Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army, FSA, fighters in the Syrian town of Azez near the border with Turkey, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. Depo Photos/ Press Association. All rights reserved. On January 20, Turkey began its second military campaign in northern Syria. The target is Afrin, a Kurdish-majority canton and stronghold of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the military alliance led by the People’s Protection Unit (YPG).
The Turkish intervention is backed by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), comprised of several Syrian opposition groups such as the Islamic Ahrar Al-Sham and the Hamza Brigade. Turkey’s ‘Operation Olive Branch’ objective is aimed at neutralising the YPG, which Ankara considers a terrorist group and offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Kurdish militia involved in an ongoing conflict with the Turkish state since the eighties.
However, Washington has for long regarded the YPG as its best ally in the Middle East, thanks to the crucial role played by the Kurds in the US-led campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria. The most striking difference between the two Turkey-led interventions lies in the fact that while the former was launched against the Islamic State, the latter is allegedly being conducted with the support of ISIS fighters, to destroy Syrian Kurdish militias.
