Fighting with the PKK in south-eastern Turkey is intensifying since a ceasefire broke down in July, after holding for two years, with many hundreds dying in the clashes. The latter is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and NATO.
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“We are running the country according to its constitution…”
The industry has been shaken by security concerns as Turkey wages a two-pronged offensive against Islamic State (IS) and Kurdish militants.
Also Tuesday, the Russian military said it has set up a coordination center to help enforce the cease-fire. This is the opposite of what Russian Federation is facing at the moment in both in Syria and east Ukraine, which some have labelled its actions as “war games”.
“There are many other pitfalls that could come up, for example, things like provocations that the Syrian Army is ‘violating the ceasefire, ‘ when instead it is being staged by one of the rebel groups”, he said, adding he was not certain that the cessation of hostilities included also an end to Turkey’s bombing of Kurdish positions in Syria.
The group is an off-shoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
“The claim of responsibility by TAK, a PKK offshoot, aims to divert attention from the YPG”.
The main objective now is to defeat terrorism in the region, Shaaban said, stressing that this “requires first of all, stopping the flow of support” to terror groups.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Moscow continues to violate Turkish air space, even after tensions arose following the November shooting down of a Russian jet along the border.
“There is no such thing as moderate terrorist or moderate opposition, because anyone who carries arms is not moderate, anyone who is killing people is not moderate, anyone who is destroying institutions in the country is not moderate, ” she explained, saying that the use of the word “moderate” in this case “has no relation to reality whatsoever”.
The truce would include Syrian government and opposition forces but not the Islamic State group or the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front. The wording of the statement typically refers to PKK terrorists, Anadolu reported. The statement also confirmed that French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault will meet with his German counterpart soon to discuss the issue.
The Observatory tracks Syria’s civil war.
Ankara’s request for a safe zone early on in the Syrian revolution was not exclusively a Turkish initiative, as Syrian rebels demanded this during the “Friday of a No-Fly Zone” in November 2011, as well as during the “Friday of a Buffer Zone” in January 2012. Turkey wants to clear a 90-kilometer strip of land, now controlled mostly by ISIS and partly by the moderate opposition, to create a safe heaven for Syrian refugees.
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But Davutoglu expressed confidence that Russians would return and emphasised they were still welcome.
