Erdogan: Turkey carries out Operation Olive Branch successfully

Erdoğan’s comments came after some US officials called on Turkey to put a time and space limit to its operation against the terrorist PKK’s Syrian affiliate, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin.

“We clearly told our friends and allies they should not support YPG”, he said while in Brussels on Thursday.

He added that it “is not helpful to have these operations go on”.

Several countries, including the USA, the United Kingdom and France, have already voiced alarm, but no country has categorically urged Turkey to halt the Turkish military operation. U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that Turkish efforts were a distraction in the larger effort to vanquish Islamic militants.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Turkey’s ground and air offensive against a Kurdish enclave in Afrin was distracting from global efforts to ensure the defeat of IS.

“We stand by the president’s assertion of cautioning Turkey about the escalation of tensions in Afrin area”, said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert on Thursday. In response, Russian Federation imposed sanctions on Turkey and President Vladimir Putin called the act a “stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorists” – a reference to his allegation that Turkey was buying oil and gas from ISIS. It would be backed by 2,000 U.S. troops, who would remain there indefinitely.

He further said that the U.S. does not realize the response of the Turkish people, if they continue to threaten the stability of the Turkish state by using the assistance of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK which is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara) in the region.

Bozkir said that Turkey would never allow any forced demographic change in Syria. Because Vladimir Putin senses an opportunity to pry Turkey out of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and make it a Russian ally. “We suggested then that we should do this operation together, but they did not do so”.

He visited Turkey again in February 2015 – albeit secretly – during the Operation Shah Euphrates in which the Turkish military passed through a PYD-controlled area to reach the tomb of Suleyman Shah in Syria. It has waged a three-decade-long insurgenc in Turkey.

The US said Trump had urged Turkey to “limit its military actions” but a Turkish official said the US statement did “not accurately reflect the content” of the call.

The United States is helping Turkey with its active insurgency, she said. “We really don’t have enough people inside Syria to accomplish anything if we don’t utilize the Kurds”, he notes.

In Davos, Tillerson was asked if he had proposed a safe zone to Cavusoglu. The numbers can not be independently verified. The remarks on Thursday by deputy prime minister Bekir Bozdag are “some of Ankara’s strongest comments yet about a potential clash with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally”, Reuters said. About 90 percent of the Syrian-Turkish border is under the Kurdish YPG/PYD forces’ control.

The move could pit Turkish forces against some of the 2,000 USA troops who are in Syria as part of an global coalition aiming to eliminate the Islamic State militant movement in Syria.

Following their call, a Downing Street spokesman said: “The leaders discussed the ongoing Turkish operation in Afrin in Syria, with the Prime Minister recognising the right of Turkey to secure its border”.

In a speech in Ankara on Thursday Yildirim again slammed the United States for backing the Syrian Kurdish militia force instead of standing by a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally.

Yildirim said: “It is astounding and unacceptable. that a country which is supposed to protect NATO’s borders is giving open support to armed entities that target our borders”. At least 30 civilians have been killed since the beginning of the operation. Just hours earlier, President Donald Trump had warned more openly of a potential showdown between the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies’ troops, and a chief aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan echoed that sentiment.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Afrin operation would be followed by another against Manbij.

In Ankaras opinion, the US decision meant that the US-YPG partnership would not end with the collapse of the IS, as the Turkish government had hoped.

The officials provided the information on condition of anonymity in line with government rules.