On October 10, the state-controlled Al-Watan newspaper carried the following opinion piece by Chief Editor Waddah Abed Rabbo: “Until these lines were written, it was not yet clear whether or not some of the reckless leaders of the Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF] have realized the size of the catastrophe they have created as a result of their collaboration with the Americans and their betrayal of the Syrian people. They were warned, cautioned and notified dozens of times that they were nothing but a card played by Washington, and that they will be cast aside once it is done with them. And they were advised dozens of times that the Syrian Army was the only side capable of protecting the land and people, and that any other wager was pointless. But their obstinacy and arrogance led them to participate with the Americans in imposing an economic siege on the Syrian people.

“So, they prevented the latter from collecting their crops, even seized Syria’s agricultural and oil wealth. And today, they are paving the way for the Ottoman Army to occupy more Syrian territories, as though the Afrin lesson was not enough for them to learn the plans of President of the Turkish Regime Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his expansionist Ottoman Project and his attempts to occupy Arab lands. Yesterday, in broad daylight, the Turkish cannons and air force started bombing Syrian territories, killing and displacing Syrian civilians. In addition, Erdogan’s army and its mercenaries who agreed to sell themselves started removing the “buffer” wall in preparation for storming the border and entering our soil under lame pretexts, which the SDF provided to the Turks as though working for Ankara, not just the United States.

“The entire world, including Turkey, is falsely calling for the respect of the integrity and sovereignty of Syria’s soil. And the entire world is condemning Turkey, not because of its intention to breach that soil, but because it is attacking Kurdish groups that are allied with the capitals of the West and are under the impression that they will be allowed to establish their mini-state in Syria…, in a secessionist project which the SDF mercenaries and their supporters know cannot persist amid regional rejection firstly…, but more importantly, amid Syrian popular rejection…, confirmed by the fact that the Syrians have been engaged in an ongoing war for more than 8 years to protect their sovereignty and territorial integrity… Yesterday, following the first Turkish raid on Hasakah Governorate, talk resumed about a Russian mediation to revive the negotiations between the SDF and Damascus.

“But these negotiations will not be like the previous ones, seeing as how we the Syrians can no longer trust the latter. So, if they decide to come to Damascus to seek support or help, they will firstly have to issue a public apology to the Syrian people, surrender all their heavy weapons to the Syrian Arab Army, allow the return of the state institutions to the regions they are occupying, and join the ranks of the Syrian Army to fight the Turkish incursion together, in order to destroy whatever illusions, dreams and ambitions Erdogan has in Syria, which as promised by President Bashar al-Assad, will be liberated in its entirety sooner or later, and despite everyone’s will.”