In an unprecedented operation, Turkey has been deploying tanks and troops in Syria to clear the border area of Islamic State (IS) jihadists and halt the westward advance of a US-backed Kurdish militia, which Ankara sees as a terrorist group.
Advertisement
“The Turkish republic is a sovereign, legitimate state”, Mr Celik said, adding Turkey could not be put on an equal footing with a “terrorist organisation”, referring to the US-backed Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Turkey, a member of the US -led coalition against the Sunni hardline group, sees the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and worries the YPG’s advance will encourage militants in its largely Kurdish southeast.
Kurdish-backed militias in Syria agreed on Tuesday to a United States initiative to stop fighting Turkish forces whose week-old incursion in the country has stoked tensions between Washington and Ankara.
Ibrahim Kalin told reporters Wednesday that the Kurdish militia will remain a target for Turkey until they move east of the Euphrates River. Working with “moderate” and “vetted” Syrian rebel groups, Turkish forces swept into northern Syria-assisted in part by USA air power-and quickly took control of the border town Jarabulus.
The Islamic State group’s Aamaq news agency said the “martyrdom” attack occurred in the village of Kuliyeh, west of the Syrian border town of Jarablus, which the rebels captured from the IS last week.
Concerned at the arrival of a new military player in the already complex conflict in Syria, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier cautioned Turkey against keeping its military there.
“At the moment, they are saying the YPG has crossed”, Erdoğan said. A cease-fire with the group was “out of the question”, Kalin said.
A U.S. defense official said the US-backed Kurdish forces had pulled back to east of the Euphrates river over the past day or so, as demanded by Ankara.
Turkey sees the YPG as a terror offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) waging a bloody three-decade insurgency on its soil.
Turkey had last week launched a cross-border offensive with the aim to drive off the jihadists from the area.
“We can not pretend not to have heard continuous rocket attacks into our cities from Jarabulus, north Syria”, Erdogan said. The “Islamic State” (IS, ISIL, ISIS or Daesh), the YPG and the PYD are the most active terrorist groups in Syria.
Three rockets fired from IS-held territory in Syria meanwhile struck the Turkish border town of Kilis, some 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Elbeyli, according to the Turkish governor’s office, which said one person was lightly wounded.
Turkey has demanded the YPG cross the Euphrates river into a Kurdish-controlled canton in Syria’s northeast.
Advertisement
The United States has been alarmed by Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish forces, which Washington has supported.
