Erdogan: We will never allow a Kurdish 'terror corridor'

[Anthea]

Erdogan vows
We will never allow a Kurdish 'terror corridor' in Northern Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed that his country will never permit the establishment of a “terror corridor” in northern Syria set up by the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

“Nobody should expect that we’ll agree to the establishment of a terror corridor along our southern border in northern Syria,” Erdogan said at a press conference on Thursday, according to Hurriyet news.

He was apparently referring to the Syrian Kurds linking Kobani up with their remaining isolated western canton of Afrin, a move Turkey has long opposed.

Erdogan also added that the world powers do not have to make a choice between either “Daesh [Islamic State], the [Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units] YPG or PYD terrorist organizations.”

“There are no differences between these terrorist organizations in terms of method, targets and points of view regarding human life,” Erdogan said, going on to say that Turkey views “statements from some circles from the West with astonishment.”

“Those who act with the logic of ‘the enemy of Daesh is our friend’ are deluded and in a position of being a friend to other terror organizations,” Erdogan said, alluding to US support of the YPG, which Turkey says is directly linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), against ISIS.

Turkey intervened against both ISIS and Syrian Kurdish forces based on the western side of the Euphrates on August 24. Erdogan denied claims made by US officials which asserted that the YPG had withdrawn to the eastern side of the river.

“They are saying the YPG has crossed back. We are saying no they haven’t, based on our own observations,” the Turkish president declared.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/020920162

[Benny]

Apparently more Turkish tanks have crossed the border and opened up a new front:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSKCN1190GT

/B

[Anthea]

Apparently more Turkish tanks have crossed the border and opened up a new front:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSKCN1190GT

/B

Turkey and its rebel allies opened a new line of attack in northern Syria on Saturday, as Turkish tanks rolled across the border and Syrian fighters swept in from the west to take villages held by Islamic State.

The incursion was launched by Turkey from Kilis province - an area frequently targeted by Islamic State rockets - and coincided with a separate push by the Turkish-backed Syrian rebels, who seized several villages further to the east.

By supporting the rebels, mainly Arabs and Turkmen fighting under the loose banner of the Free Syrian Army, Turkey is hoping to drive out Islamic State militants and check the advance of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters.

The rebels last week took the frontier town of Jarablus with Turkish support. The operation, called Euphrates Shield, is Ankara's first full-scale Syrian incursion since the start of the five-year-old war.

On Saturday the tanks crossed the frontier and entered the Syrian rebel-controlled town of al-Rai to support the new offensive, a rebel spokesman and monitors said.

Al-Rai is about 55 km (34 miles) west of Jarablus, and part of a 90-km corridor near the Turkish border that Ankara says it is clearing of jihadists and protecting from Kurdish militia expansion.

The rebels then seized villages to the east and the south of al-Rai, according to one rebel official.

"They took several villages, about eight villages. At first they took two and withdrew from them, but then reinforcements came and there was an advance," Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim group told Reuters.

The Turkish-backed operation was putting pressure on Islamic State from both east and west of a stretch of territory it controls along the border between the towns.

"The operations are to work from al-Rai towards the villages that were liberated to the west of Jarablus," Colonel Ahmed Osman of the Sultan Murad rebel group told Reuters.