Turkey has two demands from US for support in Manbij operation: Sources

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10. Turkey runs risk of losing control of southern border

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During the two years of peace talks, Kurdish forces primarily focused their fight against ISIL. The PKK units in Qandil were mostly sent throughout northern Iraq to bolster the western-backed and Turkish-allied Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government. In Syria, the YPG was the main force able to contain and push back the jihadist forces.

Now, as conflict ignites in south-east Turkey, PKK forces in Iraq are prepared to expand the fight against Turkey instead of ISIL. The YPG may still be primarily engaged in a battle with ISIL but it has also been distracted by Turkish shelling and its decisions to seize territory from Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army rebels in Aleppo under cover of Russian bombing.

ISIL-linked attacks in Turkey and Europe have only increased amid the devastation created by Kurdish militants bombing the heart of Ankara and the destruction caused by Turkish shells landing on the town of Cizre or across the border in Azaz.

The ability to fight ISIL and other takfiri groups on the front lines in Syria and Iraq is clearly hampered by the expanding conflict between Turkey and the Kurds.

http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/turkey-runs-risk-of-losing-control-of-southern-border