Summary

Turkey has launched a military offensive called “Operation Olive Branch” against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the Kurdish majority enclave of Afrin in northwestern Syria. The Turkish military has been shelling YPG positions in Afrin while deploying ground troops and rallying Syrian rebel militias against the YPG. Turkish forces have captured several villages in Afrin along the Turkish-Syrian border, and intense fighting between Turkish-backed rebels and the YPG has occurred in the adjacent town of Tel Rifaat.

Turkish officials claim that they will swiftly rid Afrin of the YPG, which Turkey regards as a terrorist organization. However, the offensive poses severe humanitarian concerns and may undermine the interests of both the United States and Russia in Syria.

Background

Turkey regards the entrenchment of the YPG, a close offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), along the northern Syrian border as a significant security threat. Having fought an ongoing insurgency against the Kurdish militant group in southeastern Turkey, the Turkish state’s security interests in Syria have often conflicted with those of the United States, as exemplified by Turkey’s refusal to intervene during ISIS’ siege of the YPG-held town of Kobane in 2014. In 2016, Turkey and allied Syrian rebel groups launched Operation Euphrates Shield against ISIS in the Syrian border area between the Euphrates River and Afrin with the ulterior motive of preventing the YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from connecting Afrin to the rest of its territory after capturing the city of Manbij on the western bank of the Euphrates River. While Turkey grudgingly tolerates US-backed SDF operations in eastern Syria, support for the YPG continues to be a source of tension between the two NATO allies. Indeed, Operation Olive Branch began a week after news broke that the SDF was forming a border security force of 30,000 personnel with US training and support.