Turkey rejects German defense minister’s Syria ‘security zone’ proposal

German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass was in Turkey on Saturday for talks with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Ankara, where he pressed the Turkish government for a durable ceasefire in northeastern Syria.

Cavusoglu, at a news conference alongside Maas, rejected a plan from Germany’s defense minister calling for an international “security zone,” saying the proposal was not realistic.

Maas, himself a member of the left-leaning SPD party, also appeared to distance himself from the suggestion made by the conservative Defense Minister Annagret Kramp-Karrenbauer, saying “we are being told from all sides that it is not realistic.”

Maas added that he did not spend too much time discussing the plan with Cavusoglu because “the people in Syria don’t have time for theoretical debates.”

Maas also hailed the provisions of the Sochi deal with Turkey that states Ankara “will not have a permanent presence in Syrian territory.”

A meeting between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi this week saw Turkey reaffirm Syria’s territorial integrity and commit to joint patrols with Russian soldiers in the border area. Previously, Turkey agreed to a US-brokered cease-fire to allow Kurdish forces to pull out of the border zone.

Human rights and Syrian Kurds

The Turkish military and its rebel proxies launched an offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria on October 9. The operation has displaced at least 160,000 people and killed scores. Human rights organizations warned that the Turkish-led offensive may have committed war crimes, including targeting civilians and carrying out summary executions.

Ankara says the operation is aimed at targeting a Syrian Kurdish militia that it considers a terror organization linked to insurgents at home.

On Saturday the Turkish foreign minister said Turkey would investigate any allegations of human rights violations in the region. 

“We will investigate to the very end even the smallest bit of violation (of human rights) and complaint. We won’t tolerate even the least violation of human rights violations,” he said.

Read more: Germany’s Heiko Maas faces difficult diplomatic agenda in Turkey

Turkey: ‘Germany siding with a terror organization’

Cavusoglu on Saturday also lamented “unjust and serious criticism” against Turkey that came “most of all from Germany.”

“Due to extremely negative reactions to our Peace Spring offensive from the German public, political parties and the media, our trust has unfortunately been shaken,” Cavusoglu said.

“We have a hard time explaining to our people why Germany is siding with a terror organization, and not with Turkey, although (Germany) claims to understand Turkey’s legitimate security concerns,” the Turkish foreign minister added.

Cavusoglu also claimed that the Turkish living in Germany is feeling “pressured and lonely.”

“As an ally and friend we expect Germany to act in accordance to the spirit of our alliance and  show solidarity in our fight against terrorism.”

Read more: Kurds, German supporters rally in resistance to Turkish offensive in Syria

Germany ‘keeping an eye’ on Turkey

Germany has rejected Turkey’s justification for a military push into Kurdish-dominated regions of northeastern Syria.

Read more: German defense minister floats ‘security zone’ along Syria-Turkey border

Earlier this week, Maas warned that Germany was keeping an eye on Turkey’s Syria actions following a fragile US-brokered truce.

“We have been very clear that we are keeping other measures open — and they might also include economic sanctions,” Maas said.

“We do not believe that an attack on Kurdish units or Kurdish militias is legitimate under international law,” the German foreign minister added.

Earlier this month, the German government also stopped arms exports to Turkey.

“Given the background of the Turkish military offensive in northeastern Syria, the Federal Government will not issue any new permits for any military equipment that could be used in Syria by Turkey,” Maas told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Read more: Germany: No total arms export ban for Turkey despite Merkel’s promise

• Syrian civilians bear the brunt of Turkey’s offensive

  A first stop

  UN sources say over 200,000 people have been internally displaced in Syria’s northeast since Turkey launched its offensive on October 9. So far, the border town of Ras al-Ayn has paid the highest toll in the wake of a joint attack by Turkish militias and airstrikes. The city will remain under Turkish control following a deal struck in Sochi between Russia and Turkey.

