Ankara On Alert Over Developments In Northern Syria

- Turkish leadership has visibly intensified its focus on cementing security at the country’s border with Syria, which has recently been the scene of an influx of some 23,000 Syrians into Turkey during the fight between Kurdish forces and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to seize the border town of Tal Abyad.

President Tayyip Erdoğan held a meeting with members of the government and senior bureaucrats late June 17. He is scheduled to chair yet another security meeting late June 18.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Interior Minister Sebahattin Öztürk, Turkey’s disaster agency chairman Fuat Oktay and relevant bureaucrats attended at the meeting, according to presidency sources.

Kurdish fighters in Syria have taken control of the border town of Tal Abyad, dealing a significant blow to ISIL’s ability to wage war in Syria by cutting off a supply line to Raqqa.

The Kurdish advance prompted some 23,000 people to flee into Turkey, but on June 17, the first returnees said they were eager to return home.

Turkey has conveyed concerns and warnings to the U.S. and other coalition member states about the risk of change in the region’s demography after the “cleaning and placement of some elements” by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia units, after the U.S.-led airstrikes, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said earlier.

Turkey considers Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD) to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.

The Turkish government had earlier expressed strong concerns about the imposition of a de facto autonomous region in the north of Syria after the PKK-affiliated PYD increased its control in the area.