Turkey has said that it would not be bound by the Syria cease-fire agreement that comes into effect at midnight Friday and would take action against the YPG if it threatens Turkey.
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North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey has grown increasingly frustrated by the worldwide response to Syria’s five-year-old war, incensed by a Russian intervention which has tipped the balance of power in favour of Ankara’s arch-enemy Assad and by US support for a Kurdish militia it sees as a hostile insurgent force.
Instead of opposing Syrian Kurdistan, Turkey should accept its reality and support a positive, constructive relationship with the Y.P.G. “It is a fact that the [the Democratic Union Party] PYD and YPG are terrorist organizations that are extensions of the PKK”, Erdogan said, Turkey-based newspaper Today Zaman reported.
There is also alarm that some areas largely run by the opposition Free Syrian Army may be excluded from the ceasefire. Within three months of leaving, Sertip was dead, killed during the 2014 Islamic State siege of Kobani just over the border from Turkey.
“It will not be a Syrian issue but an issue for Turkey”, the prime minister added.
In the push on Khanaser, the Syrian army and pro-government Shiite militias were backed by Russian airstrikes, the Observatory said.
On November 24, a Turkish F-16 fighter brought down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M bomber involved in Moscow’s military operation against the Islamic State (a terrorist group outlawed in Russia).
He directed his national security team to accelerate the U.S.-led worldwide campaign against the Islamic State “on all fronts”.
“And it seems to me, the United States, if we’re going to work with the PYD or any group that’s associated with an enemy of Turkey – it has to prove its bonafides”, he said. “I continue to ask for those details so that if those incidents are happening, then we can try to undertake efforts to address them or to reevaluate the very limited cooperation we have so far with the group fighting Daesh [ISIS]”, he official continued.
This week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that around 400,000 people had died and 12 million people been displaced since the war started. Aside from Russian forces fighting in the country, this will also likely include the Syrian government as well as opposition groups. The truce will not cover the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.
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Syria’s warring parties agreed to a ceasefire deal on Tuesday, but the USA warned it would not wait long. Obama promised the U.S.’s support for the Turks.
