Erdogan’s Anti-Assad Policy Deepens, Complicates Syrian Crisis – Syrian Kurds

Policy of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan against the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad complicates and deepens the crisis in Syria, European Representative of the Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) Administration Senam Mohamed told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Erdogan said on Tuesday that the Turkish armed forces' military operation in Syria is designed to put an end to the rule of Assad. The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted immediately, saying that such statements run counter to the earlier reached agreements between Moscow and Ankara.

"Erdogan has his own plan and dream to get back the Ottoman Empire in Syria and Iraq. His policy increases the Syrian crisis and makes it more and more complicated," Mohamed said.

Soon after the president’s remark at the first Inter-Parliamentary Jerusalem Platform Symposium in Istanbul, a source in his administration tried to downplay the statement and claimed it should not be perceived literally. Nevertheless, it made the headlines in most of the media outlets.

"Erdogan planned this from the beginning of the Syrian crisis. He started by having the opposition in Istanbul and supporting them against Assad," Mohamed said.

On August 24, Turkish forces, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, began a military operation dubbed the Euphrates Shield to clear the Syrian border town of Jarabulus and the surrounding area of Daesh terrorists. As Jarabulus was recaptured, the joint forces of Ankara, the coalition and Syrian opposition groups continued the offensive southwest.

The operation has been widely criticized both by the Syrian Kurds and Damascus, who have accused Ankara of violating Syria's territorial integrity.