Turkey may counteract militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and to the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) operating on the Syrian territories east to the Euphrates river, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2018) Turkey may counteract militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and to the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) operating on the Syrian territories east to the Euphrates river, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
"If the necessary steps are not taken [by the U.S.] to the east of the Euphrates [against PKK/YPG] ... we will take the necessary steps at the highest level," Erdogan told Turkish lawmakers at the Turkish Grand National Assembly, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.
He added that measures that Turkey might take would be targeted not only at securing peace in the country, but also at providing security for people living in the region.
"Up to now, Turkey has determinedly taken steps, and it will continue to do so," Erdogan added.
The US-backed YPG, which Ankara regards as an affiliate of the PKK, considered as a terrorist organization in the country, controls Syrian territories located to the east of the Euphrates. On October 12, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the United States was planning to create a "quasi-state" there, with the Kurds' support, while on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Reconciliation in Syria said that the passive conduct of the US-led coalition allies, namely, the YPG, allowed terrorists to gain control over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) of Syrian territory along the eastern bank of the Euphrates.
