Turkish Peace Operations in Syria (Operation Olive Branch) Updates & Discussions

[Taskforce]

I think TSK realized they can’t depend on FSA. The FSA project should be dropped. The sooner this is done the better. They are not like YPG who are one army. FSA are several militia bound together by a vague name. From what I have seen from videos they are highly unprofessional and I was wondering: did they even get basic training? Probably there are one or two fighters who are actually Syrian and fight for their country but majority are on payroll and they don’t want to die for 100 Lira (or whatever) they get per month. Some are romanticizing FSA from their warm homes but this ain’t working.

 

[bosanski vojnik]

Turkey needs to put in more troops

Also the push into Afrin should be multidimensional. How comes Turkish Armed forces are not pushing from the south?

You can't be too over cautious in a war zone. You have to throw all your chips in at one point or another. Best to do it earlier before PKK/YPG can adapt or resupply.

 

[Yatağanlı]

Turkey needs to put in more troops

Also the push into Afrin should be multidimensional. How comes Turkish Armed forces are not pushing from the south?

You can't be too over cautious in a war zone. You have to throw all your chips in at one point or another. Best to do it earlier before PKK/YPG can adapt or resupply.

There are just some incursions here and there, no wide scale offensive movements. Maybe The Turkish army main strategy is that of attrition, weakening the YPG over a prolonged period, while making minor advancements.

 

[Jackal131]

Jackal you are being too modest about our troops. Perhaps our komando units are bit less trained from their counterparts in NATO but you have to add the fact that our boys go out to fight terorist every single month. Where NATO troops just go to exersice and fire paper targets. That war experience itself is more than enough reason to think that they are on par with US Rangers. By the way our Naval Komando is one of the best in the region. SAT and SAS are proved themselves in Kardak crisis. Lets not forget that too. Besides US and Iraq which army has that kind of battle experience and knowledge about modern warfare as Turkish Army?

Of course my friend I was merely speaking from a training perspective. Not every single one of the men in our Commando units saw combat, and those that did, saw different types of combat - but they did all receive the exact same training - as result it makes a more stable point to describe training rather than combat for any international members who ask.

As for SAT/SAS yes they are one of the top grade special forces units I was referring to. When I was speaking about Commandos I was not referring to SAT / SAS / JOAK / OKK etc. I was only talking about our regular commando units.

 

[LegionnairE]

the main problem is that we're advancing on 7 fronts but we don't have 7 UAVs in the air to provide intelligence to our ground units.

Turkish UAV production after all these years is shameful.

Our tank selection is even worse, Leopard 2 is penetrable by ATGMs from all angles except the frontal hull, it should never have come in the front lines.

 

[Saithan]

Well, we're using what we've got. And like you pointed out politics is unfortunately interfering with the production of Altay. But I think AKKOR system would have helped a bit if it was finished.

 

[LegionnairE]

Well, we're using what we've got. And like you pointed out politics is unfortunately interfering with the production of Altay. But I think AKKOR system would have helped a bit if it was finished.

I think simply putting M60Ts forward instead of Leopard 2 could've saved 6 lives.

Terrorists probably don't have the tandem warheads for Konkurs and ERA blocks on M60T would've stopped that missile.

Our Leopard 2s aren't ready for 21st century assymetric warfare environment. they should be kept in reserve.

 

[Jackal131]

I think TSK realized they can’t depend on FSA. The FSA project should be dropped. The sooner this is done the better. They are not like YPG who are one army. FSA are several militia bound together by a vague name. From what I have seen from videos they are highly unprofessional and I was wondering: did they even get basic training? Probably there are one or two fighters who are actually Syrian and fight for their country but majority are on payroll and they don’t want to die for 100 Lira (or whatever) they get per month. Some are romanticizing FSA from their warm homes but this ain’t working.

If the politicians stayed out of the way, this would be the case. However, they like to interfere.

Turkey needs to put in more troops

Also the push into Afrin should be multidimensional. How comes Turkish Armed forces are not pushing from the south?

You can't be too over cautious in a war zone. You have to throw all your chips in at one point or another. Best to do it earlier before PKK/YPG can adapt or resupply.

Actually the method is intelligent and clearly adapted to the situation at hand. Afrin is cut off (at least it was). The TSK created a large number of small fronts that avoided primary defensive bulks of YPG forcing them to spread their forces and assets (Artillery + ATGMs) across multiple fronts. This essentially saturates their support assets areas of responsibility, increases deployment times of the assets while opening them to risk during transport to support multiple fronts (as we witnessed the capture of multiple ATGMs during transport this past week). This ultimately creates a logistics nightmare. And when you are completely cut off from support / resupply. The last thing you want is to have logistics strains on your frontline formations. It was this forced distribution of assets and logistics pressures that have forced the YPG to use suicide bombers and VBIEDs in an environment with heavy media focus. The YPG and PKK are extremely good at media interactions, the last thing they wanted is to be seen fighitng like every other terrorist group they pretended to be better than.

