Turkish troops enter Syria to rescue soldiers guarding tomb
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Version 0 of 1. Turkey has staged its first open military operation in Syria, dispatching hundreds of ground troops, tanks, aircraft and drones to extract 38 soldiers guarding a historical Ottoman tomb besieged by Islamic State (Isis) militants. Related: The relocation of Suleyman Shah: the way forward in the Middle East? | Andrew Brown In the first such incursion into Syria since the start of the civil war nearly four years ago, Ankara launched the operation – dubbed “Shah Euphrates” – to move the remains of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman empire. The operation was conducted through Kobani, the Kurdish-controlled enclave south of the Turkish-Syrian border that was the scene of a recent victory over Isis by the US-led military coalition. Turkey views the shrine of Suleyman Shah as sovereign territory under a treaty signed between Turkey and France in 1921, but Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, condemned the operation as “flagrant aggression” and said “Turkey would be responsible for the results”. The 38 soldiers who had been guarding the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman empire, were brought safely home. Kurdish news agencies quoted security officials saying that the military operation was conducted in cooperation with Syrian Kurdish authorities. According to a press statement on the website of the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency, the “leadership of the [Syrian Kurdish] YPG had been informed and was an active part of the operation”. Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, said the Turkish military had destroyed the mausoleum to prevent the premises being used by Isis militants. Turkish media reported that no clashes had taken place but that one soldier had died accidentally during the operation. On Friday, the Turkish interior minister, Efkan Âlâ, denied claims that Turkish troops guarding the tomb had been unable to return home because they were under siege from Isis fighters, who have surrounded the shrine since March 2014. Their fundamentalist Salafi interpretation of Islam deems the veneration of shrines to be idolatrous, and they have already destroyed a number of other tombs and mosques in Syria and Iraq. Davutoğlu warned that Turkey would retaliate against any attack on the tomb of Suleyman Shah. “Countries which do not look after their historic symbols cannot build their future,” he said. The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, defended the military operation as an affirmation of Turkish sovereignty. “Turkey did not abandon Turkish soil,” he told a youth branch meeting of the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP). “On the contrary, we gained new territory right across the border.” He said Ankara had informed “all concerned parties” of the relocation and that there had not been any opposition to the operation. Hasip Kaplan, MP for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP), said the evacuation was launched jointly between the Turkish military and Syrian Kurdish YPG militias. “Turkish forces and the YPG, which have been at war for the past 30 years, conducted a joint operation for the first time. This is a milestone,” Kaplan said. He added that the new site of the tomb was located within the Kurdish-ruled enclave of Kobani. Turkish officials told local media that construction of a new tomb site had been started close to Esme, a Kurdish village in Kobani that was liberated from IIsis militants only 10 days ago. In a photograph published on the website of the pro-Kurdish Firat News agency, a Turkish flag indicating the location of the future Suleyman Shah tomb can be seen in close proximity to YPG fighters and posters of the jailed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) leader, Abdullah Öcalan. Davutoğlu said it would be returned to its previous location once conditions allowed. Kemal Kiliçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP), criticised the military operation as an admission of defeat. “A powerful state does not abandon its own soil and run away at the first threat,” he tweeted. “This shame is too much for Turkey. Those that gave the order to abandon the tomb of Suleyman Shah will run away from this country tomorrow.” The rightwing Nationalist Movement party (MHP) also criticised the government: “We think that this is nothing else than abandoning a piece of Turkish soil,” Semih Yalçin, deputy leader of the MHP, said. “The military of this country has the duty to protect and defend our soil. This leaves us to wonder what pieces of our country are next if other risks should arise. This operation was a big mistake.” Some experts said that the evacuation sent a message of weakness. “Surely, it is a major responsibility of a state to rescue its people and assets from a war zone”, said Cenk Sidar, a political analyst. “But this only piece of Turkish soil outside of Turkey’s borders should have been defended as an indicator of Turkey`s commitment. Evacuating the small but significant zone hurts Turkey`s military deterrence in the Middle East.” Related: Inside the Islamic State ‘capital’: no end in sight to its grim rule Turkey has been reluctant to take an active role in the US-led military campaign against Isis, partly because it wants to see the military action target Assad’s forces as much as the insurgents. Ankara said late last year, however, that Isis militants were advancing on the mausoleum, which sits on the banks of the Euphrates river and was made Turkish territory under a 1921 treaty signed with France, the colonial power at time. Suleyman Shah was the grandfather of Osman I, who founded the Ottoman empire in 1299. Travelling through modern-day Syria, he fell off his horse and drowned in the Euphrates near the site of the mausoleum, according to historians. |