Tag Archives: Turkey

U.S.-based cleric urges Europe act to stop “catastrophe” in Turkey

U.S. based cleric Fethullah Gulen at his home in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania

ROME, Sept 23 (Reuters) – A U.S.-based Turkish cleric accused by Tayyip Erdogan of treason said the President was using a failed coup to promote himself as a national hero and urged Europe to intervene to prevent catastrophe” as purges from the army to the judiciary proceed.

Fethullah Gulen, who denies backing the July putsch, suggested in an interview with Italian daily La Stampa Europe’s leaders had done too little in criticizing Erdogan over the arrest of tens of thousands, from the army and journalism to the judiciary and arts, and the suspension of some 100,000 people.

“Internal pressure from refugees, the proliferation of radical groups, the persecution of tens of thousands of
civilians, Erdogan’s rash self-proclamation as national hero… should compel European leaders to take effective action to stop the…government’s move towards authoritarianism,” he said.

He did not say what form such action might take.

Erdogan has long been by far the most popular politician in Turkey – a popularity critics say he has abused to extend his powers and clamp down on dissent. After the failed coup his popularity rose still further.

Turkey hosts nearly three million refugees from war in Syria. Implementing a deal the EU struck with Turkey to stem the flow of illegal migrants to Europe has been delayed by disputes over Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws and the post-coup crackdown.

“Reinforcing democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights in Turkey is absolutely necessary to manage the refugee crisis and the fight against (Islamic State) in the long term. If this doesn’t happen, Europe risks finding itself with an even bigger problem, a catastrophe,” Gulen said.

Gulen was once a close ally of Erdogan, but the relationship has become openly hostile in recent years, culminating in Erdogan accusing Gulen of orchestrating the July coup.

More than 240 people were killed in the July 15 coup. Gulen denies any involvement and has condemned it.

Gulen said European leaders should encourage Turkey’s entry into the European Union – another element of the refugee deal – as it could strengthen democracy and respect for human rights.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Turkey’s Erdogan accuses U.S. of sending weapons to Kurdish fighters

urkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York

By Daren Butler and David Dolan

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused the United States of supplying more weapons to Kurdish fighters in northern Syria this week, saying Washington had delivered two plane loads of arms to what Ankara considers a terrorist group.

Erdogan’s comments are likely to add to the tension between Turkey and the United States over Syria, where Washington backs the Kurdish YPG forces against Islamic State.

Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State but views the Syrian Kurdish YPG and its PYD political wing as an extension of Kurdish militants who have waged a three-decade insurgency on its own soil.

“If you think you can finish off Daesh with the YPG and PYD, you cannot, because they are terrorist groups too,” Erdogan said in comments in New York on Thursday that were broadcast on Turkish television. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

“Three days ago America dropped two plane loads of weapons in Kobani for these terror groups,” he said, adding he had raised the issue on Wednesday with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden who he said had no knowledge of this.

The United States, which sees the YPG as a major strategic partner in the fight against Islamic State in Syria, air-dropped weapons to the group in the largely Kurdish town of Kobani in 2014. Erdogan said that half of those arms were seized by Islamic State fighters.

Kobani was besieged by Islamic State for four months in late 2014 and is about 35 km (20 miles) east of the Syrian border town of Jarablus, which Turkish-backed rebels seized a month ago in an operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield”.

That operation is designed to clear Islamic State fighters from Turkey’s southern border area but it has also brought Turkish and Syrian rebel forces into conflict with the YPG.

FOCUS ON ASSAD

Much of Turkey’s focus during the six-year Syria civil war has been on the need to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rather than fighting Islamic State. Its recent push into northern Syria came after steady advances by the YPG.

Erdogan, who was on a visit to the United States this week, told broadcaster MSNBC that the blame for a deadly attack on a United Nations convoy rested squarely with Damascus.

“The killer responsible for that attack is Assad’s regime itself,” he said, through a translator in an interview aired on Friday.

He called again for the creation of a “safe zone” in northern Syria, an idea that has failed to gain traction with Western allies, who say it would require a significant ground force and planes to patrol.

The top U.S. general on Thursday said the military was considering arming the Syrian Kurdish fighters, and acknowledged the difficulty of balancing such a move with the relationship with Ankara.

“We are in deliberation about (what) exactly to do with the Syrian Democratic Forces right now,” General Joseph Dunford told a Senate hearing, referring to a U.S.-backed coalition that includes the YPG.

