Turkey and U.S. Agree to 20-Mile ‘Safe Zone’

The United States and Turkey have reportedly agreed to the creation of a 20-mile-wide “safe zone” in Syria along the Turkish border. . .

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced during a speech to Parliament that his country and the United States had reached an agreement. According to Erdogan, the deal had been struck during a phone call between the two world leaders on Monday.

The full details of how this “safe zone” would work are still unclear. A number of Kurdish settlements, including the cities of Qamishli and Kobani, sit right in its path. Kurdish leaders have not yet said if they would be willing to leave these settlements in return for promises that Turkey would cease its attacks their settlements elsewhere in Syria. . .

Turkey has had trouble with a Kurdish militant group inside its own borders known as the PKK. While the U.S. considers the PKK to be a terrorist group, it differentiates between the PKK and other ethnically Kurdish groups — some of which have proven to be invaluable allies, particularly in the fight against ISIS.

Turkey makes no such distinction. Instead, it has used the instability caused by the now nearly eight-year-long Syrian civil war to launch a series of incursions against Kurdish cities in Syria. (Read more from “Turkey and U.S. Agree to 20-Mile ‘Safe Zone'” HERE)

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