Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday lashed out at Western states, accusing them of “standing by terrorists” in failing to support Turkey’s operation against Syrian Kurdish fighters.
“Can you imagine the whole West stood by the terrorists and all attacked us including NATO member states and European Union countries?” Erdogan said in Istanbul.
“Since when did you start to side with terror? Did PYD-YPG [Syrian Kurdish forces] join NATO and we do not know about it?” he said.
Photo: Reuters
Ankara says the YPG is a “terrorist” offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.
The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara, the US and the EU.
Ankara’s military action against Kurdish forces who played a key role in the fight against the Islamic State group has drawn widespread international criticism and prompted some NATO countries to suspend new arms sales.
Erdogan denied any territorial ambition, saying: “Turkey does not have an eye on any country’s territory... We consider such an accusation as the biggest insult directed to us.”
Turkey has given Kurdish fighters until late today to leave a narrow strip of territory in northeastern Syria or face becoming targets, putting aside for now its demand for the militia to withdraw from a much larger “safe zone.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces must exit the 120km area between the Syrian border towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn by 10pm tonight, a senior Turkish military official told Bloomberg, requesting anonymity.
Turkey still wants the Kurds to withdraw from a swath of frontier territory more than 440km long and 32km deep, but recognizes that will not happen before the expiry of a 120-hour truce negotiated by the US last week, the official said.
The Turkish military source said 125 vehicles have left the area so far carrying YPG fighters, taking the route leading to the northeastern city of Hasakeh.
The source added that any “terrorists left” in the 120km region after today “will be neutralized.”
Meanwhile, Iran yesterday denounced as “unacceptable” any move by Turkey to establish military bases in Syria, saying such a step would face opposition from the Islamic republic and other countries.
Erdogan on Friday said that Turkey would set up 12 observation posts inside Syria.
Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Abbas Mousavi criticized the planned move in response to a question at a nationally televised news conference in Tehran.
Such a step, he said, would be seen by Iran as an “aggression against the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of an independent country.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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