TIL After the collapse of ISIS in Syria, Turkey has been invading and taking territory in Northern Syria

submitted by magnora7 from (en.wikipedia.org)

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[–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (5 children)

I also found this very interesting map of each country's reaction to the 2019 Turkish invasion of Syria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Turkish_offensive_into_north-eastern_Syria#/media/File:Reactions_to_Turkey's_2019_Rojava_offensive.svg

Seems like the 'stans and China and Russia are pretty much OK with it. And the west is very much not OK with it.

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[deleted]

    [–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

    That's a good summary of events, I agree with this explanation.

    The US wasn't happy that Turkey had started a proxy war against them and imposed sanctions.

    One caveat was the US dragged its feet about this for a long time because it didn't want to anger Turkey, because Turkey-US military relations are the basis for NATO. I also think that's why the media has not mentioned what Turkey is doing very much, because they don't want to anger their NATO core. But eventually they had to impose sanctions.

    Turkey is going to continue to claim these areas just like Israel continues to claim the Golan Heights.

    Yes it seems that way. To me it looks like Rojava will eventually fade away as the Turkey vs Syria battle takes center stage, and through this mechanism, Russia will reclaim the US-backed Rojava space, be it through Turkey's invasion in to Rojava land, or Syria's entry in to Rojava land (with the goal of fighting Turkey's invasion).

    Either way it seems like Rojava is not actually equipped to control their territory, based on what I'm seeing in the maps, and the fact they let Syria troops enter Rojava territory the instant Turkey started invading again in 2019.

    It all seems like it's designed to diminish Rojava, which means the end of US influence in Syria. Russia wins. I think that's the over-arching goal with this Turkey vs Syria thing, despite Russia backing both. It's all about getting rid of US/Rojava, it's the only thing that makes logical sense to me with Russia appearing to fight itself.

    [–]Zapped 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

    Great explanation. If I can add that Turkey has been fighting with the PKK for years and that is why Turkey wants this buffer zone. Also, Turkey knows it has a unique geopolitical position and is in a weird love/hate relationship with both the U.S. and Russia, working with each on some fronts and fighting with each on different ones.

    [–][deleted] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

    I wonder why NATO hasn't kicked out Turkey yet.

    [–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    Because Turkey is the foundation for NATO. The US has 3 military bases in Turkey that it's using constantly to invade Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

    Even though 85% of Turkey people hate America basically, they're trapped together because of the mutual defense treaties they signed that was the foundation for NATO.

    Trump actually wanted to ignore what Turkey is doing on the basis he didn't want to mess up the NATO relations. But since Biden has taken office, the US has placed sanctions on Turkey, disallowing any further arms sales to Turkey because of what they've been doing in Syria the last few years.

    So it's definitely a possibility, but there's a lot of risk/reward calculations that keep the US reaction to Turkey's actions from being too strong.