Turkey's President Erdogan Enjoying Wide Support Within Turkey For His Military Campaign Against The Kurds In Syria

Smoke rises over the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain as seen from the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar, Sanliurfa province, Turkey, October 15. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

Arwa Damon and Isil Sariyuce, CNN: Turkey's assault in Syria is a boon for Erdogan. Here's why

A burst of orange flashed from a field on the Turkish-Syrian border, against the backdrop of the setting sun. Rattles of gunfire from Syria pierced the silence of a sleepy Turkish ghost town. This was less than a week into the Turkish offensive into northern Syria, ostensibly to clear a so-called safe zone, in what Ankara calls "Operation Peace Spring."

For some in this border area, however, these scenes over the weekend are not unfamiliar.

Turkey has been embroiled in a long-running conflict with Kurdish fighters on the Turkish side of the border, and the operation that Ankara launched across it last week is just the latest flare-up in decades of tensions.

Yet Turkey has ambitious goals for its current operation: to set up a safe zone and eventually resettle upwards of 2 million Syrian refugees living inside Turkey across the border, a move that observers say would dramatically change the Kurdish-Arab demographic balance in northeastern Syria.

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WNU Editor: Turkish President Erdogan is already declaring victory, and that Turkey has now secured a "safe zone" along the border .... Erdogan announces liberation of Syria ‘safe zone’, ready for refugees to return (Middle East Monitor). But here is an easy prediction. Will the Turks be that supportive once they realize how much this "safe zone" is going to eventually cost if no one else will support it (and no one will) ..... Who will pay $53 billion for Turkey’s safe zone project? (Al-Monitor).