Erdogan made the comments on August 29, after the United States described fighting between Turkey, pro-Turkish rebels, and Kurdish-aligned forces in northern Syria as “unacceptable”.
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Turkey’s president has said his country will press ahead with its military operation in Syria, despite the U.S. expressing “deep concern”.
President Barack Obama will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of this week’s Group of 20 meetings in China to discuss efforts against ISIS, the White House said on Monday.
The YPG, a powerful Syrian Kurdish militia in the SDF that Washington sees as a reliable ally against jihadists in the Syrian conflict, have dismissed the Turkish allegation and say any of its forces west of the Euphrates have long since left.
Turkish forces and allied factions of the rebel Free Syrian Army have forced IS fighters out of the border city of Jarablus and pounded neighboring positions held by Kurdish-led, USA -backed Syria Democratic Forces. “Accordingly, we are calling on all armed actors to stand down immediately and take appropriate measures to de-conflict”.
Turkey launched an offensive last week to oust ISIS jihadis and fighters from the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units – also known as the YPG – from a swath of northern Syria.
Representatives of the Kurdish-backed SDF said on Sunday that Turkish airstrikes and shelling of predominantly Kurdish positions in northeast Syria led to civilian casualties.
Turkey says it will continue its strikes unless the Kurdish YPG withdraws to the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.
Syrian opposition fighters have captured several villages south of Jarablus- a city they captured from ISIL last week.
Turkey accuses the YPG of being an offshoot of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a deadly insurgency on Turkish territory for over three decades.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday accused the Kurdish militia of “ethnic cleansing” in the mainly Arab area around the city of Manbij, west of the Euphrates, which the YPG wrested from IS earlier this month. Turkey denied any civilians had been hit.
It said 13 villages had been “cleared of terrorist elements” and were now controlled by anti-regime Syrian fighters that Ankara refers to as the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
The fighting pits Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, against a USA -backed proxy that is the most effective ground force battling IS militants in Syria’s five-year-old civil war.
The US backs the Kurdish YPG, considered a “terrorist” organization by Turkey.
Rhodes said that while the US supported Turkey’s efforts to clear IS fighters from Jarablus and secure its border, it would oppose Turkish efforts to move south and engage in activities against the SDF.
A Turkish soldier was killed Saturday by a Kurdish rocket attack, the first such fatality in Turkey’s ground offensive.
The YPG already controls an uninterrupted 400 km stretch of the border and intends to take over crucial territory between Jarablus and Azaz, which is mostly controlled by DAESH, before Operation Euphrates Shield hinders their advance.
In a further complication, Ankara has now been facing a renewed armed campaign by the PKK in its eastern and southeastern regions, which partly border YPG-controlled territories.
Syria’s official Sana agency said Damascus had written to the UN Security Council to protest Turkey’s “crimes against humanity” in the country. “The US is actively engaged to facilitate such deconfliction and unity of focus on #ISIL, which remains a lethal and common threat”.
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Meanwhile, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq yesterday, state media said.
