A final match in lima actually a Million People are expected to attend the service and in furies capital im going to be live in lima in about twenty five minutes time during the news hour do join me for that its off to inside story which starts now. A new front in syrias war turkey launches and ground attacks on the u. S. Backed kurdish fighters in Northern Syria but what are the implications of uncolored Olive Branch Operation and what does it leave relations with washington this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program and. Incisively began this year asking whether to thousands and eighteen could see the end of the near seventy year long war in syria latest events would suggest the conflict is instead changing course turkey has lost asked rice in the north as a direct response to the u. S. Decision to back it Border Security force in the region the force mostly made up of kurdish troops who helped get rid of i still was control of this area of syria neither russia nor syria are happy about the announcement but turkey feels particularly threatened it has violent to quote unquote strangle the force before its even born and its with that aim that turkey launched the offensive on saturday first targeting the city of offering Turkish Ground troops crossed into the district on sunday after night of strikes and artillery fire three in is a stronghold for the syrian codas group the white b. G. Wish turkey considers a terrorist organization thats because of his alleged ties to the p. K. K. A Kurdish Group fighting for autonomy in turkey. And took his presence has the next targets will be members of the syrian city recaptured from ice into thousand and sixteen by a kurdish led force also backed by the u. S. But opposed by turkey Stephanie Decker has more from the turkey syria border. Shortly before sunset on saturday turkey launched its air campaign on africa in turkish officials had said all week that the operation was imminent. Much of the president. Spoke just a few hours before the jets to call them academy. We would wipe out this corridor will step by step starting from the west africa operation has to factor started in the field this will be followed by ben being much since the promises made it up maybe you should look and kept so far nobody could say anything when we do what is necessary. Throughout the morning along turkeys western border with the turkish army had brought in bulldozers gravel and concrete blocks appearing to build up their defenses along the border with syria. Tank shelled specific locations on the mountain for hours later this mountain would be targeted by airstrikes the army made us move from this position a few hours before the Campaign Officially began and this is just one of the locations that the turkish army is shelling out free in is pretty much surrounded turkey to its west and north and theres also been a build up inside syria by Free Syrian Army fighters to the east of those are the rebels that turkey supports. Turkey and reinforce the f. S. A. With thousands more men over the last few days these buses drove the fighters across the border into syria they will be part of a ground offensive against the y. P. Ji the Kurdish Group turkey considers to be a terrorist organization it is also however the group the americans consider their best ally in fighting eisel the International Dimensions are vast russia and now wants to pulled out a few hundred military personnel that had enough money in shortly after the campaign started and russia controls this air space meaning turkey could not be flying their planes without russias consent turkey says it is only targeting what it calls terrorists but there are already reports coming out of africa in that civilians have been affected it seems syria seven year war is entering yet another phase Stephanie Decker aljazeera on the turkey syria border. Lets bring in our panel joining us from istanbul sinan ogun chairman of the center for economic and Foreign Policy studies in london going to a visiting fellow of the European Council for the relations and in washington d. C. Which had why its director of the center for political military analysis of the Hudson Institute welcome to you or mr earle going to live to ask you this what is if that which turkey aims to achieve this cross border operation well does it close your military objective and secondly a political objective the military objective east who needs the influence of the Syrian People y. D. Which is seen as the extension of the Terror Organization from this is the pocket of after in there and politically turkey wants to assert itself as a regional actors that will have influence in the medium term over the negotiations for a political settlement in syria ok mr yelled as the so again has been talking about a military objective and a political ron lets talk a little bit with the military aspect of this story which is basically taken on the why p. D. Id in atherley and members are we talking about an isolated mid to operation there with the wit and there when the idea is evicted from both areas or this is something that could further be extended to the northern is part of syria. Well if you listen to the turkish officials the. Aim of the operation is declared as eliminating the power of why p. J. Across Northern Syria so they define it in a more broad the way but militarily its an extremely risky move because we can compare this against the turkish militaries displayed. Performance in our bob for example two years ago when they were carrying out an operation against the demoralized isis in a town which is way too similar smaller than a much smaller than our friend in bob and it took the operation took three months and ice has inflicted heavy