But all this is now unfortunately wasted, as I said in my first sentence, Afrin "was" cut off. Now that SAA (more likely Iranian militia) allowed YPG to transfer supplies through their line, we will and have seen an increase in both ambushes and open engagements by the YPG/PKK.

 

[LegionnairE]

We should've attacked Tall Rifad and cut off YPG from SAA. It's not too late, we can still do it. And we should.

I think the command is planning to let the terrorists escape and capture Afrin without much of a fight.
I think it's a bad plan.

 

[HannibalBarca]

We should've attacked Tall Rifad and cut off YPG from SAA. It's not too late, we can still do it. And we should.

I think the command is planning to let the terrorists escape and capture Afrin without much of a fight.
I think it's a bad plan.

Opening another front in Tel rifaat... will push them to spread even more... and therefore less soldiers for the mountainous areas...

PKK/YPG are good in mountainous location... that's why it's a priority... after that... it's just flat... meaning... Airstrike+ Troops advancing and redo those 2 steps...till you get to Afrin, an urban area... that will also take some time...

If PKK escape via tel rifaat to Regime held areas... it' snot a problem in itself... if it join Manbij pocket... that will be another problem... But if that ahappen... I hope TR take some "drastic" measures and just bomb them, at the Entrance of Manbij...

 

[Kambojaric]

We should've attacked Tall Rifad and cut off YPG from SAA. It's not too late, we can still do it. And we should.

I think the command is planning to let the terrorists escape and capture Afrin without much of a fight.
I think it's a bad plan.

Based on what I can see from google earth, the YPG will be using roads through the hills south of Afrin and west of Tall Rifat/Dayr al Jimal. Sorhane is one village through which this road runs. Cutting off Afrin therefore will not work since they have a supply line through Syrian government controlled territory.

At the same time I feel like the Turkish army does not want to engage in an all out offensive as this will result in large YPG casualties. Already the Kurdish propaganda machine is at full work using whatever little evidence they can find of Turkish "atrocities" to spread around in world media. A large push will inevitably result in greater YPG casulties. Instead I think the Turkish army is preferring a more "low key" approach, moving slowly and not catching too much attention.

 

[Bismarck]

the main problem is that we're advancing on 7 fronts but we don't have 7 UAVs in the air to provide intelligence to our ground units.

Turkish UAV production after all these years is shameful.

Our tank selection is even worse, Leopard 2 is penetrable by ATGMs from all angles except the frontal hull, it should never have come in the front lines.

You have more than 7 tactical uav’s (Bayractar) and more than 7 MALE uav’s in your inventory. Where is the problem?

Welcome back.

 

[LegionnairE]

Opening another front in Tel rifaat... will push them to spread even more... and therefore less soldiers for the mountainous areas...

PKK/YPG are good in mountainous location... that's why it's a priority... after that... it's just flat... meaning... Airstrike+ Troops advancing and redo those 2 steps...till you get to Afrin, an urban area... that will also take some time...

If PKK escape via tel rifaat to Regime held areas... it' snot a problem in itself... if it join Manbij pocket... that will be another problem... But if that ahappen... I hope TR take some "drastic" measures and just bomb them, at the Entrance of Manbij...

That's a good thing we have more soldiers than them, we SHOULD spread them it would emphasize our numerical superiority even more. What I suggest is that we encircle and destroy them.

@Kambojaric I meant Tel Rifad and the area surrounding villages that connect Afrin to SAA

You have more than 7 tactical uav’s (Bayractar) and more than 7 MALE uav’s in your inventory. Where is the problem?

Welcome back.

you can't have all 7 of them in the air at one time. Besides ANKA is a strategic UAV, it's a TURAF asset. I want troops on the ground to have access to tactical UAVs. We should mobilize our entire industry, buy Vestel drones aswell.

Thanks by the way, Reddit wasn't cutting it.

 

[Bismarck]

That's a good thing we have more soldiers than them, we SHOULD spread them it would emphasize our numerical superiority even more. What I suggest is that we encircle and destroy them.

@Kambojaric I meant Tel Rifad and the area surrounding villages that connect Afrin to SAA


you can't have all 7 of them in the air at one time. Besides ANKA is a strategic UAV, it's a TURAF asset. I want troops on the ground to have access to tactical UAVs. We should mobilize our entire industry, buy Vestel drones aswell.

Thanks by the way, Reddit wasn't cutting it.

As far as I know you have a huge number of tactical UAVs. How many you can use simultaneously?

 

[LegionnairE]

As far as I know you have a huge number of tactical UAVs. How many you can use simultaneously?

Obviously not enough, the hill that Konkurs ATGM was fired that destroyed a Leopard 2 and killed 6 soldiers. Obviously wasn't under survelliance at that time. I want more coverage, I want every battalion to have a couple of UAVs so they can keep one in the air at all times. I don't want a random terrorist popping up from the other side of the hill without our knowledge.

These ATGM teams set up their tripods and shoot & scoot very quickly, they need to be detected before they enter the view at the horizon.