ISTANBUL: Turkey’s president has criticised Nato for not supporting the country’s ongoing military operation against Syrian Kurdish fighters in Syria.

Speaking to supporters Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked, “Hey Nato, where are you?” and accused the alliance of double standards.

He said Turkey sent troops to conflict zones when requested, but did not receive support in return.

Turkey launched a solo military offensive against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units or YPG on Jan 20 to clear them from Afrin in north-western Syria. The country considers the YPG a terror organisation but its Nato ally, the United States, backs the fighters to combat the militant Islamic State group.

Erdogan urged Nato to come to the aid of Turkey, saying its borders are “under threat right now”.

He vowed to expand Turkey’s offensive in Syria against Kurdish militia to key border towns controlled by the group right up to the Iraqi frontier.

Erdogan said the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels wanted to oust the YPG from all the towns they control close to the Turkish border.

“Once we have purged the terrorists (from Afrin) we will then cleanse them from Manbij, Ayn al-Arab, Tel-Abyad, Ras al-Ayn and Qamishli,” he said in televised comments.

Manbij, the next main YPG-held town east of Afrin, is a particular flashpoint as it has an American military presence there.

Ayn al-Arab, better known by its Kurdish name Kobane, has huge symbolic importance as it was the epicentre of a struggle with Islamic State (IS) jihadists which was eventually won by the Kurds.

Qamishli is seen as the main town of the YPG-controlled region.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitoring group said on Saturday that Turkish forces have reached the outskirts of the town of Afrin after a weeks-long campaign against the Kurdish militia.

Turkey and allied Syrian rebel groups it supports are advancing on the town from the east under intense bombardment, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Last month, pro-Syrian government militias entered Afrin region to back up the YPG, but their deployment did not deter Turkey despite the possibility of a wider escalation in the war, and it continued its campaign.

Afrin is separated from a much larger area held by Syrian Kurdish forces further east along the border with Turkey, including large swathes of land captured from Islamic State with support from the United States.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2018