A total of 260,000 Syrian nationals have returned to a swathe of land in northern Syria where Turkey carried out a cross-border operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield”, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Thursday.
Turkey launched Euphrates Shield in 2016 to drive away ISIS militants and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from its border with Syria. Ankara regards the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization. The operation ended in 2017.
Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees who fled the conflict in their homeland. Some Turks view them as an economic burden and a threat to jobs.
“As a result of the infrastructure work and security and stability in the region provided by the Turkish Armed Forces, around 260,000 Syrian nationals have returned to the Euphrates Shield Operation area,” Akar said in a speech.
Akar also said Turkish military operations in northern Iraq will continue in light of Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s failure to take necessary steps against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group that Turkey deems terrorist.
"In this context, our operations will continue until the end of the terror threat originating from Iraq," the minister stressed as he was speaking after a week of airstrikes in the area that have targeted PKK bases.
On Tuesday, the Turkish military said in a statement on Twitter that it killed seven Kurdish militants in airstrikes in northern Iraq as they were preparing to launch an attack on regions were Turkish bases are located.
