the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoganhe insisted on Monday to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putinin need of his country control a border strip across the north of Syria to protect themselves against Kurdish militias.
Erdogan spoke by telephone with Putin, according to a statement distributed by the Turkish Presidency, in which he points out that the Popular Protection Units (YPG)the Syrian Kurdish militias that Ankara considers an offshoot of the outlaw Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)continue to attack both Turkey and Syrian civilians.
For this reason, the president considers it necessary to make “safe” the strips that Turkey failed to “clean of terrorism” during the military operation of October 2019, in which Turkish troops conquered a 30-kilometer-wide strip along part from the Turkish-Syrian border.
Since that operation, Turkey has dominated the Syrian side of the border from almost the Mediterranean coast to near Reedthe Kurdish ‘capital’ of northeast Syria, except for an area of fifty kilometers around the city of Kobani east of euphrates riverunder YPG control.
In recent weeks, Erdogan has repeatedly expressed his willingness to launch a new operation against the YPG in Syria and this Sunday he warned that the movement could start “any night, suddenly.”
Russia is the main ally of the Syrian president, Bachar al-Asadwhile Turkey supports armed factions that seek to overthrow it and also fight against the YPG, which maintains a tense relationship of neutrality towards the Assad regime.
In the same conversation with Putin, the Turkish president also repeated his willingness to facilitate a possible meeting of Russia, Ukraine y United Nations in istanbul and to assume, with the agreement of all parties, a role in a control mechanism of the war in Ukraine. EFE (I)
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