Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday there was no room for “terrorist organizations or affiliated elements in the future of the new Syria”during a meeting in Ankara with the Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdish region, Masrour Barzani, the Turkish president’s office announced in a press release.
Mr Erdogan told Mr 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 had already warned against any division of Syria and said he was ready, in the event of « risque »to take “necessary measures”.
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 government [syrien] by laying down your arms”.
Ankara accuses one of the main Kurdish forces in Syria, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of having links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), banned in Turkey. The PKK has been in armed struggle since the 1980s against Turkey, which describes it, like its Western allies, as a terrorist movement.
