Turkey to hold counter-terrorism operation in northern Syria to ensure border security

By Azernews

By Osman Ozgan

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Turkey will conduct a counter-terrorism operation in the north of Syria to secure its southern borders, Yeni Shafak daily has reported.

Addressing the Justice and Development (AK) Party's Parliamentary Group Meeting, Erdogan said that Tel Rifat and Manbij will be cleared of terrorists in the 5th operation to be carried out in Syria.

“We are entering a new phase of our decision to create a 30-kilometer-deep safe zone along our southern borders. We are clearing Tel Rifat and Manbij from terrorists. Then we will do the same, step by step in other regions. Let's see who will support these legitimate security steps of Turkey, who will try to hinder them," Erdogan stressed.

Erdogan emphasized that the West, which is indifferent to the security problems and humanitarian tragedies along Turkey's southern borders, found itself in the middle of a similar crisis with a hot conflict that started in the north of the Black Sea.

“Those, who have faced a very small part of the burden for only 3 months and started to clamor, we have been dealing with it for 11 years. Those, who used their opportunities to increase their own welfare instead of contributing to the security alliances, for which Turkey bore all the burden for years, came to NATO's door after the Ukraine crisis. Swedish and Finnish applications for NATO membership is the product of such a process,” Erdogan stressed.

Speaking about Sweden and Finland's possible admission to NATO, Erdogan stated that Turkey will reject their membership as long as these nations support terrorist organizations.

“We immediately and openly declared that we are against the NATO membership of both countries because of their support to the terrorist organization PKK and its affiliates. NATO is a security agency. NATO is not a support organization for terrorist organizations,” Erdogan emphasized.

The Turkish leader said that the words of those, who host the representatives of the terrorist organization PKK and its affiliates at the highest level, that they respect Turkey's efforts in the fight against terrorism, are not credible.

“Will a country that is so intertwined with terrorist organizations take a resilient stance against the common enemy? Will those who refer to our effort to secure our southern borders from terrorists as an "occupation" stand with us against the common enemy? We will not change our stance until we find satisfactory, conclusive, clear answers to these questions and see binding documents,” Erdogan emphasized.

The Turkish president also commented on the recent manners of Greece, underlining that from Libya to Karabakh there are chants of victory wherever Turkey supports its brothers.

“We have and are breaking every plot made on our region that will have negative consequences for us,” he said.

Recalling that Turkey made a High-Level Strategic Council agreement with Greece a while ago, Erdogan said that Turkey canceled that agreement due to Greece’s irresponsible manners.

“I informed my foreign minister as well. We broke our agreement with Greece at the High-Level Strategic Council. By eliminating this agreement, I informed my colleagues that we no longer have bilateral conversations with them, and you won't either. Because Greece is heading in the wrong direction," Erdogan added.