Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called a meeting of his National Security Council (MGK [8]) June 29—being widely portrayed in the Turkish media as preparation to establish a "buffer zone [9]" in northern Syria in response to Kurdish territorial gains [10] against ISIS. Over the weekend, Erdogan told reporters: "I am saying this to the whole world: We will never allow the establishment of a state on our southern border in the north of Syria. We will continue our fight in that respect whatever the cost may be." Turkish newspapers including the pro-government Yeni Safak [11] are reporting that the military has received orders to seize a strip 110 kilometers long and 33 kilometers deep along the border. One anonymous official told Hurriyet Daily News [12] there is a "need" to "prevent more clashes between the ISIL and the Kurdish forces led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), prevent the PYD from taking full control over the Turkish-Syrian border and create a safe zone against a new wave of refugees on Syrian territory, no longer in Turkey." The PYD [13] is the Kurdish political party whose military wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG [13]), have been making gains against ISIS.
The PYD is in the orbit of Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK [14]), which responded to Erdogan's threat by warning that if Turkey attacks Rojava (the Kurdish zone in northern Syria), Turkey will become a "war zone." (Haaretz [15], Today's Zaman [16], The Telegraph [17], Daily Beast [18], Takvim [19], June 29)
