Russian Federation has voiced concern over the actions of Turkey’s armed forces and fighters led by Ankara in northern Syria.
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But yesterday Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik said: “Turkey is a sovereign state … a legitimate state”.
Turkey’s state-run news agency says three rockets fired from Syria have hit Turkish border town of Kilis, injuring five children, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey will press ahead with its military operations in Syria until the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants no longer pose a security threat.
The bodies of three American citizens, who joined the PKK-linked People’s Protection Units (YPG) terror group in Syria and were killed in clashes with DAESH in August in Manbij, were delivered to the USA on Tuesday.
Turkish military officials say Turkish jets have struck four buildings in parts of northern Syria held by the Islamic State group, destroying the structures and killing the “terrorists” inside.
Washington said on Tuesday the two sides – both USA allies – had agreed to a cessation of hostilities between their forces in Syria after deadly clashes at the weekend.
The Kurdish militias in Syria are affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who have faced a counterinsurgency campaign waged by the Turkish state for over three decades.
Washington sees the Kurds as a key partner against IS, and USA airstrikes have helped a Kurdish-led militia known as the Syria Democratic Forces to seize a large swath of territory from the extremists in recent months.
Turkey frets that seizing such a broad swathe of territory could embolden Kurdish PKK insurgents on Turkish soil. “If the USA announced such a thing that means they are trying to present terrorist organizations as formal parties as if we deal with them”, a senior Turkish Armed Forces official told the government-owned Sabah Daily.
The group also claimed to have carried out a suicide auto bombing against Turkish-backed rebels in the same area and said it had killed “dozens” of Turkish soldiers and Turkish-backed rebels.
Ankara though is defiant, summoning the USA ambassador over his country’s stance and denying reports of a temporary truce with Syrian Kurdish forces seen by Ankara as terrorists. A photo exhibition at the European Parliament featured leaders and members of the PKK and its Syrian offshoot the PYD.
But Kalin, the Turkish presidential spokesman, said such a deal was “out of the question”, insisting the Kurdish Syrian militiamen will remain a target for Turkey until they move east of the Euphrates. “It is out of the question for the Turkish Republic to have any kind of a tie, an agreement. with this organization”.
Turkish-backed forces are clashing with US -backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as they move south.
Kalin says Erdogan is engaged in diplomacy to try to secure a cease-fire in Syria during the upcoming Eid holiday. In a statement last week, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the country would be “more active in the Syria issue in the coming six months”.
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He reiterated Turkish calls that Washington has to live up to its assurances that the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, fully withdraws to the east of the Euphrates River, and that the pullout immediately takes place.
