PN joins global demand to halt Turkish warmongering against Kurds

The Nationalist Party has joined global voices and countries appealing for an immediate halt to the Turkish incursion against Syrian Kurds.

“It is unacceptable that Turkey keeps using military force instead of diplomacy to solve its issues,” MP Carm Mifsud Bonnici and candidate Roselyn Borg Knight said.

“We condemn this action and we are concerned of the serious consequences that will lead to further destruction: firstly a humanitarian crisis and secondly the risk of heightened terrorism. The PN appeals for a clear position in the United Nations and the European Union, a united voice and no form of indifference to what is happening.

“Diplomacy cannot be ignored,” Mifsud Bonnici said. “We appeal for a halt to the attack and for a solution to be found between both parties.”

Turkey launched a ground and air assault on Wednesday against a Syrian militia that has been a crucial American ally in the fight against ISIS, days after President Donald Trump agreed to let the operation proceed.

Trump agreed to the assault in a call with Turkey’s president on Sunday, allowing to move American troops out of Turkey’s way despite opposition from his own State Department and military.

But hours after the operation began, he condemned it on Wednesday, calling it “a bad idea.”

By that time, Turkish fighter jets were over the sky over Syrian towns, with artillery shells booming overhead. Terrified civilians fled south in trucks piled high with possessions and children.

After six hours of airstrikes, Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies crossed the border, opening a ground offensive.

Turkey’s long-planned move to root out American-allied Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria comes eight years into the Syrian war, and pits two United States allies – the Kurds and the Turks – against each other.

If the Syrian Democratic Forces shifts its forces to the north to fight Turkey, the power vacuum could benefit President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, his Russian and Iranian allies, or even the Islamic State.

The United States withdrew 50 to 100 troops from the border area in advance of the operation, and American military officials said that the United States was not providing assistance to either side.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the operation was intended to “prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border.” Turkey considers the militia a terrorist organization linked to a Kurdish guerrilla movement.

The Syrian Democratic Forces warned of a “possible humanitarian catastrophe” because of the Turkish incursion. The Kurdish-led administration that governs the area issued a call for “general mobilization” to fight the Turks.

The United States military, which had been working with the Syrian Democratic Forces to fight remnants of the Islamic State in Syria, has cut off all support to the militia.

The officials said the United States was not providing support to Turkey either, but for the last few weeks, as Turkish military officials planned the assault, they received American surveillance video and information from reconnaissance aircraft. The information may have helped them track Kurdish positions.