Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at the Kurdish militia, accusing them of failing to fulfill their pledge to leave the area of the Turkish operation in northern Syria within 120 hours
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2019) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at the Kurdish militia, accusing them of failing to fulfill their pledge to leave the area of the Turkish operation in northern Syria within 120 hours.
On October 9, Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring to clear its southern border area of the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia) and Kurdish militia Ankara believes to be terrorists. The 120-hour time frame is a reference to the ceasefire agreement reached by the United States and Turkey nearly a week after the start of the offensive. The deal stipulated that the YPG must withdraw from the Turkish border area within the given period.
"The pledge that the terror groups YPG/PYD [Kurdish People's Protection Units/Democratic Union Party], Daesh [Arabic acronym for IS], and PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] would withdraw from the region within 120 hours was not fulfilled," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara before leaving for an official visit to Hungary, as quoted by Anadolu.
According to Erdogan, Kurdish forces continue to attack the Syrian National Army (SNA), Turkey's allies in Syria. Kurdish militants killed at least 11 SNA soldiers on Thursday, he added.
As the five-day truce brokered by the US came to an end, Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a memorandum of understanding stipulating that Russian military police and Syrian border guards be deployed to the Syrian-Turkish border. According to the agreement, the Russian military police and Syrian border guards are facilitating the withdrawal of Kurdish militia from the 18-mile safe zone on the Syria-Turkish border within 150 hours, and conducting joint patrols.
On Sunday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces announced the complete withdrawal of troops from the border area in accordance with the memorandum.
