“We do not accept in any circumstances a ‘compromise or a ceasefire reached between Turkey and Kurdish elements, ‘” European Union Affairs Minister Omer Celik told state-run Anadolu news agency.
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Since then, the Turkish army with its allies have pushed further south, seizing a string of villages in areas controlled by militias loyal to the Kurdish-backed SDF, which drove Islamic State out of the city of Manbij this month with US help. Muslim, whose party administers northern Syria’s Kurdish-controlled regions.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent Turkish troops into Syria last week as Ankara attempts to clear ISIS militants and Kurdish-led forces from its border.
According to the YPG leadership, four of its fighters were arrested by Turkey-backed rebels last Monday while they were trying to evacuate civilians from war-torn parts of the Jarablus city in northern Syria.
Operations by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have significantly contributed to the ongoing efforts of the US -backed worldwide coalition against the Daesh terror group.
Turkey renewed air strikes on Islamic State sites in Syria on Friday, extending operations along a 90-km (56-mile) corridor near the Turkish border which Ankara says it is clearing of jihadists and protecting from Kurdish militia expansion.
Turkey’s incursion into Syria has brought a new element to an already complex situation in the war-torn country, as Ankara has also targeted US -backed Kurdish fighters. The YPG’s estimated 30,000 fighters make up the bulk of that coalition.
Following comments by a U.S. military spokesman who had expressed hopes that rather than see Turkey pursue Kurdish fighters, “all parties involved are going to stop shooting at each other and focus” on IS, Ankara contacted the United States ambassador over comments the foreign ministry called “unacceptable”.
“After intensified negotiations, and under the auspices of the global coalition under the leadership of the United States, and to curb the bloodshed of the innocents, we declare that we reached a temporary ceasefire… with the forces of the Turkish occupation”, the statement said.
Although the United States supported Turkey’s onslaught in Syria against ISIS, it is alarmed by the country’s offensive against the Kurdish forces and has asked Ankara to exclusively focus its assault on the Islamic State.
While declaring Thursday that the YPG had complied with the withdrawal requests from Ankara and Washington, Mr.
Ankara has denied statements from Kurdish fighters in Syria that a temporary truce had been agreed, saying it would not make any pact with the Kurdish YPG militia, a powerful force in the SDF coalition, as it considers it a terrorist body. “They have a right to go to Damascus, they have a right to go everywhere”.
“Kurdish-Syrian fighters delivered the bodies after they were taken to a field hospital when they fell in battle”.
During his visit to Brussels, Mr. And we say: “no they did not”.
TURKEY announced yesterday that it will not relinquish its attacks on Syrian Kurdish militia, saying that it will never negotiate with a “terrorist” organisation.
At the Pentagon on Tuesday, Army Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, called on Turkey and the YPG to stop fighting each other and focus on ISIL, another acronym for ISIS.
Turkey, he added, had sought the establishment of a “safe zone” in Syria but the idea had not received the backing of other world powers.
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Syria’s official Sana agency said Damascus had written to the UN Security Council to protest Turkey’s “crimes against humanity” in the country.
