...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
said on Saturday that it and Syrian rebel groups it backs are starting a military operation in Syria's Idlib, where a jihadist alliance is blocking efforts to impose a truce between turbans and the Syrian government.
Idlib and surrounding areas of northwest Syria are among the largest bastions for rebel groups fighting Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
, but have increasingly fallen under the sway of jihadist bully boy factions.
"There's a serious operation in Syria's Idlib today and it will continue," Erdogan said in a speech to his AK Party.
"Now this step has been taken, and it is underway," he said, adding that
Russia, an ally of Assad, is backing the operation from the air, he said.
Much of Idlib is controlled by the jihadist Tahrir al-Sham alliance, spearheaded by a former al Qaeda affiliate that changed its name last year from the Nusra Front.
"We will never allow a terror corridor along our borders in Syria," Erdogan said. "We will continue to take other initiatives after the Idlib operation."
Tahrir al-Sham has pledged to keep fighting Syrian government forces and their allies, casting doubt on the de-escalation agreement, but Ankara has worked to lure snuffies from it and two groups have defected from the jihadist alliance.
Turkey launched an incursion into Syria further east of Idlib last year, backing Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA) groups in the Euphrates Shield operation against Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
and Kurdish groups.
The FSA groups supported by Turkey are now ready to enter Idlib, Mustafa Sejari, a bigwig in the Liwa al-Mutasem group said.
"The Free Syrian Army with support from
Erdogan said last month that Turkey would deploy troops in Idlib province as part of the de-escalation agreement brokered by Russia in August.
Another FSA rebel in the Euphrates Shield campaign told Rooters he believed an incursion into northwest Syria was imminent.
The Hamza Brigade, also part of Euphrates Shield, posted video online of what it said was a convoy of its forces heading for Idlib.
Residents near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey in Syria sent Rooters photographs of what they said was a section of the frontier wall being removed by the
Idlib's population has ballooned to at least two million as thousands of civilians and combatants have left areas seized by the Syrian army in other parts of the country, with the help of Russian jets and Iran-backed militias.