Let's be clear: Turkey's cross-border operation that captured the Syrian town of Jarablus was dramatic and unprecedented. However, it was not really aimed at the Islamic State (IS) but actually at the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG).
Turkish officials at the highest level have revealed the real objective of the Turkish military operation.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, speaking on television about the main objective of the Turkish military incursion into Syria, said, "We did it [the Jarablus operation] to secure our frontiers, not to have casualties and damages to properties because of missiles, etc. On the other hand, we undertook the operation to remove [IS] from the region and not to let PYD-YPG fill the vacuum."
If Turkey wanted to undertake a military operation because of the IS threat, it should have done so much earlier. IS has been occupying Jarablus and its vicinity for a long time, yet Ankara had not felt any "security threats" to launch an operation. Until last month's botched coup, the Turkish military had a much stronger operational capacity and readiness than it does today. Therefore, the timing of the operation is not very convincing if the ostensible reason was the IS threat.
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