ANKARA, June 9. /TASS/. One of the main objectives of the cross-border military operation that Turkey intends to launch in Syria is to prevent the formation of a so-called ‘garrison state’ in the adjacent area, said Sukru Elegdag ex-Turkish ambassador to the United States on Thursday.
"After the emergence of the Kurdish administration of the Northern Iraq in the wake of the US occupation of Iraq [in 2003], the United States is set again to form a state of the Kurds, but this time in Syria," Elegdag, who served as Turkey’s ambassador to the United States in 1979-1989, said in an interview with Turkish popular daily Sozcu.
"This ‘garrison state,’ which the United States supplies with heavy armaments and assists with military training, is viewed as a second stage of the ‘Greater Kurdistan’ project," he continued. "The third and fourth stages of this project are aimed at Iran and Turkey."
"Proceeding from statements of President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, he intends to hamper the implementation of these plans, which threaten Turkey," said Elegdag, who earlier repeatedly warned against the implementation of the American project to establish ‘Greater Kurdistan.’
Elegdag also pointed to diplomatic shortcomings made by the Erdogan administration in regard to Syria.
"If Turkey, first of all, had learnt any lessons from the occupation of Iraq, instead of invading Syria on the heels of the US, had it maintained dialogue with the regime of [Syrian President] Bashar Assad, then today it wouldn’t have come up against this enormous flow of migrants and such threats," he noted.
According to earlier reports, the operation was planned to be conducted in four regions: Tell Rifaat, Ayn al-Arab, Ayn Issa and Manbij. They are controlled by Syria’s so-called National Defense Forces (NDF) which Turkey deems to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara outlawed. According to Turkish intelligence, the majority of militants are concentrated in Manbij. The National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces insists that the new operation by the Turkish army will help mop up the terrorists from the region and ensure the return of about 2.5 million Syrian refugees from Turkey.
The Turkiye newspaper reported earlier that the operation was set to involve about 50,000 people, including local forces controlled by Ankara.
Following the operation, Turkey intends to return the remains of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of Osman, the founder of the Ottoman Empire. His remains were evacuated to Turkey in 2015, and the mausoleum was blown up.
The crypt was located on a small peninsula on the Euphrates River in Aleppo province 37 kilometers away from the Syrian-Turkish border.
On May 23, Erdogan announced the possibility of conducting a new cross-border operation into the adjacent territory in order to finalize the creation of a 30-kilometer-wide security zone near the southern border. As a result of Turkey’s military operations conducted in northern Syria earlier, a security zone between the towns of Azaz and Jarabulus north of Aleppo was created, Afrin was occupied and border regions east of the Euphrates River were taken under control.