ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has proposed using Syrian oil to fund resettlement projects in Turkey’s so-called safe zone in northeast Syria, a shift from previous claims around Turkish interests in the region.
Speaking at the first ever Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on Tuesday, Erdogan criticized the US, who re-deployed troops to northern Syria last month in order to “secure the oil” from falling into the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) as prioritizing oil over humanitarian needs.
“I say: ‘Come let’s take out the oil in the wells together and let’s implement projects in these areas … so that these people can be settled in the houses, schools, hospitals that we build..but they don’t support it because they need the oil more,” he was quoted as saying.
The assertion by the Turkish President differs from previous statements made last month.
On November 18, speaking at the 2nd International Ombudsman in Istanbul, Erdogan claimed Turkey is in Syria for humanitarian reasons only, and is “not interested” in Syrian oil, according to the pro-government outlet Daily Sabah.
On October 9, Turkey launched its long-planned incursion into Kurdish-controlled Northern Syria, with the stated aim of expelling Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) up to 30-km from the Turkish border, and to settle up to 3 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey into those areas.
Turkey launched its operation following an abrupt US military withdrawal decision by the US President Donald Trump, appearing to give Turkey the greenlight to start their offensive.
The Turkish attack displaced nearly 300,000 people, with a 30-km stretch of land from Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tel Abyad) now under the control of Turkish-backed proxy forces.
On December 9, Erdogan announced the start of work on settling one million Syrians in Northern Syria. According to state-owned Anadolu Agency, Turkey is hosting 3.7 million Syrians- the largest amount hosted by any foreign country.
“While countries with much more means than we have were putting limits to number of refugees they receive, we have embraced everyone without any discrimination on race, religion, language, or ethnic origin,” Erdogan asserted in his Tuesday speech.
“Keeping refugees within Turkish borders cannot be seen as [the] only solution to Syrian refugee crisis,” he added.
Erdogan’s refugee plan, however, has been slammed by Kurdish authorities, who claim it is a plan to ethnically cleanse Kurds from Northern Syria.
“Turkey is conducting demographic changes with the primary goal of ethnic cleansing– we will consider any sympathizer with the Turkish plans as a partner in ongoing demographic change and ethnic cleansing operations,” SDF Commander in chief Mazloum Abdi told Saudi newspaper al-Sharq al-Aawsat.
The oilfields controlled by the SDF are mostly located in the Arab region of Deir ez-Zor, and were used to to fund the fragile Kurdish-led autonomous administration and pay employee salaries.
The oil is sold through a painstaking process by the Kurdish-led authorities, which then goes to the Kurdistan Region, Turkey and the rest of Syria, according to US national security adviser Robert O’Brien.