The conflict between Turkey’s government and Kurdish groups continues to escalate, and this afternoon, after the explosion that left two dead in Karkamis, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan explained that combat is no longer limited to airstrikes. While tensions have long existed, the attack in Istanbul that killed six people and injured more than 80 sparked the conflict. In response to that explosion, Erdogan decided to bomb northern Iraq and Syria, seeking to hit the Kurdish militias People’s Protection Units (YPG). The airstrikes killed 30 people, mostly Syrian soldiers and Kurdish fighters. In addition, this morning, five rockets hit the center of Karkamis, a city in southeastern Turkey, leaving two fatalities and six wounded.
Terör örgütü unsurları tarafından, Fırat’ın doğusundan Karkamış ve Cereblusa atılan havan topları herhangi bir zaiyata sebep vermemiş olup güvenlik kuvvetlerimiz tarafından misliyle karşılık verilmiştir. Allah milletimizi ve devletimizi her türlü kazadan ve beladan korusun. — Davut GÜL (@gul_davut)
November 20, 2022
So Erdogan announced through a speech picked up by the AFP news agency the possibility of a ground offensive, expressing that “this is no longer limited only to an air operation.” The Turkish government’s next steps will follow Operation “Claw-Sword” that the president began with the first bombings. He then added in his speech that “the competent units, our Ministry of Defense and our general staff will decide together on the power with which our ground forces should act. We have already warned: those who bother us in our territory will pay for it.”
