Vice President Mike Pence announced Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to a ceasefire in northern Syria.
The two men, along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, met for over five hours to discuss the situation.
From CNBC:
Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that the United States and Turkey had agreed on a Turkish cease-fire in Syria, days after the country’s forces launched an offensive in northern Syria.“Let me say this also includes an agreement by Turkey to engage in no military action against the community of Kobani,” Pence said. “And, in addition, the United States and Turkey have both mutually committed to a peaceful resolution and future for the safe zone, working on an international basis to ensure that peace and security defines this border region with Syria.”
The ceasefire will last for 120 hours. This will allow American and Kurdish forces to leave “from a designated safe zone at the country’s border.”
In return, Turkey will not face new sanctions from the U.S. Once the ceasefire becomes permanent, America will “revoke all economic punishments.”
Trump made the decision to pull out our troops from Syria ten days ago, which allowed Turkey to begin an offensive. This left the Kurds unprotected.
I blogged on that day that Erdogan does not keep his hatred of Kurds a secret from anyone. He considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian Kurds helping to defeat ISIS, “as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged an insurgency against Turkey for 35 years.”
Many nations, including America, have listed PKK as a terrorist group. Turkey declared YPG a terrorist group in 2018.
YPG changed its name to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) back in 2017. Special Operations Command Head U.S. Army General Raymond Thomas encouraged the group to do this due to Turkish concerns that YPG has a connection to PKK.
SDF swore it would do anything to protect itself if Turkey attacks the group.
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