page_title: Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War
section_title: 2018 Afrin Operation
hierarchical_section_title: Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War / Turkey's military intervention in Syria / 2018 Afrin Operation
caption_attribution_description: Türkçe: Suriye’den Türkiye’ye Kınama
context_page_description: Turkey has been diplomatically and militarily involved in the Syrian Civil War since its outbreak in 2011. Initially condemning the Syrian government at the outbreak of civil unrest in Syria during the spring of 2011, the Turkish government's involvement gradually evolved into military assistance for the Free Syrian Army in July 2011, border clashes in 2012, and direct military interventions in 2016–17, in 2018, in 2019, and in 2020. The military operations have resulted in the Turkish occupation of northern Syria since August 2016.
  After a decade of relatively friendly relations with Syria during the prior decade, Turkey condemned Syrian president Bashar al-Assad over the violent crackdown on protests in 2011 and later that year joined a number of other countries demanding his resignation. From the beginning of the war, Turkey trained defectors of the Syrian Army in its territory under the supervision of the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation, among whom emerged the Free Syrian Army in July 2011. In May 2012, the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation began arming and training the FSA and provided them with a base of operations.
context_section_description: On 9 January 2018, while giving a parliamentary address to his ruling AKP, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will continue its military operation in Syria's Afrin and Manbij regions.
  On 20 January 2018, the Turkish military began an intervention in the Afrin region of Syria, code-named by Turkey as Operation Olive Branch (Turkish: Zeytin Dalı Harekâtı).
caption: Turkish military vehicles on the Syria–Turkey border, 16 January 2018.
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