When asked whether he agreed that arming the Syrian Kurds fighters presented a military opportunity for the United States to be more effective in Syria, Dunford said: “I would agree with that. If we would reinforce the Syrian Democratic Forces’ current capabilities that will increase the prospects of our success in Raqqa.”

Raqqa is Islamic State’s stronghold in Syria.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Tuvan Gumrucku in Ankara; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Assailant shot outside Israeli embassy in Turkey: officials

Riot police near Israeli Embassy in Turkey

By Umit Bektas and Jeffrey Heller

ANKARA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A suspected assailant was shot and wounded near the Israeli embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara on Wednesday, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman and Turkish police said.

“The staff is safe. The attacker was wounded before he reached the embassy,” the spokesman said in a text message. “The assailant was shot and wounded by a local security man.”

Broadcaster CNN Turk said the suspect, whom it described as mentally unstable, had attempted a knife attack.

Turkish police told Reuters the assailant shouted “Allahu akbar”, or “God is Greatest”, outside the embassy before he was shot in the leg.

Police were examining his bag but had so far not attempted to detonate it, a Reuters cameraman at the scene said. The area outside the embassy had been cordoned off.

The assailant was apprehended at the outer perimeter of the secured zone around the embassy, the Israeli spokesman said.

Private broadcaster NTV identified the suspect as a man from the central city of Konya.

It was not immediately clear if there was a second would-be assailant, but Turkish media reports had initially suggested that there had been two attackers.

Turkey faces multiple security threats, including Islamic State militants, who have been blamed for bombings in Istanbul and elsewhere, and Kurdish militants, following the resumption of a three-decade insurgency in the mainly Kurdish southeast last year.

(Additional Reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Daren Butler)

Thousands flee fire at Greek migrant camp as tensions flare

Migrants stand among the remains of a burned tent at the Moria migrant camp, after a fire that ripped through tents and destroyed containers during violence among residents, on the island of Lesbos, Greece,

By Karolina Tagaris

ATHENS (Reuters) – Thousands of people fled a migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos on Monday night after fire swept through tents and housing cabins during violence among residents, police said.

The fire was over by mid-day on Tuesday at the Moria camp which houses the 5,700 migrants on the island and many people had returned, though children had been transferred to other facilities, police said.

No casualties were reported from the fire and its cause was not clear.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, linked the fire to poor living conditions and a sense of insecurity among many of the residents.

Refugees and migrants on Lesbos are stranded there by a European Union deal with Turkey preventing them going beyond the island until their asylum claims have been processed. Those who do not qualify will be deported to Turkey.

Tensions have boiled over at overcrowded camps on Greece’s islands as the slow processing of asylum requests adds to frustration over tough living conditions.

Greek media said the clashes on Monday erupted among residents following a rumor that hundreds of people would be deported.

Roland Schoenbauer, UNHCR’s spokesman in Greece, said people were “sick of waiting” in the camps. “They don’t know when their asylum claims will be processed. Some people feel they don’t have enough information,” he said.

A police official in Athens said two riot police squads had been deployed to the island.

Nearly 60 percent of the Moria camp, including tents and metal-roofed cabins, had been destroyed by the fire, a police official said. Work was underway on Tuesday to set up new tents, Police Minister Nikos Toskas said.

At least nine people were arrested on accusations of damaging property and causing unrest and were expected to appear before a prosecutor, a police official in Athens said.

The remains of a burned tent at the Moria migrant camp, after a fire that ripped through tents and destroyed containers during violence among residents, on the island of Lesbos, Greece,

The remains of a burned tent at the Moria migrant camp, after a fire that ripped through tents and destroyed containers during violence among residents, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, September 20, 2016. REUTERS/Giorgos Moutafis

OVERCROWDING

Panos Navrozidis, Greece director of aid agency International Rescue Committee, said the camp had been operating at over-capacity for months, with people crammed into the facility with limited access to water, and in conditions that do not meet humanitarian standards.

He criticized the system to process claims as “opaque and inconsistent” and said preferential treatment based on nationality led to tensions within the community.

Thousands have applied for asylum and the wait is long, ranging from weeks to months. Just over 500 people have been deported to Turkey since March but none of those who have requested asylum were among those, Greece says.

Despite a slowdown in arrivals from Turkey compared to last year, more than 13,500 migrants and refugees are now living on eastern Aegean islands, nearly double a capacity of 7,450.

