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Conflict Between Turkey and Armed Kurdish Groups

Turkey Warns Latest Kurdish Offensive is “Final Straw”

  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is determined to eliminate threats in northern Syria where Kurdish fighters killed two Turkish police officers (Al Jazeera)

Turkey Suggests It Will Continue to Target Refugee Camp in Iraq

  • Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Makhmour refugee camp in northern Iraq must be cleared of people he called Kurdish militants. He said Turkey will clear the militants alone if the Iraqi government does not. Turkish air strikes killed three people at the camp over the weekend (Reuters)

Turkish Forces Attack PKK in Iraq

  • Turkish forces launched air strikes and a ground offensive against PKK fighters in northern Iraq. The defense ministry did not specify how many soldiers were involved but stated that the operation began on Friday (Al Jazeera)

U.S.-Turkey Tensions Flare Over Killings of Turkish Hostages

  • A diplomatic spat erupted between the United States and Turkey after the Turkish government announced that thirteen of its citizens, including service members, police officers, and civilians, were killed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq’s northern Gara region. The U.S. State Department condemned the killings and agreed that the PKK was responsible after first appearing to question the group’s involvement (Al-Monitor)

Car Bombings Kill Twenty in Northern Syria

  • At least twenty people, including several children, were killed and dozens more were injured in car bombings in parts of northern Syria controlled by Turkey, local sources said. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but Turkey routinely blames fighters linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party for such attacks (Middle East Eye)

Turkish Lawmakers Approve Deployment to Monitor Truce in Nagorno-Karabakh

  • Parliament approved sending troops to monitor Armenia and Azerbaijan’s truce over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey, which backed Azerbaijan in the conflict, will jointly enforce the deal with Russia (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Turkey’s Erdogan Warns of Military Action in Northern Syria

  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to launch a new offensive in northern Syria if armed Kurdish groups are not removed from the Turkey-Syria border. He also condemned recent suspected Russian air strikes targeting Turkey-backed Syrian rebels in the Idlib region (Al Jazeera)

Iraq Condemns Turkish Drone Attack

  • A Turkish drone attack yesterday killed Iraqi two border guards officers and their driver in the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Iraq condemned the attack and cancelled a ministerial visit with Turkey, calling on Ankara to cease all military operations in the region. Turkey’s ambassador was summoned today to discuss the recent events (Al Jazeera)

Turkey Launches New Operation Against PKK in Northern Iraq

  • Turkey deployed special forces to northern Iraq’s Haftanin region and struck 150 Kurdish targets with air and artillery strikes in a renewed operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) (Al Jazeera)

Bomb in Northern Syrian Market Kills Dozens

  • A truck bomb in a northern Syrian city controlled by Turkey-backed rebel forces killed at least forty-six people and wounded fifty at a crowded marketplace, according to a human rights monitor (Agence France-Presse)
  • Turkey blamed the People’s Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish militia group for the attack, one of the largest to occur in the city of Afrin since Turkish and allied Syrian opposition forces seized the surrounding region from the YPG in 2018; the YPG did not immediately comment (BBC)

Turkey Removes Pro-Kurdish Mayors

  • Turkey’s interior ministry announced yesterday that the country had removed eight mayors affiliated with the People’s Democratic Party, a pro-Kurdish political party, for alleged ties to militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Arab News)

Turkey Cuts Water Supply to Kurdish-Controlled Areas in Syria

  • Turkish-backed fighters shut down a water pumping station yesterday in the town of Ras al-Ain, severing the flow of water to the Hasakah region, an area under the control of the Kurdish-led autonomous government in northeastern Syria (Al Monitor)

Strikes Kill Twenty in Northwestern Syria

  • Air strikes hit three towns held by rebels and Kurdish forces in Syria’s northwest, killing at least twenty civilians, according to the White Helmets civil defense group and a Kurdish military group. Some strikes were suspected to be carried out by Damascus, while others were blamed on Turkish forces (Washington Post)

