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15 October 2019 "The international community must support our country's efforts or start accepting refugees" from Syria, writes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an editorial published in the Wall Street Journal to support his reasons for the military offensive against the Kurds in northeastern Syria.

"Turkey is intervening where others have failed to act", is the title chosen by the leader of Ankara for his speech in the American newspaper. "The flows of Syrian refugees, violence and instability have pushed us to the limits of our tolerance," writes Erdogan, who recalls his country's commitment to hosting 3.6 million Syrian refugees and claims to have spent " 40 billion dollars to offer them education, health care and housing ". However, he insists, "without international financial support we cannot prevent refugees from going to the West". Erdogan then explains that he decided the offensive in Syria after "concluding that the international community would not have taken the necessary steps" to deal with the situation.

Erdogan said he will prevent ISIS state fighters from leaving northeastern Syria. "We will make sure that no ISIS fighter can leave the north-east of Syria," Erdogan wrote, responding to the concerns of Westerners who fear ISIS returning after the Turkish intervention in Syria, which threatens to favor the escape of jihadists who are in the Kurdish prisons of YPG militias. "We are ready to cooperate with countries of origin and international organizations for the rehabilitation of women and children of foreign terrorist fighters," the Turkish leader added.

Ankara yesterday accused Kurdish forces of deliberately releasing ISIS members to "sow chaos" in the region. A hypothesis also re-launched by the US president Donald Trump in a tweet, even if the US condemned the Turkish intervention and yesterday the secretary of defense Mark Esper accused the Turkish offensive of having caused the "liberation of numerous dangerous prisoners".

Erdogan, in his commentary, also criticized the Western countries that "lecture Turkey" about how ISIS is fought after they failed to stop the flow of "foreign fighters" between 2014 and 2015. And bet the finger particularly on France, which blocked the sale of arms to Turkey. "Why did you ignore our repeated warnings of impending terrorist attacks?" the Turkish president asked himself.

Meanwhile, units of the Syrian army entered Manbij, a town in the north where Turkey's military offensive against Kurdish militias is concentrated.

"We will go all the way. We are determined. We will finish what we started," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday, confirming his intention not to interrupt the offensive against the Kurds in the north-east of Syria. "With the operation of peace, Turkey has taken a vital step as much as the 1974 operation in Cyprus," when the Ankara army occupied the northern part of the island in response to a pro-Greek coup attempt " said the Turkish president.

"No threat of sanctions will stop us, unfortunately we are victims of a double standard of treatment applied to Turkey in the fight against terrorism", declared the Turkish president, from Baku where he was for a state visit.

The American president, Donald Trump, takes action to try to stop the Turkish offensive in Syria: he does so by imposing sanctions on three Ankara ministers, reintroducing duties on Turkish steel and with a phone call to his colleague Recep Tayyp Erdogan to whom he has requested "an immediate ceasefire".

Meanwhile, his vica, Mike Pence, has made it known that he will soon travel to Ankara to find a solution to the crisis with the Turkish leadership. Trump warned Erdogan that "the US will not tolerate the Turkish invasion of Syria": "We ask Ankara to stop, to end the violence and to come to the negotiating table". Meanwhile, the American president has ordered the "immediate stop of the negotiations" on "a 100 billion dollar trade agreement with Turkey" and "an increase in steel duties of up to 50%, the previous level to the reduction in May ".

"I am totally ready to quickly destroy the Turkish economy if Turkish leaders continue this dangerous and destructive path," the US president tweeted. The United States has also imposed sanctions on three Turkish government ministers involved in the offensive in northeastern Syria. "The United States believes the Turkish government is responsible for the increase in violence by Turkish forces, endangering innocent civilians and destabilizing the region," Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

In addition to the sanctions, Washington is counting on the negotiations: the American vice president, Mike Pence, has announced that on Trump's orders he will soon travel to Turkey to discuss with the Turkish leaders. The number two of the White House will lead a delegation together with the national security adviser, Robert O'Brien. The goal is to start negotiations for a ceasefire. The head of the Pentagon, Mark Esper, however, next week will be in Brussels to "put pressure on the NATO allies to adopt collective and individual, diplomatic and economic measures, in response to these outrageous Turkish actions".

Its belated mobilization against the anti-Kurdish offensive does not please even its iron allies like the leader of the Republican senators, Mitch McConnell. The withdrawal of US troops "will also create a wider vacuum of power in Syria that will be exploited by Iran and Russia" and "will encourage the revival of ISIS", McConnell warned. However, Trump pointed out that the US "will maintain a minimal presence at the Garrison base in Al-Tanf, in southern Syria, to continue blocking the last remains of ISIS". These military men, he explained, will be "redistributed and remain in the region to monitor the situation and prevent the recurrence of 2014, when the neglected threat of ISIS has spread to Syria and Iraq".