Erdogan wants to exclude PYD-YPG from ceasefire

[Anthea]

RT

Turkey wants ‘secure line’ created 10km inside Syria, including Azaz - deputy PM

Turkey wants to create a secure zone 10km within Syria, which would include the town of Azaz, Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan stated, as cited by Reuters. The move comes after Ankara’s shelling of Syrian Kurds for four successive days.

"What we want is to create a secure strip, including Azaz, 10km deep inside Syria and this zone should be free from clashes," Akdogan said in an interview on Turkey's AHaber television station, Reuters reports.

However, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned on Wednesday that Ankara does not intend to stop shelling Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. He also called on the US to choose whether it wanted to back Turkey or the Syrian Kurds.

Turkey has shelled Syrian Kurdish forces in northern Syria for four consecutive days as Ankara tries to stop the YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Units) from claiming the town of Azaz, just 8km from the Turkish border.

A Turkish official said on Tuesday that Ankara would ask its coalition partners, including the US, to take part in a joint ground operation in Syria.

"Turkey is not going to have a unilateral ground operation. We are asking coalition partners that there should be a ground operation. We are discussing this with allies," the official told reporters at a briefing in Istanbul, as cited by Reuters.

"We want a ground operation. If there is a consensus, Turkey will take part. Without a ground operation, it is impossible to stop this war."

Meanwhile, on Monday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said Ankara would not allow Azaz to fall to the YPG forces.

"YPG elements were forced away from around Azaz. If they approach again they will see the harshest reaction. We will not allow Azaz to fall," Davutoglu told reporters on his plane bound for Ukraine, Reuters reported.

He said the Turkish military would render Syria’s Menagh airbase "unusable" if YPG forces do not retreat from the area, which they previously captured from Islamist militants. He warned the YPG not to move east of its Afrin region or west of the Euphrates River.

Turkey is worried about Syrian Kurds seizing more territory in northern Syria.

Washington and Paris have both called on Turkey to cease its massive artillery bombardment against Kurdish targets in Syria.

“We are concerned about the situation north of Aleppo and are working to de-escalate tensions on all sides,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. “We have also seen reports of artillery fire from the Turkish side of the border and urged Turkey to cease such fire.”

https://www.rt.com/news/332718-turkey-s ... ine-syria/

[Anthea]

Reuters

Turkey vows to stop Kurdish militia gaining border foothold

Turkey will not let Kurdish militia fighters backed by the United States establish a foothold on its border in northern Syria and will not stop shelling if its security is threatened, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

The Kurdish YPG militia, regarded by Ankara as a hostile insurgent group, has taken advantage in recent weeks of a major Syrian army offensive around the city of Aleppo, backed by Russian air strikes, to seize ground from Syrian rebels near the Turkish border.

Their gains have infuriated Turkey, which has shelled YPG positions in Syria in response to what it says is fire coming across the border. They have also complicated wider efforts to end the Syrian conflict, deepening divisions between NATO member Turkey and the United States, which views the YPG as a useful ally in the fight against Islamic State.

"Today our rules of engagement may be just about responding to an armed attack against our country, but tomorrow if necessary those rules can be expanded to cover every threat," Erdogan said in a speech broadcast live on television.

"Nobody should doubt that. We will not allow the formation of a new 'Qandil' on our southern border," he said, referring to the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq, where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has established bases during a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

Turkey argues that the YPG is an extension of the PKK, deemed a terrorist group by the United States and European Union. It accuses the YPG of pursuing "demographic change" in northern Syria by forcibly displacing Turkmen and Arab communities, as well as Kurds who do not share its ideology.

Ankara ultimately fears the creation of an independent Kurdish state occupying contiguous territories currently belonging to Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

Erdogan said he could not understand why Washington refused to call the YPG and its political wing, the PYD, a terrorist organization. Ignoring their links to the PKK was, he said, a hostile attitude to Turkey and reiterated comments of recent days asking the United States to choose its allies: "We want to know: are your friends the YPG, PYD, or us," he said.

Washington has told the YPG to avoid doing anything to increase tensions with Turkey, saying they undermine the struggle against Islamic State, but has also urged Turkey to cease artillery fire across its border, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Tuesday.

RENEWED CALLS FOR "SAFE ZONE"

Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said Turkey wants a secure strip of territory 10 km (6 miles) deep on the Syrian side of its border, including the town of Azaz, to prevent attempts to "change the demographic structure" of the area.

Azaz is the last rebel stronghold before the border with Turkey north of the Syrian city of Aleppo, part of what was, before the Syrian government offensive, a supply route from Turkey to the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

It has come under heavy assault in recent days, but Turkey has said it will not let the town fall into YPG hands.

"There is a game being played with the aim of changing the demographic structure. Turkey should not be part of this game," Akdogan said in an interview on the AHaber television station.

"What we want is to create a secure strip, including Azaz, 10 km deep inside Syria and this zone should be free from clashes," he said.

Turkey, home to more than 2.6 million Syrian refugees, has long pushed for the creation of a safe zone in Syria to protect displaced civilians without bringing them into Turkey.

The proposal has so far gained little traction with Washington or NATO allies who fear it would require an internationally patrolled no-fly zone which could put them in direct confrontation with Assad and his allies.

But Erdogan said some countries were warming to the idea.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, under pressure at home over her open-door policy for refugees, said on Wednesday that it would be good for the people in Aleppo and the area around it to create "a kind of no fly zone" up to the Turkish border, reiterating comments she made on Monday.

