Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Photo: UN
ISTANBUL,— Turkey’s foreign minister said Ankara would launch a new military operation in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), the Kurdish region in northeast Syria, if the area was not cleared of what he called “terrorists”, state-owned Anadolu agency reported on Monday.
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying that United States and Russia had not done what was required under agreements that halted a Turkish offensive against the Kurdish YPG militia in northeastern Syria last month.
The deals stipulated that the YPG would be removed from a swathe of land bordering Turkey in Syrian Kurdistan.
Cavusoglu called on Washington and Moscow on Monday to do what is necessary under the deals.
“If we do not obtain a result, we will do what is necessary, just as we launched the operation after trying with the U.S.,” Cavusoglu was quoted as saying, referring to work with Washington to remove the YPG from the area before Turkey launched its cross-border incursion on Oct. 9.
Erdogan says Turkey aware that U.S. support for Kurdish YPG will not end immediately
Turkey is aware that the U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia will not end immediately, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, but added that Ankara’s battle against the Syrian Kurdish forces, the de facto army of the autonomous Kurdish region, will continue.
Speaking to members of his AK Party, Erdogan said Turkey will continue to battle the YPG until all threats towards Turkey are stopped and every militant is eliminated. He added that no plan in the region can be realised without Turkey’s consent and support.
Ankara views the worldwide-respected Kurdish YPG, the main component of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that helped the United States defeat Islamic State, as a “terrorist” group with links to Kurdish militants on Turkish soil.
Turkey’s latest offensive against Syrian Kurds was widely condemned by Ankara’s Western allies, who said the assault could hinder the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria. Turkey has dismissed the concerns, saying it will continue to “combat” Islamic State.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, considered the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and U.S. has provided them with arms. The YPG, which is the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
The Kurdish forces expelled the Islamic State from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019.
11,000 Kurdish male and female fighters had been killed in five years of war to eliminate the Islamic State “caliphate” that once covered an area the size of Great Britain in Syria and Iraq.
Syria’s Kurds have established a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Syria during the country’s eight-year war.
In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish and Arab authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
Despite amicable relations between the presidents of the two countries, the U.S. Congress has passed a resolution calling on President Donald Trump to impose sanctions against Ankara, a NATO ally, over the offensive.
The Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said last week he did not want lawmakers to pass legislation imposing sanctions on Turkey for now. He cited a need to lessen friction during talks over Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400s missile defense system, another point of disagreement between the allies.
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