depending on the level of threats received,” he stressed advising journalists on several occasions foreign media.
“We want security at our borders,” he justified the presence of Kurdish forces on Syrian territory, adding that “we never target the (interests) of the Syrian state or Syrian civilians.” But the security guarantees promised by Russia and the United States after Turkey’s latest offensive in Syria in 2019 “have not been met” and the Kurdish fighters have not retreated 30 km from the border as promised, he said.
For his part, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned on Thursday that any rapprochement with his Turkish counterpart must presuppose “the end of the Turkish occupation” in northern Syria. Turkey has launched three offensives on Syrian soil against Kurdish forces in the north since 2016, which have allowed it to control a border strip on the Syrian side. Ankara had established itself as the main base of the rebels in the fight against the Damascus regime since 2011.