Turkey has exploited the Syrian conflict for its own benefit, with direct involvement with armed Syrian factions since the beginning of the Syrian revolution, Syrian Change and Renaissance Party Secretary General Mistefa Qelacî said in an interview with Hawar News Agency.
Turkey has committed a “myriad of crimes” in Syria and remains in violation of international laws pertaining to sovereignty, Qelacî added.
While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Ankara’s intentions to focus on a military operation on the Syrian towns of Manbij and Tell Rifat, their military operations in the past years suggest that Turkish troops would likely seek to occupy more territory, the secretary general said.
According to Qelacî, Turkey is pushing for the borders set in Misak-ı Milli, a late Ottoman pact that considers most of Iraq and Syria, a part of Greece and all of Cyprus as legitimate Turkish nation state territory. If the pact was achieved, Syria’s Aleppo would also belong to Turkey.
Erdoğan’s moves in Syria are what the “international community desires”, and the Turkish president would not have made his aggressive comments were he not backed by Russia and Iran, his allies in the Astana talks, and approved by the United States and NATO, he said. “Those entities are less interested in Syria and more in their relationship with Turkey.”
Wednesday’s declaration of a state of emergency in the territories controlled by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) aim to confront the threat of a Turkish invasion and to prepare for it, he added.
Qelacî called for the Syrian government in Damascus to declare a state of emergency as well, to better defend Syria against Turkey’s attacks.
