Turkey has launched the Olive Branch military operation in the Afrin region in the north-west of Syria on January 20. Turkey's General Staff said that Turkish military had opened fire on Syrian Kurds' position in response to provocative shelling by militants of Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party. The operation of Turkey's military aims to create 30-kilometer-deep safe zones by cleaning out terrorists.
Washington's decision to build a Syria-Turkey border force has served as an occasion to launch the operation. In fact, it was about providing support to the Kurds who fought in Iraq and Syria on the side of the U.S.-backed international coalition and received Washington's support.
Ankara's position was supported by those who faced the problems of separatism. Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry recalled that Turkey was repeatedly subjected to terrorist attacks, which resulted in the death of a large number of innocent people. "As a country that has suffered from terrorism, Azerbaijan strongly condemns all forms and manifestations of terrorism and supports the efforts of the international community in its fight against terrorism. Eliminating terrorist threat is necessary to achieve international and regional peace and security," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Moscow was concerned to learn of the Turkish operation and now closely monitoring the situation.
After defeating the military and political hotbed of international terrorism in the form of ISIS and withdrawing a significant part of Russian troops from Syria, the main goal of the remaining Russian military in this country was to ensure the cessation of hostilities regime in the de-escalation zones. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry recalled that Russia has maintained a consistent stance on the Syrian settlement, which is based on maintaining territorial integrity, respecting the sovereignty of this country and seeking a long-term political settlement under UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and the agreements on de-escalation zones reached within the framework of the Astana process. Moscow’s main goal in cooperation with Turkey and Iran is to ensure full-fledged functioning of the de-escalation zone in Idlib. "I think we can tackle these problems and the de-escalation zones will provide stability to this very important region," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Today, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara has reached an agreement with Moscow over the Olive Branch Operation. Undoubtedly, differences remain between Ankara and Moscow over Syrian settlement, but Russia has also repeatedly been affected by terrorist and separatist acts and knows from its own experience that only military measures are effective against radicals. In addition, Moscow is well aware, and this is confirmed by Lavrov's words, that the solution of the Syrian problem is impossible without Ankara's participation, and therefore cannot but recognize Turkey's right to establish order on its borders. So it seems that supporters of Kurdish militants remain in the minority.
Armenia actively opposes Ankara's anti-Kurdish operation, which media is predicting the defeat of Turkish military by Kurds. "The motivation of the Kurds, their number and combat experience is the guarantee of high rate of casualties among Turks," the Armenian media writes. Supporting Kurdish radicalism fits into Armenian politics, but Yerevan's voice is unlikely to be heard.
