Erdogan: 'Cleanse them'; remove Kurdish militias or Turkey will send troops

RT
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 13:10 UTC

© Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan REUTERS/Umit Bektas; (R) FILE PHOTO: American army vehicles drive north of Manbij. Reuters/Rodi Said

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan REUTERS/Umit Bektas; (R) FILE PHOTO: American army vehicles drive north of Manbij.

The US must have Kurdish militias withdraw from the Syrian town of Manbij, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday, otherwise he will order his troops to take the key settlement.

The threat, delivered during a speech in Istanbul, ramps up Erdogan's rhetoric targeting the YPG militias. Earlier on Wednesday, he publicly complained that the US, which support the Kurds in northeastern Syria, is failing to deliver on its promise to clear Manbij of Kurdish fighters. Ankara considers Syrian Kurdish paramilitaries as an extension of the Turkey-based anti-government guerrillas and brands the YPG as terrorists.

"Manbij is a place where Arabs live, but they have surrendered the area to the terror organization," the Turkish president told a judiciary conference. "Now we are saying that you should cleanse, remove them, or else we will enter Manbij. I am speaking very clearly."

Manbij is located west from the Euphrates river on a key road leading to the city of Aleppo. Turkey considers all parts of Syria bordering it as sensitive from the standpoint of security, but reluctantly agreed that the US could deal with the situation east of the river, where historically Kurdish lands are located.

Earlier this week, Erdogan announced his intention to launch a military operation in the Kurdish areas "within days." In the speech he confirmed the plans, saying Turkey was "determined to bring peace and security to the areas east of the Euphrates."

The US warned Turkey against implementing the plans, saying unilateral military action would hurt military cooperation between the countries.

The Kurdish side said it would respond strongly to any attack by Turkey.

Comment: More from Sputnik:

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and its component, the People's Protection Units (YPG), have promised to fight "to the death" in the event of a new Turkish operation in northeastern Syria, SDF spokeswoman Jihan Sheikh Ahmed told Sputnik on Friday.

"We will defend the north and the east of Syria to the death," Ahmed said commenting on the SDF response on a possible operation.

The spokeswoman added that the SDF would not like to see a situation similar to what happened earlier this year in Afrin, where Ankara conducted a military operation.

Later in the day, Syria's main Kurdish parties and other allied groups issued a joint statement on the issue, calling Turkish plans a "declaration of war" and calling on world powers to prevent an assault on the region.

"All the forces in the north and east Syria...are asked to agree on strategies to confront this aggression," the statement read.

The statements followed Thursday's media reports, saying that the Turkish military was reinforcing troops stationed in the province of Kilis on the Syrian border with armoured vehicles. These reports emerged after a statement made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday that Ankara would launch a new military operation in Syria within days to free the east of the Euphrates from the US-backed Kurdish militia.

.