In a Thursday meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish National Security Council discussed ongoing preparations for a possible military operation in northern Syria. This followed Ankara’s announcement that it won’t wait for anyone’s “permission” to protect its southern borders.
“Turkey cannot stand idly in Syria,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday in a televised interview, adding that the operation in the Levantine country could start overnight.
The comments from Cavusoglu came two days after a summit in Tehran at which both Russia and Iran urged against Turkey’s proposed new campaign in northern Syria.
Since May, Erdogan has been talking about Turkey’s plans to launch a new military operation in Syria against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in an effort to link up two areas already under Turkish control in the northern region near the Turkish border.
Erdogan said the aim is to create a 30-km safe zone along the Turkish border with Syria.
Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU. The PKK has been rebelling against the Turkish government for over 30 years.
Erdogan also stressed that the troops of the US should leave the western side of the Euphrates, and this was the common understanding of the last summit with the Russian and Iranian leaders.
Turkey was in the same opinion because it believed that the US was giving support to the “terrorist organizations there,” he said.
“Since America is harboring terrorist organizations and we are fighting against these terrorist organizations, our work will be easier if it withdraws from there or if it does not harbor these terrorist organizations,” Erdogan added.
“The file of the new military operation in northern Syria will remain on our agenda until our national security concerns are dispelled,” the Turkish president told his National Security Council.
Erdogan pointed out that the YPG, the largest component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), believes in vain that it can deceive the Turkish army by raising the Syrian regime's flag over its positions in northern Syria.
