Ankara on August 26 : Turkey is determined to proceed with an upcoming military operation against the Kurdish militia in northern Syria, regardless of opposition from other nations Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared. “I again proclaim to the world at large that our fight will not stop until we have secured our borders to the south with an extensive 30-kilometer corridor” Erdogan declared at an event held on Thursday.
Turkey has already claimed large swathes of land bordering it in the northern part of Syria.
Erdogan was in April warned of an upcoming offensive to push the US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia the People’s Defence Units (YPG) further south.
Turkey believes that the YPG to be “terrorists” and is a threat to national security, associated with insurgents in Turkey and often targets the YPG.
Russia and Iran and Iran, both of which support the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against the Turkey-backed rebels had previously offered advice to Ankara against an attack.
The US had warned separately that a possible Turkish offensive could divert attention from the battle against the Islamic State terror group.
“We are conscious of the hypocrisy of those who initiate operations whenever they like and blame us,” Erdogan said, without even mentioning any country.
“We will continue these efforts in accordance with the plans we have in place and in line with the security priorities of our country.We always say that we could be suddenly attacked in the middle of the night,” the President added.
