Turkey to implement northeast Syria plan unless controls 'safe zone' within weeks: Erdoğan
Speaking to graduates of a military academy in Istanbul on Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stressed in his speech that if Turkey failed to establish with the United States a safe zone [in the northeastern region of war-torn Syria], it would put a plan based on its conditions into action within a few weeks.
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- Agencies and A News
- Published Date: 05:29 | 31 August 2019
- Modified Date: 07:18 | 31 August 2019
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that Turkey will put its own operation plan into effect if Turkish troops do not control a "safe zone" in northeast Syria, which it has been planning with the United States, within a few weeks.
"We do not have too much time or patience regarding the safe zone. Within a few weeks if our soldiers do not start to actually control this area, there will be no other option left but to implement our own operation plans," Erdoğan said during a speech in Istanbul.
Erdoğan previously said US President Donald Trump had promised the "safe zone" would be 32-kilometre (20 mile) wide.
Turkey and the United States have set up a joint operation centre for the planned safe zone along Syria's northeastern border, but have been at odds over the size of the zone or the command structure of the forces to operate there.
Ankara sees the People's Protection Units (YPG) as a Syrian offshoot of the bloody-minded PKK, which has waged a terror campaign against the Turkish state for more than three decades.
And also, the PKK is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara, the US and the European Union.
Turkey previously conducted cross-border operations in northern Syria supporting Syrian rebels in 2016 against Daesh and in early 2018 against the YPG/PKK.