Operation Olive Branch

A Turkish-led military operation launched in January 2018 to seize Afrin and surrounding areas in northwestern Syria from Kurdish-led forces. It ended with Turkey and allied Syrian factions controlling the district.

Afrin offensive: The 2018 campaign to capture Afrin, a Kurdish-held district in northwestern Syria. This was the operation’s central military campaign and culminated in the capture of Afrin city.
Syrian Civil War: A multilateral conflict in Syria that began in 2011 after protests against the government. The war created the fragmented territorial and political conditions for Turkey’s intervention.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: A Turkish politician who has served as president of Turkey since 2014. Erdoğan announced the operation and presented it as a campaign to remove threats from Turkey’s border.
Syrian Democratic Forces: A multi-ethnic armed coalition in Syria, led by Kurdish forces and supported by the United States. The loss of Afrin exposed the limits of the coalition’s territorial control in northwestern Syria.
Operation Peace Spring: A Turkish military operation launched in 2019 against Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria. It pursued similar Turkish security aims but targeted a different part of Syria.
Turkish Armed Forces: The military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish troops and aircraft supplied the operation’s principal conventional military power.
Operation Euphrates Shield: A Turkish military operation in northern Syria from 2016 to 2017 against Islamic State and Kurdish-led forces. It established a precedent for Turkish cross-border operations and control in northern Syria.
Vladimir Putin: A Russian politician who has served as president or prime minister of Russia since 1999. Russia controlled the airspace arrangements affecting Turkish military action around Afrin.
Afrin District: An administrative district in Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria, centered on Afrin city. Turkish-backed forces took control of the district, reshaping its administration and population patterns.
Operation Spring Shield: A Turkish military operation launched in Syria’s Idlib Governorate in 2020. Unlike Olive Branch’s territorial capture of Afrin, it responded to Syrian government advances in Idlib.

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Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East SyriaRelated: The loss of Afrin exposed the administration’s vulnerability to cross-border military intervention.