Report: Turkey to control buffer zone spanning 460 km in Syria’s north

Turkey has announced a 460-km wide and 32-km deep buffer zone along the border with Syria after reports of rising tension in the region, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın said that Turkey would have control over the proposed safe zone along Syria’s northern border.

Earlier, Turkish media outlets quoted Turkish president Recep Erdogan as saying that an agreement with the United States to set up a security zone along the country’s Syrian borders.

A spokesperson for Kurdish umbrella organization Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) said on Tuesday that Kurdish militia would not accept a Turkish-controlled security zone in northern Syria, according to Kurdish news agency ANHA.

Reiterating that Erdogan had been voicing the same safe zone proposal for four years, Kalın said this time the same idea was floated at the top levels of the current US administration, according to Daily Sabah.

Turkey has positively responded to US President Donald Trump’s offer to establish a 32-km buffer zone, Kalın said but added that the details of the zone needed to be worked out.

However, Anadolu said that the safe zone will include Syria’s locations to the north of Raqqa and others to the north of a-Hasakah, passing through Sarrin, the north Ayn Issa, Suluk, Ras al-Ayn , the north of Tell Tamer, Darbasiya, Amuda, Qamishli , Wardiyah, Tell Hamis, Al-Qahtaniyah , Al-Yarubiyah and Al-Malikiyah.

The northern towns of Shuyukh Tahtani, Ayn al-`Arab (Kobani), Tell Abyad, al-Darbasiyah, Amuda, al-Qahtaniyah, al-Jawadiyyah and al-Malikiyah will fall entirely inside the safe zone, it added.

The line, on the West, begins from the edge of banks of Sajur River, located in the east of Manbij, while central Manbij remains outside of the 32-km zone, according to Ahvalnews.

On Sunday, US Trump said Turkey would face economic devastation, if it attacked Syria’s Kurds. After that, Erdogan and Trump have spoken over the phone and appear to have reached an agreement, according to Turkish government.