EU-Turkish Relations: Furious with Turkey, EU officials threaten sanctions

European Union governments threatened sanctions against Turkey on Friday over its military operation in Syria, angrily rejecting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's warning that he would "open the gates" and send 3.6 million refugees to Europe if EU nations did not back him.

Turkey has stepped up its air and artillery campaign on Kurdish groups in northeast Syria, escalating an offensive that has drawn warnings of a humanitarian disaster and also raised the prospect of new United States sanctions on Ankara.

The EU, which Turkey still formally aspires to join despite its growing criticism of Ankara's human rights record, had already condemned the Turkish offensive but has been infuriated by Erdogan's threats to send refugees to Europe.

A senior EU official said the EU was spending six billion euros ($6.63bn) on supporting the Syrian refugees currently living in camps inside Turkey, adding that "to use this as leverage is totally unacceptable".

Read more: Furious with Turkey, EU officials threaten sanctions | Turkey News | Al Jazeera

Turkey invades Northern Syria and attacks US abandoned Kurdish allies: Civilians flee N.Syrian border towns attacked by Turkish warplanes, and artillery offensive

Reuters reports that Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria today Wednesday 10/9/2019  just days after U.S. troops pulled back from the area, with warplanes and artillery striking militia positions in several towns in the border region.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, announcing the start of the action, said the aim was to eliminate what he called a “terror corridor” on Turkey’s southern border, but European countries immediately called on Ankara to halt the operation.

Thousands of people fled the Syrian town of Ras al Ain towards Hasaka province, held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The Turkish air strikes had killed two civilians and wounded two others, the SDF said.

Turkey’s lira slid 0.5%, breakingthrough what traders called a key support level of 5.85 against the dollar to its weakest level since August.

World powers fear the action could open a new chapter in Syria’s eight-year-old war and worsen regional turmoil. Ankara has said it intends to create a “safe zone” in order to return millions of refugees to Syrian soil.

"It is certainly going to be a bloody conflict," Kurdish political analyst Mutlu Civroglu said from Washington, D.C., noting that while the SDF is led by Syrian Kurds, it includes a wide range of ethnic groups. "The Arabs, the Syrian Christians, Yazidis, they are in no way going to accept a Turkish military presence in their region."

EU-Digest

TURKEY - Kurdish - US Relations - Explained: Why Turkey wants a military assault on Syrian Kurds

Explained: Why Turkey wants a military assault on Syrian Kurds

Read more at:
https://p.dw.com/p/3QrfO

MIDDLE EAST - Northern Syria: "Jaw dropping" Foreign Relations performance by the US

Donald Trump: 
US Commander in Chief

The US Trump Administration, after a telephone conversation between Trump and Turkish President Erdogan this past Sunday, announced it was pulling out of Northern Syria.

This means the US are abandoning their Kurdish allies there, who helped them, and previous US Administrations, over many years, defeat ISIS, and other enemies of the US in the area. 

This also leaves the door open for Turkish Troops to enter Northern Syria.

 It showed once again a total lack of loyalty by the US Trump Administration towards their allies.

The Kurds and the EU apparently also were not previously informed about this US decision. 

This can only be classified as another  "Jaw Dropping" performanc by the USA in the area of foreign relations.

EU-Digest