Alwaght- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fiercely reacted to Turkey's NATO ally the US that urged Ankara to restrict scope of its incursion into Syrian territories, reminding Washington of its decades-long military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Erdogan’s criticism came after the US called on Ankara on Sunday to “ensure that its military operations remain limited in scope and duration.”
Addressing an awards ceremony in Ankara on Monday Turkish leader said “The Afrin operation will end when it reaches its goal like the Euphrates Shield did”.
“The US says it ‘should not last for too long.’ And I’m asking the US, how long have you been in Afghanistan, when will it end? You came in Iraq before we came to power. Has the time duration ended in Iraq? You are still there,” Erdogan added.
Turkey does not have any plans to take over “the territories of another country” and will eventually leave Syrian soil, he stressed. The operation is not targeting the Kurdish population, but solely terrorists, according to the Turkish leader.
“It is very clear that we do not have any problem with our Kurdish citizens; it is also not a matter of a Kurdish corridor,” he stated. “The main purpose of this operation is to contribute to the safety of life and property of Syrian people as well as the territorial integrity of Syria along with Turkey’s national security.”
On Saturday Turkey launched the so-called military Operation Olive Branch in a bid to eliminate the US-backed YPG, which Ankara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). The latter has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.
The operation was launched days after Washington said it would work with the Kurdish militants to set up a 30,000-strong border force near Turkish soil, a move that infuriated Ankara.
Turkish PM Binali Yildirim told journalists on Sunday that the operation aims to create a 30-kilometer “secure zone” within Syrian territory.
Russia Blames US for Provoking Turkey’s Offensive
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that “unilateral” US actions in Syria had infuriated Turkey and pushed Ankara to start an offensive against the Arab state.
"Many political scientists are asking why do we care and say that the worst is the best: let the United States prove its inability to find an agreement, (to show) its destructive role in global affairs, let it be in Iran or Syria and where the unilateral actions have already infuriated Turkey,” Lavrov told Kommersant newspaper in an interview.
The Russian Foreign Minister was also quoted by TASS news agency as saying that US effort to create security forces along Syria’s borders with Turkey and Iraq may be a deliberate provocation.
In the follow-up of this course towards gross interference in Syria’s affairs, it was announced that some border security forces would be set up,” TASS quoted the minister as saying.
After that, some “clumsy statements” were made to dismiss this information but in fact, this entire activity continued, he said. “This is either failure to understand the situation or a deliberate provocation,” he said.
Kurdish representatives are on the invitation list for the Syrian National Dialogue Congress due in the Russian resort of Sochi, he noted. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia maintains contact with Syrian and Turkish officials. “We believe that the principle of preserving Syria’s territorial integrity is the basic one… We’re keeping an eye on the humanitarian aspects related to the current events in the area of Afrin,” he said.
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