ANKARA – Ankara previously vowed to establish a safe zone in Syria in orderto conduct operations against Kurdish militants, which Turkish authoritiesconsider to be terrorists.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that his country wouldcarry out a military air and ground operation east of the Euphrates riverin Syria.
“We’ve made our preparations, we’ve made our operation plans, given thenecessary instructions”, the politician said, adding that Turkey wouldlaunch the ops “as soon as today or tomorrow”.
The news comes as Washington and Ankara are working together to establish aso-called safe zone in Syrian territories they control; however, Turkeyrepeatedly complained that the American side is stalling the process.
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Erdogan announced the operation against the Kurdish People’s ProtectionUnits (YPG) in January but postponed it after a phone conversation with USPresident Donald Trump.
According to Turkey, the Kurdish militants in Syria are part of theKurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought to create Kurdish autonomysince the 1980s. In 2013, the PKK and Turkish authorities agreed on aceasefire, but it collapsed two years later when Ankara blamed severalattacks on the group. -Sputnik
