The US decision to withdraw troops from Syria is a step in the right direction, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, adding that the US political circles exerted considerable pressure on US President Donald Trump in a bid to prevent the pullout of the US contingent from the Arab republic
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th January, 2019) The US decision to withdraw troops from Syria is a step in the right direction, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, adding that the US political circles exerted considerable pressure on US President Donald Trump in a bid to prevent the pullout of the US contingent from the Arab republic."The US withdrawal from Syria is a step in the right direction, because the Syrian crisis can be resolved only by those countries that benefit from the healing of Syria's wounds and are harmed by [the wounds'] deepening," Erdogan said in his article published in Russia's Kommersant newspaper on Tuesday.
He added that some "structures" in the United States tried to prevent the decision to withdraw troops from being taken.
"We see that in order to put pressure on Trump's administration, a number of statements are being spread, such as 'Turkey will destroy the Kurds' or 'We will not abandon our Kurdish allies.' I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Turkish Republic has no problems with the Syrian Kurds or with any groups living on the territory of our neighbor," Erdogan said.
At the same time, Erdogan reiterated that Ankara "will not allow existence of any elements that pose a threat to national security both for our country [Turkey] and for the territorial integrity of Syria."
In December, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw its roughly 2,000 troops from Syria since the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) had been defeated in the country. The US troops' removal from Syria raised the issue of the fate of the US-backed Kurdish militias in the region, which are viewed by Turkey as an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara, bringing even more tensions to the region.