“The situation is difficult,” Christiana Kalogirou, prefect of the north Aegean region, told Greek TV. “There is a great need for decongestion of the islands … in the future things could become much more difficult,” she said.

Including those on the islands, there are 60,000 migrants and refugees stranded in Greece, mostly Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who made risky journeys in flimsy inflatable boats.

(Additional reporting Renee Maltezou; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Turkey backed rebels could push further south in Syria, Erdogan says

Free Syrian Army fighters launch a Grad rocket from Halfaya town in Hama province, towards forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad stationed in Zein al-Abidin mountain,

y Orhan Coskun and Seda Sezer

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey-backed rebels may extend their zone of control in northern Syria by pushing south and are now targeting the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.

Turkey’s “safety zone” in the region could eventually span an area of 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles), Erdogan told a news conference before departing for New York where he was due to address the United Nations’ General Assembly.

Ankara launched its operation in northern Syria known as “Euphrates Shield” last month, aiming to clear Islamic State from Turkey’s Syrian border area and to stop the advance of Syrian Kurdish fighters. So far, it has secured a thin wedge of land along its border.

“As part of the Euphrates Shield operation, an area of 900 square kilometers has been cleared of terror so far. This area is pushing south,” Erdogan said.

“We may extend this area to 5,000 square kilometers as part of a safe zone.”

Turkey has long argued for the need for a “safe zone” or a “no-fly” zone along its Syrian border, with the aim of clearing out Islamic State and Kurdish fighters and stemming a wave of migration that has fueled tensions in Europe.

But Western allies have so far balked at the idea, saying it would require a significant ground force and planes to patrol, marking a major commitment in such a crowded battlefield.

Erdogan said on Monday the Turkey-backed rebels – a group of Syrian Arabs and Turkmen fighting under the loose banner of the Free Syrian Army – were now focused on capturing the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab.

“Jarablus and al-Rai have been cleansed, now we are moving towards al-Bab… We will go there and stop (Islamic State) from being a threat to us,” he said.

CONTROL OF AL-BAB

Gaining control of al-Bab, which lies on the southern edge of what Ankara sees as its potential buffer zone, is crucial to Turkey’s plans to keep the Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters in check, analysts say.

Ankara’s challenge now is to turn the fractured Free Syrian Army into a coherent force as a counterweight to the YPG.

Turkey, a NATO member and part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria, regards the Washington-backed YPG as a terrorist group and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Ankara worries that advances by the YPG will embolden insurgents in its largely Kurdish southeast.

Erdogan has frequently castigated the United States for its support of the YPG. On Monday he accused Washington of exacerbating tension in the region, referring to an incident last week when a small number of U.S. forces entered the town of al-Rai but were forced to withdraw after the Free Syrian Army rebels protested against their presence.

The U.S. special forces entered the town to coordinate air strikes against Islamic State.

“The Syrian army did not and does not want interference from U.S. special forces,” Erdogan said. “Unfortunately, the behavior of U.S. officials has pushed the FSA to this point,” he said, in what appeared to be a reference to Washington’s support of the YPG.

Separately, Turkey’s military said on Monday it hit Islamic State targets in northern Syria in air strikes a day earlier, targeting barracks and an ammunition store.

Erdogan said he plans to address the Syria crisis, the fight against terrorism and Turkey’s failed July 15 military coup when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly later this week.

(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Aid for Syria stuck with rising violence undermining truce

Civil Defence members with blood on their shirts stand after double airstrikes on the rebel held Bab al-Nairab neighborhood of Aleppo.

By Lisa Barrington and Osman Orsal

BEIRUT/CILVEGOZU, Turkey (Reuters) – Aid for the divided Syrian city of Aleppo was stuck on the Turkish border on the fifth day of a fragile ceasefire on Friday with rival factions arguing over how the supplies are to be delivered and violence increasingly undermining the truce.

The provision of aid to what was Syria’s largest city before the war is a critical test of the ceasefire, brokered by the United States and Russia a week ago with the aim of reviving talks on ending the conflict.

Humanitarian access to Aleppo hinges on control of the main road into the besieged rebel-held part of the city, divided between the government and rebels who have been battling to topple President Bashar al-Assad for more than five years. The Castello Road has become a major frontline in the war.

