Turkey wants no forces along Turkey-Syria border to settle refugees

After signing the peace truce with the United States, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on October 20 that he still wants the Syrian government forces to clear out the border areas near Turkey for the settlement of nearly 2 million refugees. This will be the main agenda to be discussed next week between President Erdogan and Syria's ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.  

The arrangements between the Turkey-Syria border were disturbed when the United States President, Donald Trump ordered the US troops to leave the North Syrian border and instead guard their American boundaries. Soon after the shift in policy by the US, President Erdogan had launched a military operation in Northeastern Syria to clear out the “terrorist forces”. On further criticism by the European countries, Turkey also threatened to send millions of refugees. 

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No forces along the border

President Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin said that Ankara does not want both, the Syrian as well as the Turkish forces along the border because the refugees will refrain from going to those areas if the forces are still present. Moreover, Turkey also wants to oversee that area. 

“This is one of the topics that we will discuss with the Russians, because, again, we are not going to force any refugees to go to anywhere they don’t want to go," he said. “We want to create conditions that will be suitable for them to return where they will feel safe”.

Reportedly, the Turkish government has allowed nearly 3.6 million Syrians in their borders in order to avoid the military offensive launched in their home country. However, now Ankara wants them to return and so far, only a few have returned to an enclave which Turkey controls since 2017.

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Syria: will withdraw troops after Turkey

Moreover, a senior Syrian Kurdish official, Redur Khalil also acknowledged that this was the first time that Kurdish-led forces have agreed to pull-back and said that the forces will move 30 kilometers which is 19 miles south of the border. 

However, this move will only take place once the Turkish forces entirely retract their forces and evacuate the area. Khalil and Kurdish led-fighters would pull back from a 120 kilometer stretch along the border from Ras al-Ayn to Tal Abyad which move pasts the international highway. Moreover, Khalil even said that they are committed to the version declared by the “US not the Turkey one”. The previous agreement which was signed between Washington and Ankara over the “safe zone” along the area floundered over the diverging definitions of the area. 

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Turkey wants greater withdrawal 

President Erdogan has also asked the Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a far larger length of the border which is from Euphrates River to the Iraqi border which is more than 440 kilometers or else the military operation which currently has been halted will be resumed on October 22. However, the US officials still say that the peace truce pertains to the smaller section between the borders of the two countries. Kalin has also confirmed the same area between two towns is affected by the pause in the offensive, however, Turkey still wants a larger area. 

Days after ceasefire

The border town of Ras al-Ayn has still been the sticking point to move forward even after two days of declaration of the cease-fire. President Erdogan's spokesman still hopes that if not today than tomorrow the Syrian forces will leave the area. Moreover, According to the Kurdish official that his force had agreed with the Americans about the details of their pull-back from the border which was starting from Ras al-Ayn. However, he further admitted that the evacuation process was halted for 48 hours because the Turkish-backed forces had still continued their attacks on the town. 

Partial evacuation

As the partial evacuation took place on Saturday and the medical convoys were also allowed into thepart of the town which is reportedly still under Kurdish control and evacuated 30 wounded and four bodies from a hospital. Moreover, the plan to resume the evacuation process from the town on Sunday. The Turkish officials have denied the violation of ceasefire however, they blamed the ongoing violence on Kurds. Even after the evacuation takes place from the 120 kilometers border area, it still remains in the hands of Kurdish-led fighters to decide what area along the northeastern border will be 'free'. In addendum to that, Khalil said that the Syrian government and its Russian ally did not want to deploy more extensively in the concerned area in order to avoid further friction with Turkey. 

“We noticed there was no desire (from the Russians and Syria) to have the Syrian military on the dividing line between us and the Turks except in Kobani,” he said. 

The border town of Kobani also stands in between the Turkish controlled territories of Syria to the west and Kurdish-held Syria. Khalil was still reportedly unclear about the future events once the evacuation is complete. He further said that the deal is “not good but bad” for them. However, he believes that “there is no win” except to win international sympathy. 

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(With AP inputs)