Pro-Syrian government protest in Tal Rifaat against Turkish threats

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Syria's state-run SANA news agency reports that citizens in Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo organized a protest against a possible Turkish operation in Tal Rifaat.

“Citizens of Tal Rifaat town and its vicinity in Aleppo northern countryside, staged a stand in rejection of Turkish occupation and its terrorist mercenaries for their criminal acts against the Syrian people,” SANA reported.

The report added that Turkey has recently threatened to launch a new cross-border operation to "clean up" Syria's Tal Rifaat and Manbij.

In the past, Turkey has carried out three military operations to prevent territorial expansion by Kurdish-led forces.

Tal Rifaat hosts a large Kurdish-majority population of civilians displaced from Afrin, a northwestern Syrian Kurdish region that was invaded and occupied byTurkey and its proxy Syrian militants in 2018.

Currently, Both the Syrian government and Kurdish forces exist in Tal Rifaat.

The Syrian government would resist any new cross-border operation by the Turkish Army in Syria, said President Bashar al-Assad in an interview with Russia Today (RT) on Thursday.

However, a Turkish military source told Middle East Eye (MEE) that “Ankara does not expect Syrian government forces to repel any Turkish attack.” 

Iranian-backed armed groups and Syrian government forces reportedly increased their existence in northern Aleppo in response to Turkish threats to launch another cross-border operation.

If Turkey captured Tal Rifaat, Kurdish forces would find targeting Turkish-backed rebels occupying Afrin more difficult.

Moreover, due to the nearby Shiite-majority towns of Nubul and Zahra in northern Aleppo those were repeatedly besieged by rebels in the past, it is unlikely that Iran and its affiliated groups would be happy with Turkey and its militia proxies seizing nearby Tal Rifaat.

Edited by NA