Rojava

Turkey will not take a step back from its operation into Afrin and has had an agreement with Russia regarding its military offensive against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the northwestern Syrian city, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Jan. 22. 

A rocket fired from the Syrian city of Afrin struck a Turkish camp where Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters were located near the border on Jan. 22, killing two people and wounding 12.

An Ottoman-style military band performed in the border province of Hatay as a show of support for troops taking part in Turkey’s Olive Branch Operation in Syria’s Afrin on Jan. 22.

Some 24 suspects were detained in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır and Mardin on Jan. 22 for allegedly conducting propaganda for the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on social media, according to Interior Ministry on on Jan. 22.

The Turkish military continued to shell positions of the Syrian Kurdish militia the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria’s Afrin on Jan. 22, the third day of Operation Olive Branch.

Turkey’s military operation in Syria’s Afrin region will have a “very limited impact on the Turkish economy and budget,” Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek said on Jan. 22.

The Russian Defense Ministry has said the U.S. is fueling the crisis in northern Syria by “supplying uncontrolled weapons” to the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller is set to visit Ankara on Jan. 22, and Istanbul on Jan. 23, amid the Turkish military’s ongoing cross border operation against Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militants in Syria’s northwestern Afrin province.

Special “conquest” prayers were held across all of Turkey’s 90,000 mosques on Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 for the victory of the country’s military, which launched a cross border operation in Syria’s northwestern Afrin region on Jan. 20 against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the recently formed İYİ (Good) Party have all lent full support to the military operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) militants in Syria’s Afrin province.