Senior Analyst: Field Developments Force Turkey to Leave Syrian Territories

“Given the field and political developments in Syria, if Turkey wants to increase intervention in Syria and oppose withdrawal from the country, it should wait for counting the number of its toll because the Syrian army and its allies are powerfully and more resolvedly seeking to confront Turkey’s new folly,” Talib Ibrahim told FNA on Friday.

“Turkey will finally leave the war as a result of its mercenaries’ defeats in the Syrian territories and the internal problems it is facing,” he added.

Turkish troops entered Syria on August 24, launching operation Euphrates Shield. Turkey deployed ground troops and air power to Northern parts of its neighboring country, with the stated goal of retaking areas held by ISIL.

However, many observers have said that Ankara aims to suppress Kurdish forces in Syria and prevent them from connecting three de facto autonomous Kurdish areas into one enclave South of the Turkish border.

In surprising remarks on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Turkish Army entered Syria to overthrow the Syrian President Bashar Assad, and accused the Syrian government of terrorism.

“We entered Syria to end the rule of al-Assad. We didn’t enter for any other reason,” the Turkish president said at the first Inter-Parliamentary Jerusalem Platform Symposium in Istanbul, RT reported citing the Turkish-language daily Hurriyet.

Erdogan said that Turkey has no territorial claims in Syria, but instead wants to hand over power to the Syrian population, adding that Ankara is seeking to restore “justice.”

“Why did we enter? We do not have an eye on Syrian soil. The issue is to provide lands to their real owners. That is to say we are there for the establishment of justice,” he said.

He went on to say that “in his estimation” almost 1 million people have died in the conflict in Syria, although no monitoring group has provided any similar figures. The latest UN estimate stands at 400,000 people killed in the five-year conflict.

Erdogan said that Turkey “had to enter Syria together with the Free Syrian Army.”

Reports said on Wednesday that the ISIL has shifted plans to launch new offensive to reoccupy the Kurdish-ruled city of Manbij to surrender both Manbij and al-Bab to the Turkey-backed militants in a later move after Erdogan said his troops’ incursion into Syria is meant to fight and topple President Assad.

Field sources said that the ISIL has started a new scenario in the regions near Manbij in coordination with the Turkish government and has attempted in the past few days to reoccupy the villages in the Western and Northwestern parts of the Kurdish-held Manbij with the help of the Turkish forces who are stationed in the Northern villages.

Manbij was taken from ISIL by the YPG Kurdish fighters several months ago. Turkey has repeatedly warned the Kurds to leave the strategic city that links two Kurdish Cantons on the Eastern and Western side of the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates. Turkey has repeatedly warned Kurds in the last several months to leave the Northeastern parts of Aleppo on the Western side of Tishrin and retreat to the East.

According to field sources, the ISIL terrorists have also agreed to evacuate the strategic city of al-Bab in several stages and reoccupy Manbij again so that the Turkish government will be able to deploy forces in the city under the pretext of fighting against terrorism.

Sources in the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) also disclosed that the US forces stationed in Northern Syria have also agreed with the Turkish scenario and have instead promised the Kurdish forces to give them control of the Southern parts of Raqqa province.