Turkey is running into a bit of trouble with a few of its neighbors these days. After being criticized publicly for their military presence near Mosul by Iraqi president Haider al-Abadi and other politicians, Turkey is now hearing similar criticisms from the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
According to the pro-regime Al-Masdar News and other sources, the Syrian military said Saturday that any Turkish military presence in the country will be treated as an “occupation,” citing the Syrian military.
The threat comes as Turkey is escalating its military involvement in Syria. In addition to their continued backing of rebel groups in the country, Turkey bombed People’s Protection Units (YPG) positions north of Aleppo Thursday. The Kurdish YPG is an ally of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is in a conflict with the Turkish government. The YPG has also clashed with Turkey’s rebel allies throughout the course of the war.
This is not the first time Syria has criticized Turkish involvement in the Syrian civil war. Earlier this month, Assad called Turkey’s actions in Syria “an invasion.”
In September, Turkish tanks entered the Syrian border town of Jarablus to support rebel groups as they took the town from Daesh (ISIS).
