Turkey’s Lack of Vision in Syria

Ankara’s scare tactics in Afrin and state building in Azaz highlight Turkey’s continued attempts to inhibit Kurdish expansion, yet neither approach is sustainable.

• Ferhat Gurini
• Carnegie

While all eyes have been fixed on Ankara’s plans in Manbij, Turkey’s creation of a buffer territory farther west of the Euphrates since 2016 has largely gone unnoticed.

Turkey has taken a two-pronged approach to the areas it currently holds in northern Syria.

In the northwestern areas captured under Operation Olive Branch, such as Afrin, it has used scare tactics to reconfigure the ethnic makeup of the…

• Turkey’s Lack of…