One week after Turkey undertook its third military operation in North Syria, this time west of Euphrates River, the Security Council at the Bulgarian Council of Ministers held an extraordinary sitting in relation with the complicated situation in that region. After the end of the Security Council Bulgaria’s Premier Boyko Borissov pointed out that Turkey’s military operation must stop, because there is a very high risk of a humanitarian crisis. Premier Borissov who said earlier that the EU countries should stop criticizing Turkey, once again pointed out that Bulgaria’s southern neighbor was fully implementing the migrant agreement with the EU. Boyko Borissov also warned that being a NATO member, Turkey may ask NATO to invoke Article 5, according to which each country may demand assistance from other NATO allies when it is attacked and feels endangered.

Radio Bulgaria asked Turkey’s Ambassador to Sofia Hasan Ulusoy to comment the situation and say whether Turkey’s military operation in Syria was inevitable?

After the Islamic State was dismantled to some extent, we faced the problem with PYD (The Democratic Union Party) and YPG (The People’s Defense Units) which pose a threat to Turkey’s national security, territorial integrity and the security of the people in the region. We made great efforts to deal with the situation and held a series of consultations with our ally– the USA, but we did not achieve any results, which made our military operation inevitable. We wanted to conduct this operation together with our allies, and especially with the USA, but we did not receive support and undertook military actions in accordance with the rules of the United Nations.

Ambassador Ulusoy said that the duration of the operation depends on the outcome of the military actions. In his words, Turkey wants to achieve two main goals with this operation:

First, we want to clear the region from terrorist elements, which may threaten our national security and territorial integrity. We want to create a 30-35 kilometer-long security zone. At the next stage, we will encourage the Syrian refugees who are now residing on Turkish territory to return to the security zone. According to our estimates, between 1 and 2 million people will return to their country.

Turkey’s Ambassador to Bulgaria noted that the opportunity for such a big number of refugees to return to their motherland will surely reduce migration pressure and added that Turkey is ready, together with the support of the international community, to invest in the construction of the necessary infrastructure in the region devastated by the military actions.

However, the international community, with small exceptions, criticized sharply Turkey’s operation called Peace Spring.

We are making huge efforts to explain the operation, but some don’t want to understand us, because they are pursuing certain goals. It is important to note that we are talking about a legal self-defense under article 51 of the United Nations statute. The terrorist attack on September 11 was against a certain city and then the international community based its arguments on this article to undertake a response operation. Meanwhile, we supported our ally – the USA under the provisions for collective defense of article 5 of the North-Atlantic treaty. We expect that a similar solidarity is shown to Turkey as well. Unfortunately, this is not happening.

Turkey’s Ambassador to Sofia noted that Ankara is satisfied with the call of the Bulgarian authorities to maintain constructive approach in the relations with Turkey and pointed out that cooperation between Turkey and Bulgaria in the security field is extremely constructive. 

Premier Borissov’s statement was an important warning to the other EU countries to stop the criticism towards Turkey. Minister Zaharieva also made efforts at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg. We attach great importance to the fact that an EU member state understands us. We welcome the balanced and constructive statements of Bulgaria’s representatives. Our cooperation is mutually beneficial, the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Sofia Hassan Ulusoy said in an interview for Radio Bulgaria.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov