ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said he hoped Turkey's offensive against Kurdish militia in northern Syria would be completed in "a very short time", as Turkish ground troops entered Syria.
"God willing, this operation will be finished in a very short time," Erdogan told supporters in the northwestern Turkish province of Bursa after Turkey launched the campaign to remove the Syrian Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) militia from the region of Afrin.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said troops crossed into the YPG-controlled region in Syria at 0805 GMT as Turkish artillery and war planes pounded YPG sites around Afrin.
"We will continue on this path like this, with determination, with belief. We will not take a step back," Erdogan vowed in a televised speech.
Turkey views the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its YPG armed wing as "terrorists" linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.
The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.
"Now I see how the PYD/PKK/YPG terror organisations run away. As I said, they will run away, (and) together with our soldiers, we will chase them away," he promised.
Erdogan also hit out at calls by Turkey's main pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to protest against the Afrin operation and said they were being watched "step by step".
"You will not be able to have a free hand. Hey HDP... hey PKK, wherever you come out, know this: our security forces will be breathing down your neck," he added.
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