ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he would order an intervention to prevent any splintering of Syria, a warning aimed particularly at the country’s Kurdish forces.
“We can not accept under any pretext that Syria be divided and if we notice the slightest risk we will take the necessary measures,” the Turkish head of state said, adding that “we have the means”.
Erdogan’s warning is the latest aimed at the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces and to the United States, which backed the SDF’s offensive against the Islamic State.
Saying there is no room for “terror” in Syria, Erdogan said that “should the risk present itself, we could intervene in one night”.
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At least 100 people died in fighting over the weekend between pro-Turkish factions and the Kurdish-dominated People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF.
Ankara considers the YPG to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been in an armed struggle with the Turkish state since the 1980s and is classified by Turkey and its Western allies as a terrorist movement.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had said that “the elimination of the PKK/YPG is only a matter of time”, raising the possibility that the movement could join the Syrian government and lay down its arms.
But he warned that Western countries should not use the threat of Islamic State as “a pretext to strengthen the PKK”.
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