Russia said the Syrian army had begun to withdraw from the road on Thursday, but insurgent groups in Aleppo said they had seen no such move and would not pull back from their own positions around the road until it did so.

“By today this morning nothing had happened on the Castello Road … There is nothing new in Aleppo,” Zakaria Malahifji, of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim, told Reuters by phone.

The Kremlin said it was using its influence to try to ensure the Syrian army fully implemented the ceasefire and that it hoped the United States would use its own influence with rebel groups too.

“In general, we can still state that the (ceasefire) process is moving forward, despite some setbacks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

U.N. FRUSTRATION

Hundreds of protesters from the Shi’ite Muslim villages of Nubul and al Zahra – which lie in government-held territory – were meanwhile heading towards the Castello Road with the aim of blocking it and obstructing the passage of aid trucks, an organization that monitors the war said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they had come out to prevent aid entering rebel-held eastern Aleppo until there were guarantees that supplies would also be sent to the besieged Shi’ite villages of Kefraya and al-Foua which have been surrounded by insurgents since April 2015.

The United Nations, which says it asked the Syrian government for permission to reach all besieged areas, has voiced increasing frustration in recent days at the failure of the Syrian government to allow access.

“In order to actually initiate the actual movement of these convoys (to besieged areas) we need the facilitation letters. They have not come,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs, told a briefing in Geneva.

“It’s highly frustrating … and of course we urge the authorities and everyone with influence over those authorities to push for these letters to materialize as soon as possible.”

Two convoys of aid have been waiting since early on Tuesday in no-man’s land at the Turkish border for permission to travel into Syria. A U.N. spokesman said the first convoy of trucks was carrying flour for more than 150,000 people, while the second was carrying food rations for 35,000 people for a month.

About 300,000 people are thought to be living in eastern Aleppo, while more than one million live in the government-controlled western half of the city.

 

Smoke rises over a damaged site as Civil Defence members try to put out a fire after an airstrike on al-Jalaa street in the rebel held city of Idlib, Syria

Smoke rises over a damaged site as Civil Defence members try to put out a fire after an airstrike on al-Jalaa street in the rebel held city of Idlib, Syria. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah

TRUCE VIOLATIONS

The government and rebels have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, although the U.S. State Department said on Thursday it was largely holding and that both Washington and Moscow believed it was worth continuing.

The United States and Russia have backed opposing sides in the war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, forced 11 million from their homes, and created the world’s worst refugee crisis since World War Two.

After three days which saw a significant decrease in violence and no deaths, the first civilians since the start of the truce were killed on Thursday.

Three more died and 13 were injured in air strikes in rebel-held Idlib province on Friday, the Observatory said. A number of shells were also fired by insurgents into besieged al-Foua and Kefraya.

A building belonging to the Syrian Civil Defense, a rescue organization also known as the “White Helmets” was also hit in overnight air strikes, the group and the Observatory said.

Violent clashes and shells hit areas east of the Syrian capital Damascus on Friday. Residents in the city center were woken up by a large explosion, a witness said, and shells fell on the eastern gate of Damascus’s central Old City area.

The Britain-based Observatory said the violence stemmed from clashes between insurgents and Syrian government forces and their allies in the Jobar district on the eastern outskirts of the capital amid a government effort to advance in the area.

The Syrian military said rebels had attacked military positions east of the city.

Washington hopes the ceasefire will pave the way to a resumption of political talks. But a similar agreement unraveled earlier this year, and Russia’s intervention a year ago in support of Assad has given it critical leverage over the diplomatic process.

The United States and Russia will brief United Nations Security Council members behind closed doors on Friday, diplomats said, on the deal the pair agreed to try and put Syria’s peace process back on track.

Russia is pushing for the U.N. Security Council to adopt a draft resolution next week endorsing the deal.

Assad, appears as uncompromising as ever. He vowed again this week to win back the entire country, which has been splintered into areas controlled by the state, a constellation of rebel factions, Islamic State jihadists, and Kurdish militia fighters.

(Additional reporting by Ellen Francis in Beirut, Tom Miles in Geneva, Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow and Michelle Nicols; Writing by Nick Tattersall, editing by Peter Millership)

Turkey formally requests U.S. arrest of cleric Gulen over coup plot

U.S. based cleric Fethullah Gulen at his home in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 29, 2016.

ISTANBUL, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Turkey has made a formal request to the United States for the arrest of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen on charges of orchestrating an attempted military coup on July 15, Turkish broadcaster NTV said on Tuesday.

