Turkey has already cleared out terrorists from over 1,500 square miles (about 4,000 square kilometers) of Syrian territory and intends to continue establishing security zones, including to the east of the Euphrates River, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2018) Turkey has already cleared out terrorists from over 1,500 square miles (about 4,000 square kilometers) of Syrian territory and intends to continue establishing security zones, including to the east of the Euphrates River, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.
"We will take similar steps east of the Euphrates," the president said at a dinner organized by the TURKEN Foundation in New York, as cited by the Anadolu news agency.
According to Erdogan, while Turkey was neutralizing the "terror corridor" and fighting the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Northern Syria, Ankara's strategic allies have transferred a total of 18,000 trucks and 3,000 planes carrying weapons and ammunition to the region.
The US-backed YPG militia and PYD party are considered terrorist organizations by Ankara over their links to the pro-independence Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Turkey has been fighting the YPG/PYD in Syria, claiming that the organizations posed a threat to the country's national security.
