Learn about six historical stations of Turkish intervention in northern Syria

Zaher Bey-Ankara

The Turkish army is currently waging war in the eastern Euphrates region in northeastern Syria, but the history of the Turkish-Syrian conflict extends to the reign of the founder of the modern Turkish state Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Since the signing of the Sefer Agreement in 1920, which drew the borders of Syria, which made the border between Syria and Turkey a line starting from the west of the city of "Ceyhan" and extending east to the Tigris River, there have been many aspects of Turkish intervention in northern Syria.

Iskenderun Brigade in 1938
On May 29, 1937, the League of Nations issued a decision to separate Iskenderun Brigade from Syria, which was located in the far north-west. On July 15, 1938, Turkish forces entered the cities of the brigade, and in 1939 annexed it after France ceded it in the days of its occupation. Syria, considered Ankara a Turkish province, and called it "Hatay province."

Following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011, an armed organization loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, called the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Iskenderun Brigade, appeared in areas near the Iskenderun Brigade.

The 1957 crisis
The year 1957 witnessed a severe crisis between Syria and Turkey against the backdrop of the Cold War between Syria and the Soviet Union on the one hand and the United States and its allies, including Turkey on the other, as Ankara mobilized its forces on the border with its southern neighbor, and its aircraft violated Syrian airspace constantly.

Turkey has deployed 50,000 troops along its border with Syria, with Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev threatening to use Soviet nuclear missiles if Syria came under Turkish attack. In return, the United States warned it would attack the Soviet Union in response to any attack on Turkey.

But the crisis ended in late October 1957, when Turkey agreed to halt its border operations under US pressure, and when the Soviet president made an unexpected visit to the Turkish embassy in Moscow.

turning point
Signed in 1998, the Adana Agreement, a secret security agreement between Turkey and Syria, marked a major turning point in the course of relations between the two countries, turning from the height of tension to strategic cooperation that led to the signing of dozens of agreements in various fields.

After the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, the Syrian opposition took the agreement based on Ankara's demand to establish a safe area in northern Syria in order to protect Syrians from regime forces.

Among the most prominent contents of the Adana Agreement is Syria's cooperation with Turkey in combating cross-border terrorism, ending Damascus all its support for the PKK, and giving Turkey the right to "pursue terrorists" inside Syria to a depth of five kilometers.

In October 2009, the Turkish Interior Ministry said the number of "terrorists" Damascus had handed over to Ankara since 2003 was 122, "including 77 from the PKK."

Mausoleum of Solomon Shah
On February 22, 2015, Turkish forces temporarily relocated the mausoleum of the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Suleiman Shah, from his former place in the village of Qara Qozak in Aleppo governorate to Turkish territory, and then returned it to the Syrian interior again in the village of Ashma, which is not far away. About 300 meters from Turkey, after the siege of the Islamic State shrine several times and threatened to blow it up.

Fifty tanks, 100 vehicles of various military purposes and 572 members of the various military security services were involved in the transfer of the Suleyman Shah mausoleum. They secured the withdrawal of 40 Turkish soldiers from the mausoleum guards.

Euphrates Shield in 2016
The Euphrates Shield is a Syrian-Turkish military operation launched by the Turkish government to support Syrian opposition factions in their drive to expel IS from northern Syria starting from Jarablus, then expanded to include the removal of Kurdish fighters to the area east of the Euphrates River.

The Euphrates Shield was launched at dawn on August 24, 2016, and the city of Jarablus, on the western bank of the Euphrates River, which borders the Turkish border in the northern Aleppo countryside, was retaken from ISIS.Military operation aimed at securing Turkish border towns from ISIS bombing.

Olive branch in 2018
The Turkish military operation against the YPG in the northern Syrian border town of Afrin, dubbed the 'Olive Branch', officially began on Saturday, January 20, 2018, after the ground phase was launched.

Ankara said the operation was aimed at protecting Turkey's national security and extending Afrin to its people, while Syrian Kurdish factions, the Damascus authorities and members of Fethullah Gulen saw the Turkish operation as an attack on Syrian sovereignty.

On March 24, 2018, forces participating in the Olive Branch were able to take control of the entire Afrin area, 58 days after the operation began.

Peace Spring in 2019
On October 9, 2019, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the launching of his country's army in cooperation with the Syrian National Army (one of the Syrian armed opposition factions) operation "spring of peace" in the area east of the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria, which continues to date .

The Turkish Defense Ministry says the new military operation is aimed at clearing the eastern Euphrates region of PKK fighters, YPG and ISIS, and establishing a safe area for Syrian refugees to return home.