Kurds Warn Turkey of ‘Big War’ With Russia If Troops Enter Syria
Henry Meyer Stepan Kravchenko
February 18, 2016 — 6:51 AM CST
Updated on February 18, 2016 — 9:18 AM CST
A Kurdish fighter handles a weapon in Tal Abyad, Syria. Photographer: Ahmet Sik/Getty Images
MOSCOW, RUSSIA - FEBRUARY 16: Russian president Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of federal and regional judges at President Hotel on February 16, 2016 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Dmitry Azarov/Kommersant Photo via Getty Images)
Russia has promised to protect Kurdish fighters in Syria in case of a ground offensive by Turkey, a move that would lead to a “big war,” the Syrian group’s envoy to Moscow said in an interview on Wednesday.
“We take this threat very seriously because the ruling party in Turkey is a party of war,” Rodi Osman, head of the Syrian Kurds’ newly-opened representative office said in Kurdish via a Russian interpreter. “Russia will respond if there is an invasion. This isn’t only about the Kurds, they will defend the territorial sovereignty of Syria.”
Conflicting interests in Syria have created a dangerous new phase in the country’s five-year war, even as world powers struggle to implement a truce agreement. Turkey fears Kurdish gains along its border will morph into an autonomous state and inspire similar ambitions among its own Kurdish minority. But a ground intervention risks conflict with Russia, which backs the Kurds militarily, and would anger the U.S., which sees the group as a major ally in the fight against Islamic State.
Turkey has been shelling Syrian Kurdish forces since the weekend, and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed them for a bombing in Ankara that killed 28 people on Wednesday.
Turkish tanks fire towards the Syria border
Photographer: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images
“We are continuing to liberate our territory and it would go faster if it wasn’t for Turkey,” Osman said. Russian warplanes are providing support for the Kurdish offensive, which is aimed at securing full control of the Turkish border, while Russia has also promised to support the Syrian Kurds’ goal of federal status, he said.
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Poster Comment:
The Russians may take the risk.