It is a diplomatic victory for Turkey, which has long demanded the creation of a safe haven in northern Syria, across the 500-mile (800km) border that links the two countries, as a precondition for joining the battle against Islamic State.
But it remains unclear how the safe haven will be policed, whether it will have to include a de facto no-fly zone patrolled by coalition planes, and what the response will be if troops loyal to the regime of the embattled Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, attack American allies including the Kurdish militias or Syrian opposition fighters battling Isis in northern Syria.
American officials told the New York Times they had agreed to work with Turkey and Syrian rebel fighters to clear a 60-mile strip of land near the border that would constitute an Isis-free zone and a safe haven for Syrian refugees. Turkey hosts about 1.8 million displaced people who fled the civil war.
The US has long been reluctant to offer direct support except to a handful of Syrian rebel groups, and a programme to vet and train rebel fighters has had little effect, mostly because most opposition fighters are keen to battle the Assad regime, not just Isis.
But in recent months, the main Kurdish militia in Syria, the YPG, has succeeded alongside Syrian rebel fighters in ousting Isis from large tracts of land in northern Syria, including the crucial bordertown of Tal Abyad, a waypoint for foreign fighters traveling to join the terror group.
It is unclear how the zone will affect the Kurds and their allies, whose campaign was backed by coalition air strikes. In addition to the escalating campaign against Isis, the Turkish government has cracked down on the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK), which has links to the YPG’s political arm, the PYD.
On Monday, the YPG accused Turkey of targeting its own fighters inside Syria, as they laid siege to Isis-held positions close to another key border crossing, the town of Jarablus. In a statement, the YPG said Turkey had shelled a Kurd- and opposition-held town near the border with seven tank rounds, and an hour later attacked vehicles belonging to the Kurdish militia.
“Instead of targeting IS terrorists’ occupied positions, Turkish forces attack our defenders’ position. This is not the right attitude,” the statement said. “We urge Turkish leadership to halt this aggression and to follow international guidelines. We are telling the Turkish army to stop shooting at our fighters and their positions.”
A Turkish official told AFP that his country’s military did not intend to target the YPG and its political arm, the PYD, and was investigating the overnight shelling.
“The ongoing military operation seeks to neutralise imminent threats to Turkey’s national security and continues to target Isis in Syria and the PKK in Iraq,” the official said. He added that the Syrian Kurdish “PYD, along with others, remains outside the scope of the current military effort”.
News of the latest agreement came as Turkey continued to carry out air raids against the PKK, and days after it bombed Isis targets in Syria and allowed the US-led coalition access to its Incirlik air base. Turkey has also arrested hundreds of alleged Isis and PKK members in the last few days, in retaliation for a suicide bombing earlier this month in the southern town of Suruc, a cross-border attack by Isis militants that killed a Turkish soldier, and violence against local police by PKK militants.
Turkish fighter jets on Sunday targeted positions of the outlawed PKK for a second night, deepening concerns that the peace process between the Turkish government and the Kurdish rebels is about to come to an end.
The new round of air raids came on the heels of a car bomb explosion that killed two Turkish soldiers and wounded four others on Saturday night, which Ankara blamed on the PKK. Following the attack, the Turkish government asked Nato to hold an extraordinary council meeting on Tuesday in order to discuss security strategies and a possible Nato involvement with all council members.
Turkey’s acting prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has said military operations against the PKK and Isis would continue as long as the country faced a threat by either group. Speaking during a working dinner with several Turkish newspaper editors on Saturday, Davutoglu said the military operations had “changed the regional game” and “showed its strength”.
Turkish daily Hürriyet also quoted Davutoglu as underlining that Washington and Ankara had found enough common ground over their Syria policy to reach agreement on opening up Turkey’s airbases.
Davutoglu said Turkey did not plan to send ground forces into Syria, and that Ankara was willing to cooperate with “moderate elements fighting against Daesh [Isis]”.
“If we are not going to send in land units on the ground, and we will not, then those forces acting as ground forces cooperating with us should be protected,” Hürriyet quoted him as saying. He also said that the PYD, considered the Syrian affiliate of the PKK, could “have a place in the new Syria” if the party agreed to cooperate with opposition fighters, cut all links with Assad and if it “did not irritate Turkey”.
The PKK on Sunday announced that three of its members were killed, while seven others were wounded in the second wave of air strikes and artillery attacks on Qandil mountain, where the Kurdish group’s military headquarters are based.
The ongoing campaign against the PKK throws into question the future of the already very fragile peace process started in 2012 in an effort to end a bloody 30-year conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdish rebels that has resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 people. It also poses questions about the aims of Turkey’s escalation, with more force directed at the PKK than against Isis.
In Turkey, violent clashes between anti-government demonstrators and the police continued in several cities. In the restive Gazi neighbourhood in Istanbul, one police officer was killed on Sunday, the third day of protests after police shot a leftist activist during a raid on suspected militants. Attacks on police and army posts were reported in some cities in the predominantly Kurdish south-east.
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