Turkey detained a former police chief, several governors and nine journalists Tuesday as part of the probe into the movement allegedly behind last month’s abortive coup, according to state media.
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“What we can do and are doing with them is to clarify where the YPG elements of the SDF are and are not”, he said, adding YPG fighters were indeed withdrawing.
The Turkish President told a supportive crowd that “operations against terrorist organisations will continue until the end”.
Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper, in an online edition, quoted Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus as responding to the Pentagon by saying the USA should keep to its promise and use its influence to press its Kurdish allies to withdraw to the east.
Turkish-backed forces began the offensive last week by capturing the Syrian frontier town of Jarablus from Islamic State; they then advanced on areas controlled by Kurdish-aligned militias which have USA support in battling jihadists.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey will press ahead with its military operation in Syria until the Islamic State group and the Kurdish Syrian fighters no longer pose a security threat to Ankara.
The U.S. has warned the Kurds to withdraw to the eastern bank of Euphrates, as apparently the western side, close to Turkey, was a red line agreed upon between Ankara and Washington to alley the Turkish fears of further Kurdish expansion. The region lies between two Kurdish-controlled cantons – one east of the Euphrates and the other to the west near the Mediterranean.
According to the General Staff, the military operations are being held against the IS in Syria.
The White House said President Barack Obama would meet Erdogan on September 4 ahead of a G20 summit in China.
It is worth noting that if previously the CHP criticized operations by Turkish Armed Forces against the PKK, after the incident, the party began to support military efforts of the country’s authorities against the terrorists.
Kurtulmus went on to say that Turkey informed Russian Federation of their intention to enter Syria, and that “we are sure” that Russian Federation informed the Syrian government about that, meaning that Syria’s government was fully aware of what was happening.
The move is not likely to please the Turks who are demanding a full withdrawal from all areas west of the Euphrates.
A group monitoring the tangled, five-year-old conflict in Syria said 41 people were killed by Turkish air strikes as Turkish forces pushed south on Sunday.
Gulen has denied involvement and condemned the rebellion on July 15, during which a group of soldiers commandeered tanks and jets to attack government buildings but were stopped by a groundswell of opposition from civilians and loyalist forces. One video appears to show members of the Kurdish group? captured and humiliated by rebel fighters.
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The Turkish military carried out 61 artillery strikes on 20 targets around Jarablus in 24 hours, Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu reported on Monday.
