ANKARA – Turkey’s president said late Tuesday that Ankara was pressured tohalt its counterterror operation in northern Syria but was not worried oversanctions as the government was determined to eliminate the terror corridornear its borders.
Speaking on his way home from the 7th Summit of the Turkic Council in Baku,Azerbaijan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan touched on a variety of subjects such asTurkey’s ongoing anti-terror operation in northern Syria, the YPG/PKKterror group’s mortar attacks in Turkey’s southern provinces and upcomingmeetings with U.S. officials.
“They pressure us to halt the operation, announce sanctions,” he said,referring to Western countries.
“Our goal is clear. We are not worried over any sanctions,” Erdoganasserted, adding the YPG/PKK was losing ground as Operation Peace Springcontinued with success.
He stressed that the U.S. urged Turkey to declare a ceasefire so it couldact as a mediator between the conflicting parties, but he rejected thisoffer, as Turkey would not “sit down at the table with terror groups.”
Erdogan went on to say that U.S. mediation between Turkey and the YPG/PKKterror group would not be reasonable in terms of political science and warlaw.
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Emphasizing that Turkey would maintain its operation until the area wascleared of terror elements, he said the territory would be given back toits true owners – Syrians – once the operation concluded.
“We are on the seventh day of Operation Peace Spring. It continues withsuccess as planned. We secured Ayn al-Arab on the fourth day and Tal Abyadon the fifth day by purging terrorists. Today, we have reached a32-kilometer depth. We have control over the M4 highway,” he said.
The president said a total of 611 terrorists had been neutralized so far,with 556 of them killed, whereas the Turkish army and the Syrian NationalArmy (SNA) have had four and 32 martyrs respectively.
