ANKARA – Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag on Wednesday urgedWashington to pursue efforts to avoid confrontations between the countries’troops within Ankara’s military operation against US-backed Kurdish militiain the Syrian northern district of Afrin.
“Turkey and the United States, certainly, should not meet face to face [inSyria’s north.] We do everything to avoid it, however, these efforts shouldnot come only from Turkey.
The US representatives, who are located in the region, should also takeefforts not to meet with Turkey,” Bozdag told the TGRT broadcaster.
[image: A Syrian national flag hangs in a damaged neighbourhood in Aleppo,Syria]Earlier in the month, the US announced it was not going to pull out itsmilitary forces from Syria’s Manbij as Ankara revealed the plans to expandits military activitieslink>to theregion amid its operation in Afrin.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has also called onlink>Washingtonto pull out its troops from Manbij in order to prevent possible encountersbetween the militaries of the two allied nations.
The Turkish Armed Forces launched a joint operation with the Free SyrianArmy opposition against the Kurdish forces in Afrin on January 20.
The district is controlled by the US-backed Kurdish People’s ProtectionUnits (YPG) and Democratic Union Party (PYD) militias, which Ankaraconsiders affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated as aterrorist organization in Turkey and several other countries.
Damascus has strongly condemned Ankara’s actions, with the Syrian ForeignMinistry calling them a violation of the country’s sovereignty.