The Turkish army, supported by allied Syrian militias, crossed the border into northeast Syria at several points on 9 October, launching Operation Peace Spring. This Kurdish region — the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) or Rojava (‘west’ in Kurdish), Syrian Kurdistan or the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria — was until 2013 controlled by the PYD (Democratic Union Party), the Syrian branch of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party).
Intense shelling that killed many civilians preceded the operation and several border towns, including Tell Abyad, were quickly captured. Turkish forces penetrated nearly 30km into Syrian territory and took control of a large section of the M4 motorway, the region’s main transport axis, achieving one of Ankara’s long-held primary objectives: to break up the territorial continuity of the autonomous zone. On 22 October Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin signed a 10-point agreement in Sochi, confirming the autonomous zone’s new configuration. The YPG (People’s Protection Units, the PYD’s armed wing) are to withdraw to a distance of 30km from the Turkish-Syrian border, while Turkey retains control of the area between Tell Abyad and Ras al-Ayn.
Turkey's offensive forced the Kurds to yield control of some areas to the Syrian army. So paradoxically it has allowed Syria to recover some parts of its territory
A key to understanding the Turkish offensive and its implications is the consistency of the actors in the Syrian conflict. Turkey’s actions are in line with its long-term strategy to deprive the PKK of all rear bases in Syria, and to strengthen its own political and economic influence beyond its southern border. Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad condemned the violation of its territory, but under the Sochi agreement has recovered some areas until now controlled by the PYD.
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