Turkey has only suspended its offensive in Syria's north without ending it, and the Turkish military remains ready to fight Kurdish militia if need arises, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with Anadolu news agency
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2019) Turkey has only suspended its offensive in Syria's north without ending it, and the Turkish military remains ready to fight Kurdish militia if need arises, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with Anadolu news agency.
"We received a message from the United States yesterday, which said that terrorists have been fully withdrawn from the area of the operation. However, this does not mean that there are no terrorists there and that no terrorists will be there. Perhaps, they are hiding in tunnels or somewhere else. We have taken note of US guarantees, this is why we have suspended the operation, but this does not mean that it has come to an end," Cavusoglu said.
"If terrorists emerge somewhere, our military will engage in a fight. Weapons, caches, trap mines, we need to wipe it all out. There's still much work to be done. So we remain on the ground," the minister added.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, adopted a memorandum to resolve the situation on the Syrian-Turkish border in light of Ankara's offensive against Kurdish militia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the new memorandum de facto stipulated an end to the offensive, which was launched in early October, stressing that much would depend on the future withdrawal of Kurdish militia from the border area.
