Kurds protest in Syria against Turkish offensive threat

Thousands demonstrated on Sunday in a predominantly Kurdish area on the Syrian border with Turkey against threats of an offensive issued the day before by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ankara had reiterated on Saturday an oft-repeated threat to launch an "air and ground" operation in Syria against a Kurdish militia it deems a terrorist group.

Erdogan has said that his country's patience was wearing thin after Turkish and American officials agreed in August to establish a buffer zone meant to separate the Turkish border from Kurdish territories in northern Syria. "Down with Erdogan", "Down with the occupation", chanted protestors amassed on the border near the town of Ras al-Ain, an AFP correspondent said.

Protestors marched several kilometres (miles) to reach a base near Tel Arqam, held by the US-led international coalition which is allied with Kurdish-led forces against Islamic State (IS) jihadists, the correspondent added. "We will not abandon our land and we will stay here but we do not want war," said Ahmed Mohamed Salem, a 52-year-old protestor. Erdogan had reiterated the threat of an offensive on Saturday.

"We've made our preparations, completed our operation plans, given the necessary instructions," Erdogan said during a televised speech, adding that the offensive could start "as soon as today, tomorrow". Kurdish authorities decried Erdogan's comments, insisting on Saturday that the "international community (must) put pressure on Turkey to stop it from carrying out any aggression".

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019