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War rages in Turkish media in anticipation of military operation

News outlets loyal to the Turkish state and sympathetic to the Kurds are each busy framing the conflict ahead of possible Turkish military moves against Syrian Kurds.
A Turkish military tanks arrives at an army base in the border town of Reyhanli near the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province, Turkey January 17, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RC1BD2F468F0

As speculation rages over the probability of a Turkish military incursion against Kurds in Syria, the propaganda war between the sides is already in full swing.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency turned to a pair of Syrian Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG), the US-backed militia that has been fighting the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, to press the case for Turkish intervention. The fighters, who are in Turkish custody, claimed in an interview that civil administrators affiliated with the YPG in Afrin, the Syrian Kurdish enclave Turkey is threatening to invade, had ordered digging equipment from the United States. The machines were purportedly going to be used to dig tunnels from Afrin to the Turkish side of the border, thus allowing YPG fighters to infiltrate Turkey, where they would go on to plan attacks.

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