Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted on Tuesday that there was no room for “terrorist organizations” in Syria under its new Islamist leaders, a warning aimed at Kurdish forces in this neighboring country of Turkey.
There is no room for “terrorist organizations or affiliated elements in the future of the new Syria”Erdogan said during a meeting in Ankara with the Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdish region, Masrour Barzani, the Turkish president’s office said in a statement.
Erdogan told Masrour Barzani that Turkey was working to prevent the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria from causing further instability in the region.
On Monday, the Turkish president warned against any division of Syria and said he was ready, in the event of «risque»to take “necessary measures”.
“Elimination” of Kurdish fighters
A little earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan assured that “elimination” Kurdish PKK fighters in Syria was a “question of time”. He also mentioned “the possibility that the PKK and the YPG will join the new (Syrian) government by laying down their arms”.
Ankara accuses one of the main Kurdish forces in Syria, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of having links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) banned in Turkey.
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The PKK has been in armed struggle since the 1980s against the Turkish government, which, like its Western allies, describes it as a terrorist movement.
The backbone of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the YPG has spearheaded the fight against the jihadists of IS, the Islamic State group.
More than 100 fighters were killed last weekend in clashes in northern Syria between armed factions supported by Turkey and Syrian Kurdish forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said on Sunday.
The Turkish army regularly launches strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq, accusing them of having links to the PKK.
Syria and Türkiye share more than 900 km of border.
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