On 15 January, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he and his American counterpart Donald Trump had reached a “historic understanding” on Syria in their latest phone call.
AFP cited senior political leader Aldar Khalil as saying that Syrian Kurds had rejected a US-proposed “security zone” under Turkey’s control in northern Syria, AFP reported.
The official said that the Kurds would only accept the deployment of UN forces along the separation line between Kurdish fighters and Turkish troops to prevent an offensive.
“Other choices are unacceptable as they infringe on the sovereignty of Syria and the sovereignty of our autonomous region”, Khalil told AFP.
Following a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Tuesday that Ankara would create a 32-kilometre safe zone in northern Syria. Erdogan’s spokesperson later elaborated that the security zone would be controlled by Ankara.
The spokesman further added that the Turkish military would coordinate their actions with locals.
The idea was initially proposed by Trump, who threatened on Twitter to “devastate” Turkey’s economy if Ankara attacked US-allied Kurdish forces in Syria.
In response, Turkey said it may “remain hungry, without food and water”, but will still fight terrorists.
Last month, Donald Trump declared victory over Daesh* in Syria, subsequently announcing the withdrawal of the 2,000 US troops currently deployed in the Mideast country. The president stated that regional countries, including Turkey, would wipe out the remaining terrorists.
Trump, however, stressed that he sought to protect US-allied Kurds while gradually pulling the troops out of the country, with White House National Security Adviser John Bolton calling the protection of Kurdish militia by Ankara a condition for the US withdrawal.
Edogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin hit back, saying it was a “fatal mistake to equate Syrian Kurds with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Syrian branch PYD [Kurdish Democratic Union Party]/YPG [Kurdish People’s Protection Units]”. Ankara considers the YPG to be affiliated with the PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