casualties on turkish soldiers at that time and also we can compare Turkish Military capacity in the urban warfare urban clashes inside turkey against probably k. K. Fighters at that time and if you compare this to with afrin which is a much less accessible territory compared to above and a much larger area and turkey will be facing against them a motivated disciplined force which is well armed and in this area is actually a pro predominantly kurdish area so it will all these things will make the military very risk inside syria but also this can inflame the fighting inside turkey between the people here and turkey and showed in the past that they can take a little risks to prevent turkey from attacking syria mr whites over the last six years of the conflict in syria of the y p g which is the Military Branch of the pew id has been extending its influence from the North Eastern part of syria from kabbani. All the way to our three and the aim is to sort of link up all those three cantons which considers to be a counter of terrorism so were talking about an isolated operation or do you think that is now determined this is going to be a very long military operation until the influence of the why p. G. Or the idea is undermined. Thats a great question and we actually did dont know the answer i mean the weve had a series of Turkish Military operations against Kurdish Forces in iraq and now syria. Operate operation rating shield which was the precursor of to the current operation lasted some time but then the turks withdrew i mean that the the challenge and i like the way the first guests frame this as the most political and military dimension the military objective will of course strongly influence how long croaky stay there so if turkey can quickly defeat and drive off a lot of the syrian the syrian Kurdish Forces. And then the Syrian Government moves in and then they can withdraw but the political issue is complicated in that russia and the u. S. Are not happy but will not i think will limit the pressure theyll do to try to reverse this but the Syrian Government is kili would be very uncomfortable doing it how allowing a turkish control turkish and claves in their northern reporter for any length of time so this may be resolved quickly at the upcoming peace talks in sochi or to rest on our geneva or this if the turkish governments willing to to confront the Syrian Government very small and really and perhaps hurt its relations with the United States and russia then they may decide its worth staying in and the turkish government so in a determination to ignore the pressure of other governments when it when it wants to go in i mean the for the turkish government to be able to advance its political agenda when it comes to this with the oprah she needs to win the war as soon as possible well you know that if they want to go to members they will have to move deep at about one hundred kilometers into syria when you go into the style environment youre talking about massive wistful that took his move three. Sure but i think were getting ahead of ourselves right now the target is the often region not the member treason and even to carry out a military operation successfully across cuba through the region will require a degree of a considerable risk and military commitment so right now the challenge for turkey is to accelerate the success of the so creation turkey does not want to be pulled in a quagmire a bit like israel was for instance when it didnt fight the hizbullah saw or the object the military objective of a turkish authorities is to carry this out as soon as possible and this is what we see with the size of the operation were talking about on the ration where more than seventy turkish fighter planes are involved in the territory that is very limited and i think the planning is that turkish heavy out of the region will be backing the have Free Syrian Army as the main impetus but eventually turkish led forces may also be involved so i think right now the target is the african region and turkey will be all the more successful if International Actors like the u. S. And russia actually convinced the white keiji to pull back from this region. Then thats going to be quite important in determining how long the operation will last missile yet is there why p. G. Is backed by the United States of america in fact the u. S. Has on pes name operating trade training the why p. G. In that particular area the turks are very much wet about the situation the been very critical of the presence of the american troops on the border with turkey it was a shift of the narrative now in cut off from criticism into a military action. I think we need to look at the developments in egypt actually to really understand why it happened to now because this attack hasnt as is not an offensive its not and is not a surprise when i was in Northern Syria like two months ago this was the talk of the day with fighters and commanders and other people they were all expecting such an offensive but what happened in italy i mean the turkish offensive in northern italy to against. Radical elements there actually didnt end up the way the Syrian Regime or road Russian Force wanted to see it so that the Syrian Regime now is in moving into northern no isnt it libya and poor pushing the rebels and other groups in that area so turkey so that the window of opportunity for turkey to trade something in it live again stuff in or to do some more activities inside syria is actually closing down so thats one factor explains why after two years of threatening for an offensive why to okie acted in this but i think we need to bring in the also the domestic political elements in turkey in order to explain why this diplomatically very challenging