By Taha Oda
ISTANBUL, Oct 17 (KUNA) -- Turkey has recently deployed forces in the northwestern Syrian Province of Idlib, the real objectives of the move and its expected repercussions still debatable among observers.
"Ankara seeks to expand its leverage, guarantee national interests, and more importantly stop the advance of Kurdistan Workers' Party forces and allied militias towards the Turkish borders," Turkish political expert Ismail Kaban told KUNA.
He clarified that "Turkey believes that those who have strong presence on the ground will have a final say in any deal over Syria's future." "The Turkish forces are not there only to enforce Astana agreement provisions as some may believe, but also to link the strategic city of Afrin and Idlib and prevent the unification of Kurdish cantons in northern Syria," he said.
Turkey officially announced the deployment of Turkish forces aims to protect the cease-fire in Idlib and prevent the possible migrant wave by providing security to civilians.
On October 13, the Turkish army announced it had deployed scores of soldiers in Idlib province in a bid to stop the fighting there. The army added that it had begun "activities to establish observation posts on October 12." President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described the Turkish forces deployment in Idlib as "national security issue.
"It is us who has a 911-kilometre (556 miles)-long border with Syria, we are the ones threatened," he said.
"We are not intervening in the domestic affairs of any country. We are just trying to secure our own home affairs... How safe we can be when there is chaos in Syria?" He reiterated that that the Turkish forces would help implement the de-escalation agreement in Idlib.
"Turkish forces from inside Idlib and Russian forces from outside," he explained.
He, however, noted that Turkish deployment is also meant to confront the growing Kurdish threat on the Turkish borders with Syria.
"There are serious attempts (Kurdish militias) to create a state on the Syria's northern borders, If Ankara kept silent these attempts would turn into a reality." He stressed that his country would not "allow" any "terror corridor" on its southern borders.
"We will not let it happen," he affirmed.
The Turkish Anadolu news agency have quoted military and diplomatic sources as saying that Turkish forces in Idlib are not aiming to clash with Syrian regime forces and the local opposition groups.
However, the Turkish military have taken all possible security risks into account during preparations, they added.
With regard to the strategic Syrian city of Afrin, in the northern Aleppo Province, the sources noted that the city located northeast to Idlib has been under the Kurdistan Workers' Party and its allied Kurdish PYD militia since 2011.
The organizations needs to get parts of Idlib under its control in order to secure a corridor to the Mediterranean, a goal which Ankara stressed it would not allow it to happen.
Idlib is one of the regions where the biggest wave of violence has been witnessed during the ongoing Syrian civil war.
After Idlib went out of the Assad regime's control and Russia entered the conflict in October 2015, airstrikes in the area began.
On the other hand, Idlib became an area where millions of people were pushed into, when civilians fleeing inner areas of Syria sought refuge there.
According to local civilian administration records, 2.4 million local population and 1.3 million internally-displaced people are living in Idlib currently.
The most effective military opposition groups in Idlib, the Free Syrian Army, Ahrar Al-Sham Nour Al-Din al-Zenki Movement, Al-Sham Legion and Tahrir Al-Sham, all are supported by Ankara except for the last one, because of its links to Al-Qaeda terror organization.
The deployment of the Turkish forces in Idlib came after the recent controversial independence referendum by Kurdistan government in northern Iraq and its huge repercussions on Turkey and the continuing tension in the Turkish-American relations.
The deployment, however, seems fraught with risks such as the deployed forces could came under attacks from the Kurdish fighters or Tahrir Al-Sham group, and consequently dragging Turkey into the Syrian quagmire, but it is not clear what will happen next. (end) ta.ibi