Turkey seeks a short, cheap war to kill Kurdish self-rule. Here’s how it will do it

Across the world, supporters of the Kurds in northeast Syria have decried what they describe as an impending land grab by Turkey; a 19th century-style attempt by Ankara to recapture its former Ottoman imperial lands.

But Turkish officials and analysts say Ankara’s aims in launching its “Operation Peace Spring” are far less ambitious: an attempt to damage a threat at its borders, salvage a failed Syria policy, and perhaps gain some domestic political advantages.

In that sense, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s latest intervention in Syria bears more in common with Russia’s limited 21st century forays into former Soviet lands like Georgia and Ukraine, than with British or French imperial wars of conquest.

“They want to be the grand spoiler for this Rojava experiment,” said Yoruk Isik, a geopolitical analyst based in Istanbul. “That’s 51 per cent of the motivation. They want to prevent any Kurdish autonomy.”

On Wednesday, Turkey launched an offensive into northern Syria against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), just three days after President Donald Trump announced that the US would not stand in the way and would be withdrawing its forces from the area.