A senior defense official told Fox News that another reason the Turks want to keep Kurdish fighters outside of the 68-mile border is to prevent the
Kurds from potentially selling their oil on the open market from ports along the Mediterranean.“The ‘safezone’ was Turkey’s way of preventing a complete takeover of the [Turkish-Syrian] border,” said the official. “Turkey doesn’t want to eliminate ISIS, they want to prevent the Kurds from a complete takeover of the border. They need U.S. help to do this.”
Turkey's strikes on Kurds could drag US into new front, military sources fear | Fox News