Turkey uses Kurds as a scarecrow to occupy Syrian territory

NEWS DESK

This week, the Arab press addressed several issues, including the repercussions of the US withdrawal from Syria, the dialogue between the regime and the Kurds, and the Turkish threats.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat (Middle East): Kurdish document proposes exchange recognition to Damascus

Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that a roadmap document presented by the Syrian Kurdish officials to the Russian guarantor and revealed 11 items, demanding Damascus to "exchange recognition" between the central state and Autonomous Administration in the North and East of the country.

A Kurdish commander told al-Asharq al-Awsat that Kurdish officials handed Moscow a detailed document of principles that had been put forward by the commander of the Kurdish People's Protection Units, Sipan Hamo, during two unannounced visits to Damascus and Moscow at the end of last year being the Russian side "a guarantor of any agreement."

Al-Heyat: Ocalan met his brother in prison

Al-Heyat newspaper said about the isolation imposed on the Kurdish leader Ocalan, "The Turkish authorities have allowed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to meet his brother in his prison on Imrali island near Istanbul. This came after Leyla Guven, the deputy of the Democratic People's Party carried out a hunger strike in the Turkish prisons to protest against keeping Ocalan in sever Isolation, holding the Turkish government the responsibility of any negative repercussions for the protest of Guven and the other activists."

Al-Arab: Trump salutes Ankara's hopes in the buffer zone

In another context, al-Arab newspaper said, "It is unclear the sudden approval of Washington to establish a buffer zone in northern Syria bordering Turkey amid questions whether the initiative of US President Donald Trump is a part of Washington's strategy to secure the withdrawal or is it a maneuver to absorb the Turkish anger and distract Ankara from discussing an initiative difficult to be implemented in light of the changes in the Syrian issue."

Al-Sharq al-Awsat: Killing US soldiers tests the decision of the withdrawal from Syria

Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper said, "The suicide attack which took place in the northeastern city of Manbij and resulted in killing US soldiers and civilians was a test of US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria."

Al-Arabs: Who sends bombs as messages to Manbij

In the same context, al-Arab newspaper wondered whoever might have a role in the explosion, and said, "An explosion that targeted US soldiers in Manbij raised questions about whoever could send the message to the United States in a Turkish-American and Turkish-Kurdish controversial city at a time when the intersections of interests in the Euphrates increase.

Turkey finds that the bombing as a good opportunity to say to the Americans, "Hand us over the region to eliminate the good Kurdish terrorism and the bad IS terrorism." Directly, the Turkish President Recep Teyyip Erdogan pledged to continue tightening the screws on IS.

Al-Arab: Turkey takes the Kurds as a scarecrow to occupy northern Syria

Al-Arab newspaper also spoke about the Turkish intentions and said, "The Turkish insistence on the refusal of the Syrian army's deployment in Manbij of Aleppo countryside and eastern of the Euphrates exposes Ankara's intentions to put its hand on the Syrian north, and annexed it to its territories."

The newspaper added, "Turkey has considered Aleppo governorate and a part of Idlib territories to be belonged to it historically, and that they were abandoned in the unfair agreements after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire."

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ANHA