U.S. Resumes Counterterrorism Operations in Syria’s North

  • U.S. troops and allied Kurdish fighters have restarted joint operations against the Islamic State in the country’s north after a partial U.S. troop withdrawal in recent weeks, according to the head of the U.S. Central Command (New York Times)

Turkey Threatens Further Action Targeting Kurds in Northern Syria

  • Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the United States and Russia have not fulfilled their agreements with Turkey in northern Syria and that Ankara “will do whatever is necessary” to clear the region of Kurdish forces it sees as terrorists (Anadolu)

Turkey’s Erdogan to Visit White House

  • President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will come to Washington next Wednesday, U.S. President Trump announced on Twitter. Ahead of the visit, a U.S. delegation will travel to Turkey to meet with senior Turkish officials and members of the Syrian opposition (National)
  • Today, Erdogan said that the United States was not satisfying its agreement to remove Kurdish fighters from northern Syria (Reuters)

U.S. to End Sanctions on Turkey Over Syria Offensive

  • The United States will lift sanctions it imposed on Turkey following its recent military operation in northern Syria after Ankara pledged to make a cease-fire there permanent, President Donald J. Trump announced (Washington Post)

Russia, Turkey Reach Deal on Northern Syria

  • Under the new agreement, Kurdish forces must withdraw from a twenty-mile-deep strip along the Syrian border by October 29, after which Russia and Turkey will jointly patrol part of the region. Turkish forces alone would control the area it captured in its recent incursion (Associated Press)

Erdogan, Putin to Holds Talks on Northeast Syria

  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Sochi today, as a cease-fire agreement between Turkish and Kurdish forces in northern Syria is set to expire (Al Jazeera)

Turkey Warns Operations to Resume in Syria if Kurds Remain

  • Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkish military operations would resume if Kurdish forces do not withdraw from northeast Syria before the end of a ceasefire set to expire Tuesday night (Al Jazeera)

Turkey Agrees to Pause Syria Offensive

  • U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan negotiated a five-day pause in Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria, allowing Kurdish fighters to leave the area in exchange for U.S. sanctions relief. Under the agreement, Kurdish fighters who assisted U.S. efforts against the Islamic State in the region would have 120 hours to clear a corridor along the Syria-Turkey border (Al Jazeera)
  • Erdogan said Turkey plans to resettle up to two million Syrian refugees there (Reuters)
  • Despite the truce, fighting between Turkish and Kurdish forces continued today (New York Times)

Erdogan Vows to Continue Syria Offensive

  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected a U.S. call for a cease-fire in northern Syria, saying the Turkish military operation there will go on until a zone stretching more than two hundred miles is cleared of Kurdish fighters Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is set to meet with U.S. National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien today (Al Jazeera)

U.S. Sanctions Turkey Over Syria Incursion

  • U.S. President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order authorizing sanctions on Turkey over its military operation against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria (U.S. State Department)
  • The order calls for an immediate cease-fire and, in a statement, Trump said that Washington will hike tariffs on Turkish steel to 50 percent and freeze ongoing trade negotiations (Twitter)
  • Amid the withdrawal of U.S. forces in northern Syria, Russia announced that its forces have begun patrolling between the Turkish and Syrian militaries there (Washington Post)

U.S. Troops to Leave Syria Amid Turkish Offensive

  • As Turkey continued a military operation to clear Kurdish forces from northern Syria, the United States announced plans to withdraw its remaining one thousand troops in the area by the end of the month (Wall Street Journal)
  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkish forces are in control of nearly seventy square miles in northern Syria, while Kurdish fighters said they made a deal with Damascus and Moscow to receive military support (New York Times)

Turkey Intensifies Strikes on Kurds in Northern Syria

  • Turkish forces intensified artillery and air strikes on several northern Syrian villages near the border today, with reports of more than one hundred killed in the first few days of the assault (Reuters)
  • The United Nations reported that an estimated one hundred thousand people have fled their homes this week (BBC)