Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that it was high time to clear the northern Syrian region of Manbij from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd October, 2018) Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that it was high time to clear the northern Syrian region of Manbij from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
In June, Turkey and the United States struck a deal regarding Manbij, agreeing that the US-backed YPG would withdraw from the city and yield control over Manbij to the Turkish and US troops. Ankara has long sought this development since it considers the YPG to be affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey.
"Now is time to take completely take the YPG out of Manbij and leave the region to the locals, both in terms of administration and security," Cavusoglu told reporters after the meeting on "Strategic Dialogue in the Western Balkans" at the World Economic Forum (WEF), as quoted by the Hurriyet Daily news newspaper.
The Turkish foreign minister also praised the Turkish-US patrols conducted in Manbij in line with the June deal.
"There is a slight delay in the schedule, but the separate coordinated [Turkish and US] patrols in the Manbij region conducted up to now were important," Cavusoglu said.
Turkey has been claiming that the YPG's presence near its border hampers its national security. Earlier this year, it conducted an offensive against the Kurdish militia in Syria's northern border city of Afrin. Ankara is also currently engaged in an operation to eliminate Kurdish strongholds in northern Iraq.
