Erdogan Threatens to 'Crush' Kurdish Fighters North Syria

 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Reuters
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Reuters
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Erdogan Threatens to 'Crush' Kurdish Fighters North Syria

 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Reuters
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Reuters

Turkish President signaled a possible military operation to purge Afrin and Manbaj of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and crush its elements if they do not withdraw in one week.

This coincided with the most violent shelling by Turkish artillery on areas belonging to the militants of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) north Syria.

Speaking at the provincial congress meetings of his ruling Justice and Development (AKP) in the eastern province of Elazıg on Saturday, Erdogan said “If the terrorists in Afrin do not surrender, we will destroy them.”

“In Manbij, if they break promises, we will take matter into our own hands until there are no terrorists left. They will see what we’ll do in about a week,” Erdogan added.

Erdogan said the YPG was trying to establish a “terror corridor” on Turkey’s southern border.

“With the Euphrates Shield operation we cut the terror corridor right in the middle. We hit them one night suddenly. With the Idlib operation, we are collapsing the western wing,” Erdogan said, referring to Afrin.

“Turkey will continue to be in the field and at the table in all matters concerning its national security,” Erdogan further noted.

He stressed that any venture in the region “has no chance of success” if Turkey has no consent in it, referring to the YPG’s effort to settle in Syria’s northern regions along the Turkish border.

The Turkish President also attacked Washington saying that “the United States thinks it has established an army of looters in Syria, and it will see how we will destroy these thieves in less than a week,"expressing disappointment towards the US position.

He criticized the United States for arming YPG and Arab fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces, which drove ISIS out of Raqqa and other parts of Syria.

"The US sent 4,900 trucks of weapons in Syria. We know this. This is not what allies do," Erdogan said. "We know they sent 2,000 planes full of weapons."

Diplomatic ties between Ankara and Washington have been strained by several disagreements, particularly over the US’s partnership with the YPG in the anti-ISIS campaign.

Ankara sees the YPG as a terrorist group linked to the PKK, which has waged a deadly insurgency in Turkey for over three decades.



Iraq Holds Kurdish Government Legally Responsible for Continued Oil Smuggling

Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo
Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo
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Iraq Holds Kurdish Government Legally Responsible for Continued Oil Smuggling

Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo
Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo

Iraq's oil ministry said on Thursday it holds the Kurdish regional government (KRG) legally responsible for the continued smuggling of oil from the Kurdish region outside the country.

The ministry reserves the right to take all legal measures in the matter, it added.

Control over oil and gas has long been a source of tension between Baghdad and Erbil, Reuters reported.

Iraq is under pressure from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output to compensate for having produced more than its agreed volume. OPEC counts oil flows from Kurdistan as part of Iraq's quota.

In a ruling issued in 2022, Iraq's federal court deemed an oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in Iraqi Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that Kurdish authorities hand over their crude oil supplies.

The ministry said the KRG’s failure to comply with the law has hurt both oil exports and public revenue, forcing Baghdad to cut output from other fields to meet OPEC quotas.

The ministry added that it had urged the KRG to hand over crude produced from its fields, warning that failure to do so could result in significant financial losses and harm the country’s international reputation and oil commitments.

Negotiations to resume Kurdish oil exports via the Iraq-Türkiye oil pipeline, which once handled about 0.5% of global oil supply, have stalled over payment terms and contract details.