Senior U.S. officials are warning that Turkey appears to be preparing for a large-scale military offensive into Kurdish-held territory in Syria, citing an alarming buildup of forces along the border, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Turkish commandos, artillery units and allied militia fighters have concentrated in significant numbers near the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani in northern Syria, in moves reminiscent of Turkey’s 2019 invasion of the northeastern part of the country, U.S. security sources told the Journal.
“We are focused on it and pressing for restraint,” a U.S. official said, warning that a cross-border operation could be imminent.
The buildup has prompted intense concern in Washington, coming just after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell to rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in early December. U.S. officials view the power vacuum as potentially destabilizing for the entire region.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an urgent visit to Turkey last week to discuss Syria’s future with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and seek assurances that Ankara would limit operations against Kurdish fighters.
However, U.S.-brokered ceasefire talks between the Syrian Kurds and Turkish-backed rebels in Kobani collapsed Monday without agreement, according to a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman, who reported “significant military buildups” east and west of the city. The developments threaten to undermine joint U.S.-Kurdish operations against Islamic State remnants in northeast Syria. The SDF has been a critical U.S. ally in the fight against the ISIS faction, but is considered by Ankara to be an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
Ilham Ahmed, an official in the Syrian Kurds’ civilian administration, appealed directly to President-elect Donald Trump in a letter viewed by WSJ, warning that Turkey aims to “establish de facto control over our land before you take office, forcing you to engage with them as rulers of our territory.
“If Turkey proceeds with its invasion, the consequences will be catastrophic,” Ahmed wrote to Trump.
The Turkish embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to WSJ requests for comment. Speaking at his Florida residence Monday, Trump suggested Turkey orchestrated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s takeover of Syria, saying, “Turkey did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost.”
Ahmed warned Trump that a Turkish invasion would displace more than 200,000 Kurdish civilians in Kobani alone, along with many Christian communities. During his first term, Trump partially withdrew U.S. troops from northeastern Syria, leading to a major Turkish offensive that resulted in hundreds of thousands of Syrian casualties and displaced persons. The Trump administration later helped broker a ceasefire that required Kurdish forces to cede miles of border territory to Turkish control.
Though Trump doesn’t take office until Jan. 20, Ahmed urged the president-elect to use his “unique approach to diplomacy” to convince Erdogan to halt any planned operation, referencing a previous meeting in which Trump promised “the United States wouldn’t abandon the Kurds.”