• Syrian civilians bear the brunt of Turkey’s offensive

  ‘We’ve lost everything’

  A majority of those who have fled are reportedly Kurds. Those civilians remaining in the city are mostly Arabs who are still in touch by phone with their former neighbors. “They told me yesterday that the Islamists were looting our house. We’ve lost everything,” this man told DW.

• Syrian civilians bear the brunt of Turkey’s offensive

  Every crumb helps

  The regime forces are stationed just a few kilometers away from Tal Tamr. As a result international NGOs formerly based in the area have fled over the past few days. Internally displaced people (IDPs) from Ras al-Ayn and the neighboring villages rely on the work of local NGOs who are struggling to cope with the crisis.

• Syrian civilians bear the brunt of Turkey’s offensive

  Not enough to go around

  Apart from Tal Tamr, other villages in the vicinity are also hosting hundreds of displaced people who rely on local NGOs. “They’re settling in empty villages, many of them too close to other locations controlled by either the Turkish-backed militias or ‘Islamic State’ sleeper cells,” Hassan Bashir, a local NGO coordinator, told DW.

• Syrian civilians bear the brunt of Turkey’s offensive

  Food, glorious food

  This Arab IDP from Ras al-Ayn has four wives but will struggle to get enough to feed all their children as local NGOs say they can only allocate a single food ration per family. “It’s not their fault, they’re just children,” he told DW, after being given a single bag of food rations.

• Syrian civilians bear the brunt of Turkey’s offensive

  School’s out — forever?

  Schools have remained shut across Syria’s northeast since the beginning of the offensive and several of them are now hosting IDPs from Ras al-Ayn. Those who can afford it will move to cities like Al-Hasakah, around 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the south, but others will have to cope with the dire conditions in a border city that faces further attacks from the north.

• Syrian civilians bear the brunt of Turkey’s offensive

  The closest thing to home

  50 Kurdish families from Ras al-Ayn are now living in this abandoned school in Tal Tamr lacking both water and electricity. As the sanitary conditions deteriorate, local doctors and the hospital in Tal Tamr fear an outbreak of cholera and other diseases. “If we continue like this we’ll have to get set for a huge humanitarian crisis,” a local doctor told DW.

• Syrian civilians bear the brunt of Turkey’s offensive

  Sick and stranded

  Although the hospital in Tal Tamr is treating the wounded, it cannot help those suffering from diseases such as cancer.Two IDPs told DW that they were supposed to receive chemotherapy in Damascus before the offensive started, but that the current security situation makes it impossible for them to get there.

• Syrian civilians bear the brunt of Turkey’s offensive

  A different type of playground

  The Christian village of Tell Nasri on the outskirts of Tal Tamr had remained empty since IS took over the area. The majority of its former inhabitants left during the IS siege when the militants destroyed the churches with explosives before the fall of the Caliphate. With nowhere else to go, several IDP families from Ras al-Ayn are now settling in Tell Nasri.

• Syrian civilians bear the brunt of Turkey’s offensive

  Living on a prayer

  These boys are among dozens stranded in Tell Nasri but the dire living conditions are the least of their problems. Just before this picture was taken, settlers told DW that they had been attacked from a neighboring village reportedly in the hands of Islamists. “They started shooting at us and we engaged [with them] for over an hour,” a fighter with the Syrian Democratic Forces told DW.

  Author: Karlos Zurutuza (Tal Tamr)

Rocky relations

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had previously dubbed the German foreign minister a “political dilettante” over Berlin’s decision in October to halt arms exports to Turkey.

“If you understood anything of politics, you wouldn’t say that,” Erdogan said referring to the arms restrictions announced by Maas.

German-Turkish ties were particularly rocky in the aftermath of 2016’s failed coup attempt in Turkey and the widespread crackdown by Erdogan’s regime that followed.

The detention of several German-Turkish activists and journalists were a particular point of tension, not least that of Deniz Yücel. Over the past year or so, however, many of the detainees were released and tensions had appeared to subside.

Read more: German arms exports to Turkey at highest level since 2005

dj,shs/stb  (Dpa, AFP)

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