Turkey blames members of Gulen’s religious movement for the failed putsch two months ago, in which rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and fighters jets, bombing parliament and seizing bridges in a bid to take over power.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed the issue with U.S. President Barack Obama at the G20 summit in China earlier this month. A senior U.S. administration official said at the time that Obama had explained to Erdogan that the decision would be a legal, not a political one.

(Reporting by Seda Sezer and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Nick Tattersall)

 

Turkey removes two dozen elected mayors in Kurdish militant crackdown

Turkey protest

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey appointed new administrators in two dozen Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday after removing their elected mayors over suspected links to militants, triggering pockets of protest in its volatile southeastern region bordering Syria and Iraq.

Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside local government buildings in Suruc on the Syrian border as new administrators took over, security sources said. There were smaller protests elsewhere in the town.

There were also disturbances in the main regional city of Diyarbarkir and in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, where police entered the municipality building and unfurled a large red Turkish flag, taking down the white local government flags that had previously flown.

President Tayyip Erdogan said this week the campaign against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, who have waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, was now Turkey’s largest ever. The removal of civil servants linked to them was a key part of the fight.

The 24 municipalities had been run by the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest in parliament, which denies direct links to the militants. It decried the move as an “administrative coup”.

“No democratic state can or will allow mayors and MPs to use municipality resources to finance terrorist organisations,” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter. “Being an elected official isn’t a licence to commit crimes.”

Turkey’s battle against the PKK resumed with a new intensity after a ceasefire collapsed last year and with attempts by Kurdish groups in Syria’s war to carve out an autonomous Kurdish enclave on Turkey’s border.

In a message to mark the Muslim Eid al Adha holiday, Erdogan said the PKK had been trying to step up attacks since a failed military coup in July and that they aimed to disrupt Turkish military operations in Syria.

The U.S. embassy said it was concerned by reports of clashes in the southeast and that while it supported Turkey’s right to combat terrorism, it was important to respect the right to peaceful protest.

“We hope that any appointment of trustees will be temporary and that local citizens will soon be permitted to choose new local officials in accordance with Turkish law,” it said.

WESTERN CONCERN

The crackdown comes as Ankara also pushes ahead with a purge of tens of thousands of supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey of orchestrating the attempted coup in July. Gulen denies any involvement.

The mayors of four other municipalities, three from the ruling AK Party and one from the nationalist MHP opposition, were also replaced over alleged links to what the authorities call the “Gulen Terror Organisation”, or FETO.

The interior ministry said the 28 mayors, 12 of whom are formally under arrest, were under investigation for providing “assistance and support” to the PKK and to Gulen’s organization.

Turkey has sacked or suspended more than 100,000 people since the failed coup. At least 40,000 people have been detained on suspicion of links to Gulen’s network.

The crackdown has raised concern from rights groups and Western allies who fear Erdogan is using the failed coup as pretext to curtail all dissent, and intensify his actions against suspected Kurdish militant sympathizers.

Turkish officials say the moves are justified by the extent of the threat to the state.

The HDP, which says it promotes a negotiated end to the PKK insurgency, said it did not recognize the legitimacy of the mayors’ removal.

“This illegal and arbitrary stance will result in the deepening of current problems in Kurdish cities, and the Kurdish issue becoming unresolvable,” it said in a statement.

Tensions in the southeast had already been heightened since Turkey launched a military incursion into Syria two and half weeks ago dubbed “Operation Euphrates Shield”.

The operation aims to push Islamic State fighters back from the border and prevent Kurdish militia fighters seizing ground in their wake. Turkey views the Kurdish militia as an extension of the PKK and fears that Kurdish gains there will fuel separatist sentiment on its own soil.

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler in Istanbul, Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Writing by Nick Tattersall)

Syrians begin returning home, two weeks into Turkish offensive

A member of Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) is seen with local people in the border town of Jarablus, Syria,

By Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A group of 292 Syrians went back to the Syrian town of Jarablus from Turkey on Wednesday, marking the first formal return of civilians since Ankara launched a military incursion two weeks ago to try to secure the border region, a Turkish official said.

Jarablus, which had been held by Islamic State, was the first town captured by Turkey’s army and its Syrian rebel allies in an offensive launched on Aug. 24 that aims to sweep away jihadists and Syrian Kurdish militias from the frontier.