Akdogan said another 600,000 people could flee to the Turkish border if Aleppo falls to the Syrian army.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKCN0VQ10C

[Anthea]

RT News

Turkey has right to conduct ops in Syria, elsewhere to protect itself from terrorists – Erdogan

Turkey has the right to carry out military operations not only in Syria, but in any other country, which is hosting terror groups that threaten the Turkish state, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

“Turkey has every right to conduct operations in Syria and the places where terror organizations are nested with regards to the struggle against the threats that Turkey faces,” Erdogan was cited as saying by the Hurriyet newspaper.

Ankara’s stance has “absolutely nothing to do with the sovereignty rights of the states that can’t take control of their territorial integrity,” the president insisted.

“On the contrary, this has to do with the will Turkey shows to protect its sovereignty rights,” he added.

The Turkish president’s used an unexpected platform to make his hawkish remarks. On Saturday, he was visiting an event celebrating the inclusion of Turkey’s southeastern province of Gaziantep on the list of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network in the gastronomy category.

Erdogan warned that his government will treat “attitudes to prevent our country’s right [to self-defense] directly as an initiative against Turkey’s entity – no matter where it comes from.

“No one can restrict Turkey’s right to self-defense in the face of terror acts that have targeted Turkey; they cannot prevent [Turkey] from using it,” he said.

The Turkish forces have been shelling Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces, which Ankara views as a terrorist organization, as well as government troops on Syrian territory since mid-February.

The bombings of YPG targets, the military wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), continue despite Turkey’s ally, the US, considering the Kurdish fighters an important partner in fighting Islamic State (IS, Daesh, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

There were also reports of dozens of Turkish military vehicles crossing into Kurdish northern Syria, with servicemen digging trenches in the area.

In December, Ankara also deployed 150 soldiers backed by artillery and around 25 tanks to northern Iraq, without consent from the government in Baghdad.

“Turkey will use its right to expand its rules of engagement beyond [responding to] actual attacks against it and to encompass all terror threats, including PYD and Daesh, in particular,” Erdogan said on Saturday as cited by the Anadolu news agency.

Twenty-eight people, mainly Turkish military, were killed and 61 others injured in a suicide bombing in Ankara on Wednesday.

Despite the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) militant group claiming responsibility for the attack, Turkey says the YPG was also involved.

In an attempt to protect itself, Turkey will treat anyone, who opposes it as a “terrorist and treat them accordingly,” the president said.

“I especially want this to be known this way,” he added.

Erdogan also slammed countries that criticized Ankara for their incursion into Iraq and Syria, calling them “disingenuous” due to “preaching only patience and resoluteness” to Turkey, but acting in a completely different manner when they are attacked themselves.

https://www.rt.com/news/333179-erdogan- ... ons-syria/

[Anthea]

Rudaw

New light has been shed on what exactly was said in US President Barack Obama's 80-minute phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday.

Sources from the Turkish president's office and other Turkish diplomatic sources have told Hurriyet news that Erdogan said he would not stop bombarding Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) positions over the border until and unless a ceasefire in the Syrian war is implemented.

"If (Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad, Russia and the YPG abide by the agreement reached in Munich, then artillery fires will be ceased," Erdogan said in response to Obama's call for Ankara to halt its cross-border shelling.

Turkey is attempting to prevent the YPG from advancing and closing off the remaining northwestern Syrian frontier with Syria. Erdogan claimed that if the town of "Azaz falls, Turkey will face a serious migration and security problem."

Erdogan and his government have been adamantly opposed to the Syrian Kurds closing off that remaining stretch of border since it would put the YPG along the entirety of the Syrian frontier with Turkey.

"Our artillery fires have this aim and will continue," Erdogan said, "We will never sit back and watch formation of such an illegitimate entity at our borders."

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/210220163

[Anthea]

Erdogan: Strikes on Kurds Are ‘Legitimate Defense in the Face of Terrorist Attacks’

Turkey has refused entreaties from the U.S., France, and Russia to halt its shelling of Kurdish positions in Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the artillery strikes as self-defense against a terrorist threat, continuing his effort to link the Syrian Kurdish militia to Kurdish separatists in Turkey and blame them for the Ankara bombing.

“The situation we are currently facing is one of legitimate defence. No-one can deny or limit Turkey’s legitimate right to defence in the face of terrorist attacks,” Erdogan declared in a speech in Istanbul Saturday night, as reported by AFP.

AFP reports this speech follows up on comments Erdogan made earlier in the week, when he declared his commitment to preventing the Kurds from carving out an independent state in northern Syria.

“To fight the threats which it faces, Turkey has the right to launch any kind of operation, in Syria and wherever else the terrorist organisations are located,” the Turkish president said on that occasion.

The United States has long supported Syrian Kurdish forces as the most effective front-line combat troops against the Islamic State, while Turkey insists they are in league with the PKK separatists. President Obama had a lengthy phone call with Erdogan on Friday in which he urged “restraint” in northern Syria, evidently to no avail.

Turkey has, in turn, demanded unequivocal support from the U.S. against the Kurds.

“The only thing we expect from our US ally is to support Turkey with no ifs or buts,” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday. “If 28 Turkish lives have been claimed through a terrorist attack, we can only expect [the US] to say any threat against Turkey is a threat against them.”

The same article quotes President Erdogan asserting, “Whoever prevents us from using our right of self-defense, we will recognize it as a terrorist and act accordingly.”

http://www.breitbart.com/national-secur ... t-attacks/

[Anthea]

World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing People's Protection Units (YPG) must remain outside the scope of a ceasefire agreed between Syria's warring parties, just like ISIL and the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front.

"If Daesh (ISIL) and Al-Nusra are kept outside the ceasefire, then the PYD-YPG must similarly be excluded from the ceasefire for it is a terrorist group just as they are," Erdogan told local officials in Ankara.