ABSTRACT
The operation aimed to clear the Afrin district of the forces of the People’s Protection Units, which is considered to be an affiliate of the Turkey-based guerrilla organisation Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Directly armed, trained and equipped by Turkey, the Free Syrian Army aspires to be a dominant political and military force in northern Syria. The root cause underpinning and exacerbating the conflict between Turkey and the PKK lies in the incompatibility of their respective political goals, namely the Kurdish quest for self-determination, the PKK’s pursuit of political autonomy and Turkey’s opposition to the recognition of minority rights of its Kurdish population. Turkey’s decision to intervene militarily in northern Syria with Operation Olive Branch stood out as the single most important development of 2018. The campaign for June’s parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey temporarily focused the political debate on the Kurdish issue.