Turkey has said it cleared militants from a 90-km (56-mile) stretch of Syrian territory and has pushed south. It has also said it would support any U.S. initiative to strike Islamic State’s stronghold of Raqqa, further to the southeast.

But Turkey’s tactics have drawn criticism from its NATO ally the United States and also from Russia, with which it recently patched up ties.

Washington says Turkish attacks on Kurdish-aligned militias damage a U.S.-backed coalition that is fighting Islamic State. Russia, which backs the government in Damascus, said on Wednesday Ankara’s push south threatened Syria’s sovereignty.

“We call on Ankara to refrain from any steps which can further destabilize the situation in Syria,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Turkey, which hosts 3 million Syrian refugees, has urged world powers to back plans for a “safe zone” in north Syria to stem the flow of migrants and to allow Syrians to return home.

Although it has failed to win support for the idea, Ankara has pressed on with its offensive to carve out a swathe of territory under the control of the Turkish army and its allies, the Free Syrian Army, allowing some civilians to return home.

“The formal returns have begun today,” said a spokesman at the governor’s office for the southern Turkish province of Gaziantep, which lies across the border from Jarablus.

He said there were 292 people in the first group of registered returnees, including women, children and the elderly. More would be allowed to return but only gradually, he added.

To encourage returnees, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said Turkey would supply mains power to Jarablus on Saturday, followed by water supplies two days later. Power supplies across Syria have been severely disrupted by the war.

“TOO INSECURE”

“Turkey has supported us in every way until now, and has now saved our homeland,” said Fatima Mahmud, a mother who was among the group, told the Turkish newspaper Milliyet.

The United Nations has said an area can only be declared a “safe zone” if the protection of civilians can be guaranteed. It has previously cautioned against encouraging returns too soon.

“Currently, conflict lines are too insecure for many of the town’s displaced to return safely,” the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said in a report last week, referring to Jarablus which had a pre-war population of about 27,500 people.

South and west of Jarablus, Turkish forces have continued fighting. The deputy prime minister said four Turkish soldiers had been killed and 19 wounded in the two-week offensive.

Turkey has repeatedly demanded that the Kurdish YPG militia withdraw to the eastern side of the Euphrates, where there is a Kurdish-controlled canton. Ankara sees the YPG as an extension of the PKK which is fighting an insurgency on Turkish soil.

The YPG says its troops have long since withdrawn from areas being targeted by Turkish-backed forces. Canikli told a news conference on Wednesday that the YPG had not yet completely pulled back east.

The army said Turkey’s rebel allies had taken six more villages, located in Islamic State-held areas, adding to dozens of settlements now under the control of Turkish-backed forces.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had told U.S. President Barack Obama that Turkey would support a joint operation to capture Raqqa, the Syrian city that is Islamic State’s de facto capital, Canikli said.

Erdogan earlier said Obama had floated the idea of such cooperation during meetings at a summit of G20 leaders in China this week, the daily Hurriyet reported. The president had said a specific Turkish role would depend on further talks.

U.S. officials have welcomed Turkish efforts to dislodge Islamic State but voiced concern when Turkish troops engaged fighters aligned with the Kurdish YPG militia, a force Washington sees as a valuable ally in battling jihadists.

(Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva, Lidia Kelly in Moscow,; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Alison Williams)

With Syria ‘safe zone’ plan, Turkey faces diplomatic balancing act

A general view shows a damaged street with sandbags used as barriers in Aleppo's Saif al-Dawla district, Syria

By Orhan Coskun and Ercan Gurses

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey will have to strike a balance between the conflicting goals of Russia and the United States if it is to achieve its ambition of a “safe zone” in northern Syria and build on an incursion which gave it control of a thin strip of the border.

Turkey has for several years called for world powers to help create a zone to protect civilians in its war-torn southern neighbor, with the dual aim of clearing its border of Islamic State and Kurdish militia fighters and of stemming a wave of migration that has caused tensions with Europe.

Western allies have so far balked at the idea, saying it would require a significant ground force and planes to patrol a “no-fly zone”, a major commitment in such a crowded and messy battlefield. Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has meanwhile argued in the past that any foreign incursion would be illegal.

But Turkey’s offensive into northern Syria, launched with its Syrian rebel allies two weeks ago, has created what officials in Ankara are already calling a “de facto safe zone”, driving Islamic State militants from the last 90-km (55-mile) strip of border territory they still controlled.

