Why Turkey is invading Syria

This column of smoke rises from a city in Syria. A similar scene unfolded in another city about a hundred kilometers away. These attacks were a result of Turkish airstrikes on October 9, 2019, when the Turkish invasion of northern Syria began. The long-planned Turkish military operation in northeastern Syria has been launched. Türkiye is moving deeper into Syria. At least 160,000 civilians are believed to have fled fighting in the border area. Over the next few days, the Turkish army moved deeper into Syria and attacked several other cities. All of these attacks are concentrated here, on this strip of land in northeastern Syria.

It is part of an area that Türkiye has wanted to turn into a so-called safe zone for years. So what is this safe zone? And what good is this really for Türkiye? Syria fell into armed conflict in 2011. Protests against the country's authoritarian government broke out in major cities. When the government turned its attention to the uprisings and violently suppressed them, it left a power vacuum in the north. That is where the jihadist militant group ISIS rampaged beginning in 2013. Significant portions of this region, which was home to Syria's largest ethnic minority group called the Kurds, were eventually conquered by ISIS.

But the Kurdish militias counterattacked successfully. So the United States backed them with air support and ground training against ISIS. In 2015, Kurdish and non-Kurdish militias in the region joined together to form the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and began pushing back against ISIS. This paved the way for the expansion of a Kurdish-led territory that was already being established here. By 2019, the SDF effectively broke ISIS's stronghold in the north. They established prisons that held around 11,000 ISIS fighters captive and housed tens of thousands of ISIS relatives in displaced persons camps. US military bases also sprung up in this Kurdish-controlled area.

And American troops began patrolling the Syrian-Turkish border. Across the border in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long seen the rise of the Kurds in Syria as a threat. This is because a Kurdish separatist group in Turkey called the PKK has fought the Turkish government for decades. The PKK has pushed for greater autonomy for Kurds living in Türkiye. But the Turkish government rejected its autonomy and counterattacked. The violent conflict between the two has left tens of thousands dead. Erdoğan claims the PKK is aligned with Kurdish forces in Syria and sees their growing influence across the border as a risk.

A Kurdish-ruled territory in Syria could inspire Kurds in Turkey to import the same model into their country. Erdoğan has launched attacks against the Kurds in Syria on multiple occasions. The first came in 2016, when Turkish troops attacked here in the northwest to push back ISIS and block Kurdish expansion along the border. And in 2018, they attacked Syria again, this time in an attempt to wipe out the SDF. Türkiye gained control over these areas, but at the time it was facing problems within its borders. A trade war with the United States and economic mismanagement by the country's leaders had caused Turkey's economy to collapse.

And many found themselves unable to find work as unemployment rose. This economic crisis caused many in Türkiye to look for a scapegoat in Syrian refugees. The war in Syria forced more than six million people to flee the country. And 3.6 million of those refugees fled to Türkiye, more than any other nation. As the Turkish economy collapsed, more and more Turks disapproved of President Erdoğan and resented the influx of refugees. In 2014, Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party enjoyed widespread support. He won 50 mayoral seats, more than half of the country's local leadership. But in March 2019, his party lost 11 of those seats in local elections.

To make matters worse, a pro-Kurdish party, the People's Democratic Party, won eight mayoral seats and helped other opposition candidates win across the country. Voters offered the Turkish president his worst night at the polls. All this reflects great discomfort with the president. The Kurds have become the key to this result. To regain political popularity, Erdoğan was pressured to act. After the election, he doubled down on an idea he had been proposing for years: a safe zone between Turkey and Syria. Erdoğan had already taken control of this region in northwestern Syria. He now wanted to expand that territory to the east, towards lands led by the Kurds.

Erdoğan stated that the purpose of this safe zone would be to transfer Syrian refugees back to this strip of Syria. He took this plan to Russia and the United States, but failed to get them on board. As political pressure mounted at home, Erdoğan and his government threatened to enter Syria on their own. But there was an obstacle in his way. The United States, an ally of Turkey and a military supporter of the Kurds, still had troops stationed in northern Syria. So Türkiye couldn't do anything. In August 2019, Türkiye made some progress with the United States.

The two agreed on a safe area that they would patrol together. This zone would extend 5 kilometers towards northern Syria. The SDF cooperated by withdrawing some of its forces. But this agreement was not enough for Erdoğan. A month later, at the UN, he proposed a much larger zone. We intend to establish a peace corridor with a depth of 30 kilometers and a length of 480 kilometers in Syria and allow the settlement of 2 million Syrians there. Shortly after this speech, Türkiye found a way to Syria. After a phone call with Erdoğan, President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria.

The time has come to bring our soldiers home. I don't want to leave troops there. It's very dangerous. We never agreed to protect the Kurds for the rest of their lives. Trump broke the US alliance with the Kurds and withdrew troops along the border. Erdoğan finally seized the opportunity and sent troops to northeastern Syria. The invasion of Türkiye has been brutal and destabilizing. What is happening in Syria can only be described as chaos. Kurdish hospitals have been overwhelmed. Thousands of people are still on the move trying to escape this violence. Families desperate to get out of here.

Türkiye is sending Arab militias that would displace Kurds from their homes. As the SDF defends itself against Turkish forces, it leaves ISIS prisons unguarded. And according to Kurdish sources, hundreds have already escaped. The US withdrawal and Turkish invasion have created a new power vacuum in northern Syria, which is rapidly filling. When America leaves, another force enters. The Kurds have reached an agreement with the president of Syria. The president of Turkey and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, reach an agreement on the future of Syria. The withdrawal of American troops is causing more changes than the area has seen in years.