The blackmail's working: Merkel calls for Erdogan's 'safe zones' in Syria

Sputnik
Sun, 24 Apr 2016 04:22 UTC

© Bundesregierung/Guido Bergmann/dpa

Merkel called on Saturday to establish security zones in Syria.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Saturday to establish security zones in Syria where displaced people could be guaranteed safety.

Speaking at a press conference in Turkey, Merkel said that in such zones "the ceasefire should be especially enforced to guarantee a high level of security."

The German chancellor and several senior EU officials paid a visit to the Nizip camp in the Turkish city of Gaziantep near Syria's border on Saturday to assess the living conditions of some 5,000 Syrian refugees.

Turkey is currently home to some 2.7 million Syrian refugees who have fled a five-year conflict in their native country. Ankara signed a deal with Brussels in March, pledging to keep Syrian refugees in Turkey in exchange for political concessions.

Turkey has long been calling for a buffer zone on the border with Syria where camps for refugees could be set up to take the load off overcrowded camps on the Turkish side of the border.

A patchy ceasefire has been in force across Syria for almost two months after the United States and Russia mediated cessation of hostilities between the government and opposition forces.

Comment: It seems that whatever Erdogan wants from Europe he'll get. However, the idea of a safe zone along Turkey's ISIS-filled border is transparently ridiculous - not only has Turkey actually shelled refugee camps in this area, the concept itself has long been part of the US and Turkey's goal to conquer Syria:

The Kurds have seized and now maintain control of an area that spans the Turkey-Syria border from its western to eastern extremities all except for one small pocket in the middle - from Jarablus in the East to Dabiq in the West. Others have described the zone in slightly different dimensions as being from Jarablus in the East to Afrin in the East. Regardless, this corridor, also known as a "safe zone," is about the exact dimensions of the ISIS supply lines coming in from Turkey to Syria and, if either the Syrian military or the Kurds were able to capture this small section of land on the border, ISIS supply lines would be entirely cut from the North.

U.S. and Turkey's "safe zone" operation designed to assist ISIS, not destroy it