Turkey now wants international support for a deeper operation to take control of a rectangle of territory stretching about 40 km into Syria, a buffer between two Kurdish-held cantons to the east and west and against Islamic State to the south.

“The first phase of the plan has been achieved. Turkey no longer has borders with Islamic State. But this area is still very thin and vulnerable to attacks from the other side,” said a senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity so as to discuss the strategy more freely.

“What will be done now will depend on coordination with coalition powers and the support they will provide,” he said, adding an improvement in relations with Russia had “eased Turkey’s hand” operationally.

The Turkish-backed rebels, mainly Syrian Arabs and Turkmen fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, took charge of the frontier between the towns of Azaz and Jarablus on Sunday after seizing 20 villages from the ultra-hardline Islamists.

Ahmed Osman, commander of the Sultan Murad rebel group, one of the Turkish-backed forces, told Reuters he would like to see a permanent “safe zone” but that this would require an agreement between Turkey, the United States and Russia.

CONFLICTING INTERESTS

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, his hand strengthened by Turkey’s incursion, said on Monday he had raised the issue of a “safe zone” again with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama at the G20 summit in China.

Neither commented directly on the Turkish proposal, though both said they wanted to build cooperation in fighting terrorism in Syria. Erdogan’s spokesman said there were neither objections nor clear signs of support in the meetings.

A second senior Turkish official acknowledged both Washington and Russia “had their hesitations” but that a “de facto safe zone” had now become a reality on the ground and that their support, particularly in establishing a no-fly zone, was crucial.

Metin Gurcan, a former major in the Turkish military and an analyst for the Al Monitor online journal, said Washington and Moscow’s divergent agendas in Syria raised serious questions about the viability of the Turkish plans.

“We are talking about two superpowers with great stakes in Syria. They have contradicting strategic interests about the end goal in Syria,” he said.

More than five years of civil war have cut Syria into a patchwork of territories held by the government and an often competing array of armed factions, including Kurdish militia fighters, a loose coalition of rebels groups, and Islamic State.

The priority for Washington, which backs rebel factions fighting Assad in the civil war, is destroying Islamic State and it has been at odds with Turkey over the role of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. The United States has backed the Kurdish fighters against the jihadists, but Turkey sees them as a hostile force linked to Kurdish militants on its own soil.

The two NATO allies have reached an uneasy agreement under which YPG fighters are meant to remain east of the Euphrates river, just outside Turkey’s proposed buffer zone, although Ankara has said it has yet to verify that they are doing so.

Turkey meanwhile appears to be navigating Russian concerns more smoothly since restoring relations with Moscow in August, nine months after ties were broken when it shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border.

Erdogan’s spokesman said on Tuesday that Russia had voiced full support for Turkey’s operation to clear the border of Islamic State. For its part, Turkey has been less insistent on Assad’s immediate exit.

“They appear to be lessening their demands for the ouster of Assad in deference to their new relationship with Russia,” said James Stavridis, former NATO supreme commander and dean at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

‘ARMAGEDDON’

Aside from the diplomatic challenges, a push deeper into Syria by the Turkish-backed Arab and Turkmen rebels poses significant military risks.

The Turkish-backed forces have been advancing toward Manbij, a city around 30 km south of Jarablus that was captured last month from Islamic State by a U.S.-backed coalition that includes the YPG. The Kurdish fighters are since supposed to have pulled back east of the Euphrates.

“We know there are de facto YPG factions still there. If they don’t retreat, Turkey will be determined and return Manbij to its owners,” said Yasin Aktay, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling AK Party, referring to Arab and Turkmen communities who lived there before civil war broke out in 2011.

The Islamic State-held town of Al-Bab, west of Manbij, is another a key strategic target for both Turkish-backed and Kurdish forces where Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, one of Islamic State’s most prominent leaders, is thought to have been killed in a U.S. air strike last week.

To its northwest is the village of Dabiq – the site, according to Islamic prophecy, of a final battle between Muslims and infidels, an event in Islamic State propaganda that will herald the apocalypse.

“The fight for the Turkish-backed rebels is going to get tougher as they proceed south,” said a former Turkish soldier and security analyst Abdullah Agar. “According to Islamic State’s beliefs, they will face Armageddon here.”

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut, Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara and Humeyra Pamuk, Edmund Blair and Akin Aytekin in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Pravin Char)