News:India has expressed deep concern over Turkey’s unilateral military operation called Operation Peace Spring against the Syrian Kurdish militia (YPG) in Northeast Syria.
Facts:
About Operation Peace Spring:
- The Turkish military has launched a major cross-border operation in north-eastern Syria against a Kurdish-led militia alliance allied to the United States.
- This move came after US troops, who relied on the Kurds to defeat the Islamic State(IS) group on the ground in Syria withdrew from the border area.
Why has Turkey launched an assault?
- Turkey considers the biggest militia in the Kurdish-led alliance a terrorist group.It says it is an extension of a Kurdish rebel group fighting in Turkey.
- Turkey also wants 32km (20-mile) deep safe zone along the Syrian side of the border clear of Kurdish fighters.It hopes to resettle up to 2 million Syrian refugees currently living in Turkey at that safe zone.
Who are Kurds?
- The Kurds are one of the indigenous peoples of the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands in what are now south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Syria, northern Iraq, north-western Iran and south-western Armenia.
- Today, they form a distinctive community, united through race, culture and language even though they have no standard dialect.
- They also adhere to a number of different religions and creeds, although the majority are Sunni Muslims.
- In the early 20th Century, many Kurds demanded the creation of a homeland generally referred to as Kurdistan.
- However,the boundaries of modern map of middle east made no provision for a Kurdish state and left Kurds with minority status in their respective countries.
