Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that in the call he had with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sunday, he requested Russian support for the ‘Sword Claw’ military operation that Ankara has been conducting in northern Syria since November 21.
«We asked for Russia’s support to make mutual decisions and perhaps act together to take steps together here (in northern Syria),» Erdogan said at a press conference in Ankara, as reported by TRT channel.
Thus, the president has indicated that his country will not «remain silent about the terrorist attacks launched from northern Syria», which «have increased recently».
«We will not ask permission from anyone when we face this threat,» he added while noting that they will not give «dates on the anti-terrorist operations»: «We will simply carry them out».
Operation ‘Sword Claw’ by Turkish authorities is targeting Kurdish groups following the November 13 bombing in the Turkish city of Istanbul, which left six dead and more than 80 wounded.
The Turkish government has blamed the attack on the PKK and said that the main suspect had received orders from the YPG – the main member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – although both the PKK and the SDF have disassociated themselves from the attack and expressed their condolences to the victims.
