Share

Turkey Says Syria Ceasefire Is Not Binding If It Threatens Security

He said Washington was considering a “plan B” for Syria if Moscow and Damascus were not serious about negotiating a political transition in the country, but would not elaborate on what that was.

Advertisement

The cease-fire should also refer to the Kurdish group as a terrorist group, but it failed to do so, Davutoglu stated. There are already jets belonging to the United States, Britain and France at Incirlik, all allegedly involved in ongoing US-led air strikes against Daesh in Iraq and Syria. It is also baiting arch-rival Turkey, which is furious at the possibility of a de facto Kurdish state emerging along its border, even as it fights a militant Kurdish insurgency at home.

A US-Russian plan for a ceasefire in Syria has been heavily criticised by the Turkish President, who claims it will really only serve to benefit the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

The agreement is applied to all members of the conflict, accept for Daesh and al-Nusra Front.

On Tuesday, security forces killed six PKK militants in Idil and two others in the Sur district of the region’s largest city Diyarbakir, the armed forces said in a statement. “Russia, in particular, must honour this agreement by ending its attacks on Syrian civilians and moderate opposition groups”. “Turkey fears that if the Kurds in Syria get their own coherent autonomous area Syria, then the Kurds in Turkey will be inspired to have the same”.

Turkey will not be bound by the expected truce in Syria if Ankara is under threat, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday.

But in its fervor to defeat Assad, Turkey has helped create terrorist organizations such as the Qaeda offshoot the Nusra Front and Ahrar al Sham.

“Ceasefires have been announced repeatedly in the past and we didn’t see any results on the ground because they were violated”, she said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, says the army and pro-government Shiite militias were backed by Russian airstrikes in the push on Khanaser.

“Turkey is aware of these games aiming to make Turkey a neighbor with a terror structure and will not allow it”, Davutoglu said.

The PYD has denied any involvement in the attack.

The same article quotes President Erdogan asserting, “Whoever prevents us from using our right of self-defense, we will recognize it as a terrorist and act accordingly”. Not necessarily Russian Federation and the United States, but Russian Federation and Turkey, could be.

The Syrian announcement came after the main umbrella for Syrian opposition and rebel groups, the High Negotiations Committee, said late Monday that it “agrees to a temporary truce” as long as the main opposition’s demands are met.

Indirect peace talks between the Syrian government and HNC collapsed on February 3, because of a large-scale government offensive.

Although Syria’s government and rebel forces have tentatively agreed to begin a temporary ceasefire on Saturday, the participation of the YPG remains in doubt.

Advertisement

The road through Khanasser is the sole link between government-held areas in and around Aleppo and those in the rest of the country.

Syria ceasefire needs 'major change of behaviour': UK