Sinn Féin’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Seán Crowe TD, has expressed concern at Turkey’s recent military actions into Syria.

Turkish warplanes, tanks and Special Forces crossed the border into Syria in the last couple of days to launch attacks, supposedly on an ISIS held Syrian border town. Crowe believes this escalation is a precursor to attacking Kurdish militants in the region.

Deputy Crowe said:

“Daesh or ISIS is a genocidal and sectarian armed force that needs to be removed from any territory it controls. That is widely agreed, but Turkey’s recent invasion and attacks in Syria supposedly under the pretext of battling Daesh is fooling nobody.

“Turkey is clearly more worried about the advance and successes of Kurdish militants and using Daesh as a cover to invade Syria.

“Kurdish militants are undoubtedly the biggest bulwark against the spread of Daesh and have made significant advances in recent months right across Syria and Iraq.

“Earlier this year the Turkish army tried to prevent the relief of the Kurdish town of Kobane and sat in tanks while Daesh tried to slaughter the civilian population.

“Just this week a Kurdish wedding party in Turkey was attacked by a Daesh suicide bomber and 54 innocent civilians were killed.

“Yet this week Turkey uses Daesh as a cover to invade Syria as precursor to ultimately attack Kurdish rebel held positions in northern Syria.

“We don’t know how long Turkey intends to stay in Syria, how far into the territory they intend to proceed, their military plan or political goals, or if they intend to put extremist surrogates in place to hold any land area.

“Whatever the outcome, this Turkish military offensive will undoubtedly add to further conflict and destabilisation in this already volatile region.

“The Turkish army are not seen in any way as liberators. They add and are part of the overall problem, they are certainly not a solution to Daesh, extremism, or the conflict in the region.”

ENDS