ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st October, 2018) The activities in the Syrian territories located to the east of the Euphrates River and controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have nothing to do with the fight against the Islamic State terror organization (IS, banned in Russia), Omer Celik, the press secretary of the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party, said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara would soon launch a large-scale operation against Syria's People's Protection Units (YPG), a large component of the SDF, in Syria. Ankara considers the YPG a terror organization linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, also listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey.
"Our president has long been dealing with Syria. As for our presence there: do we really want to occupy and to use these territories? We are there to pursue fraternal aims. We need to ensure our national security to the east of Euphrates. It is with regret that we see that events that have nothing to do with IS fight are happening there under this guise. One should not play with the demographic factor [force non-Kurds out of the region]," Celik told reporters.
While Ankara claims that YPG presence to the east of Euphrates, near the Turkish border, hampers its national security, the United States delivers weapons to the SDF, seeking to defeat the IS.
Celik said that Erdogan had communicated this position to the participants of the Turkish-Russian-German-French summit on Syrian settlement that took place in the Turkish capital of Istanbul on October 27.
"This meeting has once again emphasized Turkey's importance as a major regional player. We regard this summit as a turning point," Celik said.
On October 27, the leaders of Russia, Turkey, Germany and France held a summit in Istanbul on the Syrian settlement. In their joint communique, the four leaders said that the Syrian Constitutional Committee, set to draft the country's new constitution, should convene in Geneva by the end of 2018. They also reaffirmed their commitment to a negotiated political process as a way to put end to the conflict.
