Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed Wednesday that the new bombing campaign against Kurdish groups in Iraq and Syria «is just the beginning» and reiterated that Ankara will launch ground operations «when it deems appropriate.»
«Our operations with aircraft, artillery and drones are just the beginning,» Erdogan has said during a meeting of his political formation, the Justice and Development Party (AKP). «We will hit terrorists hard with ground operations at the most appropriate time,» he has added.
Thus, he has defended that the country has the capacity to «punish» «terrorists» inside and outside its borders, before stressing that it remains committed to maintaining the border with Syria, as reported by the Turkish state news agency Anatolia.
«If our partners cannot fulfill the requirements of the agreement, we have the right to take over,» he has argued, referring to the inability of Syrian authorities to ensure border security in areas controlled by the Kurdish-Syrian militia People’s Protection Units (YPG).
He has therefore vowed to expel the militia from the border area. «No one can stop us from drawing the security line where it needs to be while attacks on the borders and citizens continue.»
«Our message to those who continue to try to bring Turkey to its knees with their insidious methods is clear. You will never succeed,» said the Turkish president, who has not ruled out a meeting with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad.
«There is no resentment in politics. At some point steps will be taken under the most favorable conditions (for a meeting),» said Erdogan, who has been highly critical of al-Assad since the outbreak of war in 2011 for the crushing of pro-democracy protests in the framework of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’.
The Turkish operation, dubbed ‘Sword Claw’ was launched following the November 13 bombing in Istanbul, which left six dead and which Turkey blames on the PKK. However, both the group and the SDF have disassociated themselves from what happened and have expressed their condolences to the victims.