military leave very risky and politically very problematic operation and why it is happening now because president i dont say our party is alliance with the right wing political groups in turkey the far right Political Parties and secularist nationalist required this kind of offensive against the kurds and also it will help probably poor politically present out on to galvanize and mobilize is the masses behind him for the two thousand and nineteen election missa why its the americans now a fait face a challenge here on one hand they consider the wipe easy to be the the most legitimate ally in the fight against isis in syria over the same time they cannot afford to further upset another regional ally of the region which is turkey what what are the options now for the americans. Yes this is been a longstanding problem with the u. S. Operations in both iraq and more recently syria and i would say that what they consider what the jim g. E. The most legitimate i think they consider them to be the most effect of the horses allied with the United States i mean they as you know cleve cover the in earlier programs the u. S. Tried for years to create its own separate military force theres a lot of training but very ineffective so what we have now is a y p g and the reason why the u. S. Is backing the y. P. Now is to one for military reasons to make sure theres a force fighting the groups that the u. S. Most concerned about isis now qaida theres always a bit of concern that the russians hearing government prorata is not that and two for if again were going to this military slash political framework that was laid out in the opening question i think that the political objectives are United States are to make sure have some say in the Peace Process its long as theres a u. S. Backed force in syria then the russian syrian arraign in representatives involved in any kind of post conflict scenario in syria have to take the us into account the problem is that as as we know the turkish government is hypersensitive about they occurred in iraq and syria and possibly around all thats happened is very high profile in recent years because of its own kurdish minority and the implications in terms that it say if the kurds gain autonomy in one of these countries then thats going to threaten turkish autonomy when now i think one question going back to the question about why now for the first one when trump was elected there was a lot of speculation that his National Security advisor Michael Flynn and other members of ministration would try and reach out to heir to want to sacrifice. The currents turn over the. People who dont pick turkish government wants to send back for trial that they claim or involved in the coup and so on but that quickly faded and then there is a so recent mis announcement misstatements make clear and clear what what happened but there is a somehow gotten the news that the u. S. Is going to set up a thirty thousand a man exactly and this is ours is. Made up of kurds and that seemed to provoke and that appears to have provoked a lot of alarm in ankara even though the us tonight it and i think thats where we are now Going Forward its just going its going to challenge i mean the u. S. Has but still now isnt isnt the similar similar in discontent over u. S. Role in the region has been go to quite some time ive been hearing over the last few months many statements coming from basically lashing out of the noses of america mr. What are the options now for turkey do you think that this till a wiggle room for settlement with United States of america about how to move forward or do you think the Turkish Military and political establishment have made up their mind to go to continue the the push whatever it takes. Or well i mean turkey or well try to get both at the same time in the sense that now there is poor decision has been made in the turkish government or to start this military campaign so turkey will surely continue just neutral campaign until it is successfully concluded but at the same time. The us is turkeys partner in nato or the us has influence in syria sold there is a need to establish the grounds for having a more productive dialogue with the us in particulates or for turkey for that security challenges emanating from the instability in syria but also in your act so i think turkey we want to have those two at the same time and theyre not necessarily mutually. Mysie yielders theres another key player in syria russia it has recently put artistry of from our free the only statement of the back of this mitta operation is a short one asking turkey to show restraint is this russia way of saying you know what we have absolutely no problem with you continue your operation against the kurds well if you look at the syria map today the almost one third of the territories being controlled by kurdish led force us the rest is mostly controlled by the Syrian Regime which is the main ally of russia on the ground and russia would want to i mean it makes sense for russia to involve turkey into this in this equation to put extra pressure on the kurds to make them maybe accept more concessions against the regime such as maybe handing over some oil fields in there as already to the regime or some kodesh officials inside syria actually made said that russia actually offered them or such as that that they should leave offering to the rich. Team handover a friend to the region so that they can prevent a turkish offensive in the region which was which wasnt allowed by it was an accepted by the white b. G. And in another interesting thing is that the focus of the battle inside syria has shifted very recently from. Isis to power play between russia and the us and also an endgame in syria now we hav