ANKARA —
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday renewed threats of a military offensive in northern Syria,
which he said would target Kurdish “terrorists”.
اضافة اعلان
“We are taking another step in establishing a 30km
security zone along our southern border. We will clean up Tal Rifaat and
Manbij”, he said, referring to two northern Syrian cities.
Erdogan said they would then proceed, “step by step,
into other regions”.
For a week now, Turkey’s leader has been threatening
to launch an operation against fighters of the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
He is also targeting the
People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian-Kurdish group it considers to be part of the PKK.
“We will see who supports the legitimate security
operations carried out by Turkey and who tries to oppose them,” said Erdogan.
The YPG-linked Syrian Democratic Forces warned that
an invasion by Ankara would undermine efforts to combat Daesh terrorists in
Syria’s northeast.
“The SDF has been expecting a possible battle for a
while now,” said Farhad Shami, a spokesperson for the Kurdish-led force.
“In the event of an attack, we will pause our war
against the Islamic State group and start military measures against the
Turkish invasion,” he told AFP.
Erdogan said over the weekend that Turkey would not
wait for permission from the US before launching such an operation.
Washington last week warned Turkey against launching
a military operation into northern Syria, saying it would undermine regional
stability and put US forces serving there at risk.
Erdogan on Tuesday told
Russian President Vladimir Putin that a 2019 agreement signed between the two countries allowed for the
creation of a security zone along the Turkish-Syrian border.
“Its creation is imperative,” Erdogan said.
He has also opposed the recent applications of
Finland and Sweden for
NATO membership, over what it considers their leniency
toward Kurdish militant groups.
Both Manbij and Tal Rifaat host large Kurdish
populations and lie near Turkey’s border with Syria.
Their capture would allow Erdogan to expand and
deepen the so-called “safe zone” along the border where Ankara hopes to
resettle Syrian refugees.
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