From the beginning of its illegal invasion of Syria, Ankara has been trying to put its crimes right with international community by thinking up the arguments and suitable excuses at the same time veiling real motives for its presence and military actions on the Syrian territory.
The main pretext for these actions is struggle with Kurdish People Protection Units that pose a threat to Ankara by operating in the bordering with Turkey areas. On the other hand Turkish authirities believe that the creation of Kurdish autonomy (Rojava) will lead to terrorists flow to the Turkish territory.
For achievement of the geopolitical goals, in 2016 the president of Turkey
Recep Erdogan declared the beginning of the operation “Euphrates Shield” directed to fight against ISIS and the Kurdish “Syrian Democratic Forces” in the north of Syria thereby having begun the occupation of the Arab republic. The following operation “Olive Branch” was conducted in 2018 and resulted in the occupation of Afrin city and another Turkish military operation “Peace Spring” in 2019 led to the occupation of more territories of northern Syria that had been under Kurdish control.
It is worth to note these operations that violated territorial sovereignty had nothing common with initially stated goals and looked like colonization more, than anti-terrorism efforts. One of the Turkey’s national security principles is counter to external aggression. But neither Kurdish militia or ISIS terrorists attacked Turkey nor Turkish forces presence in Syria couldn’t be taken as a holiday trip. Such actions are pure and simple occupation albeit all pretexts and false arguments justifying their intentions.
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As cover for the aggressive policy aimed to strengthen the influence and distribute the “Neo-Ottomanism” in the region, Ankara opens universities, religious institutions and builds houses for refugees. Besides, the Turkish ID cards, currency, symbolism and other attributes of the Turkish state are actively implemented in occupied territories by means of its allies from different illegal armed groups.
Besides, the creation of the so-called Salvation Government affiliated with the “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” terror group in the Idlib province with Turkish assistance led to humanitarian situation worsening. Jihadists rise to power turned into acts of extortion and civilians kidnapping following with forced enlistment. Therefore more and more Idlib residents desire to live in controlled by Syrian government areas.
There is a mountain of evidence in public access proving terrorists’ corruption. Thus they demand from civilians a huge amount of money to leave their territories. Now, when the country faced a deep economic crisis, the payment for freedom and the peaceful sky is about $1000 that is too much for ordinary Syrian residents.
Another one fact of Turkish authorities and their proxies crimes in Syria is money making on pandemic. Humanity faced one of the most dangerous calls in 2020 – a new COVID-19 infection. All developed nations, the international community and humanitarian organizations mobilized the efforts to stop epidemic, to create a vaccine and share it with another countries.
The Syrian government actively works on providing to all territories of the country with a vaccine while Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorists with assistance of their Turkish patrons speculate on a pandemic and sell a vaccine dose at price $250. It’s another testament to the fact that Turkey turns a blind eye to the mayhem committed by its proxies. Ankara is not interested in returning humanitarian situation in controlled areas to normal conditions and improvement of citizen’s living standards. The international community must pay attention to a humanitarian disaster in Idlib and take essential measures since struggle with the pandemic is core task of humanity.
Armen Tigranakert