Turkey plans to leverage its own military resources to stamp down growing Kurdish militia attacks in northern Syria, considering it is the cause of regional escalation, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th October, 2021) Turkey plans to leverage its own military resources to stamp down growing Kurdish militia attacks in northern Syria, considering it is the cause of regional escalation, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.
Turkey has designated the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Syrian Kurdish Self-Defense Forces (PKK/YPG) as a single terrorist organization. Earlier this week, the Turkish parliament extended the country's military missions to Syria and Iraq by two years. Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the army will use heavy weapons to solve the issue of terrorist attacks in Syria.
"Attacks by the PKK/YPG have become more frequent. Neither Russia nor the United States have fulfilled their commitments to oust the terrorists (from Syria's north). In such a situation, we will do what is necessary on our own," Cavusoglu told CNN Turk.
He said Turkey and the US have proposed convening the International Syria Support Group, a forum of 20 countries and organizations co-chaired by the US and Russia.
The Turkish minister also called for a new meeting of the Russia-Turkey-Iran format on Syria, adding that Ankara has "signaled" Moscow and Tehran to tell Syrian President Bashar Assad to agree to negotiate with the opposition.
When asked to comment on Ankara's possible large-scale operation in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that any military preparations should take into account the sovereignty of Syria.
The Turkish army conducted three operations in northern Syria from 2016 to 2019 -- the Euphrates Shield against the Islamic State (terrorist group, banned in Russia), and the Olive Branch and Peace Spring against Kurdish militia. Damascus has repeatedly declared the presence of Turkish forces in the Syrian territory illegal.
