Erdogan threatens to eliminate Kurdish militia in Syria if they refuse to surrender weapons
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed Kurdish-led militant group, will “be buried” if they do not lay down their arms.
In a speech addressing lawmakers from his ruling AK Party in parliament on Wednesday, Erdogan stated that Kurdish militants, based in northern Syria, have no place in the Arab country’s future, more than two weeks after the governemnt of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown.
“The separatist murderers will either bid farewell to their weapons, or they will be buried in Syrian lands along with their weapons,” the Turkish president threatened.
The SDF is an anti-Assad alliance of predominantly Kurdish militants, whose backbone is the Syrian Kurdish militants of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.
For years, the United States policy has relied on collaborating with Kurdish militants in northern Syria with a goal of maintaining some leverage over the future of the conflict.
“We will eradicate the terrorist organization that is trying to weave a wall of blood between us and our Kurdish siblings,” Erdogan stated.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he said Turkey would soon establish a consulate in Aleppo and that Ankara anticipates increased border activity next summer as some of the millions of Syrian migrants it shelters start to return.
Separately on Wednesday, Turkey’s defense ministry announced that the Turkish military had killed 21 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq earlier in the day.
In a statement, the ministry said that 20 militants from the PKK and YPG, who were planning an attack, were killed in northern Syria, while another militant was killed in northern Iraq.
“Our operations will continue effectively and resolutely,” the ministry vowed.
Militants, led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, launched a surprise two-pronged attack on Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo and the countryside around Idlib on November 27.
They marched southward to seize control of several major cities, including Hama, Homs, Dara’a, and Suwayda, before entering and capturing the capital Damascus early on December 8.
Since the fall of Assad, clashes have intensified between US-sponsored Kurdish forces and the Turkish-backed militants of the so-called Syrian National Army (SNA), who have captured Manbij and the surrounding areas.
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