Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday that Turkey would not be bound by the Syrian ceasefire plan if its security was threatened, and would take “necessary measures” against the Syrian Kurdish YPG and Islamic State if needed.
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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused the West, Russia and Iran of all seeking to further their own interests in Syria and said on Wednesday he feared a US-Russian ceasefire plan would do little more than benefit President Bashar al-Assad.
Turkey, which has been shelling positions of the Syrian Kurdish militia group People’s Protection Units (YPG) since February 13, insists that the group is the Syrian wing of the PKK and thus should be treated as a terrorist organization.
Davutoglu was also adamant that Turkey would act immediately and unilaterally if its “security is at stake: “Turkey will not get permission from or ask permission from anyone”.
She stressed that Syria has announced its acceptance on the Russian-US agreement on the cessation of fighting actions and showed readiness to work with the Russian side to implement this agreement and go ahead in combating ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups. That should have been done.
Turkey, which regards the YPG as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), last week targeted Kurdish fighters inside Syria with artillery barrages, saying the army was responding to incoming fire. If a group fights Assad’s military, according to this logic, it essentially aligns itself with militants considered to be terrorists and can then be attacked.
The Islamic State captured the northern town of Khanaser, cutting supply lines for government forces between Aleppo and central and western Syria. “Russia, in particular, must honour this agreement by ending its attacks on Syrian civilians and moderate opposition groups”.
“Whatever the judicial inquiry concludes over the identity of the bomber, it is clear that the bomber came from Rojava, the area of the PYD”, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters, referring to Kurdish-controlled northern Syria. Spokesman Jens Laerke of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the shipments were under way to help about 20,000 people in Moadamiya and another 10,000 in Kfar Batna.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations, an umbrella body, said Turkey’s main threats were tensions with Russian Federation and IS expansionism.
He entered Turkey in 2014 with a fake identity document presenting himself as Salih Muhammed Neccar and claiming to be a Syrian citizen.
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“The Syrian government stresses the right of its armed forces to retaliate against any violation carried out by these groups”, the ministry’s statement said.
