Turkey will not allow the PKK/PYD/YPG terrorist organization to take shelter in Syria and Iraq, the country’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Monday.
“We will not allow the PKK/PYD/YPG to take shelter in Syria and Iraq. We will definitely not allow this. No matter what anyone says about it, we will do whatever is necessary,” Çavuşoğlu told the parliament in the capital Ankara.
Last month, Turkey launched Operation Claw-Sword in northern areas of Iraq and Syria, a cross-border aerial campaign against the terror group PKK, which has hideouts across Iraqi and Syrian borders from where they plan and sometimes execute attacks on Turkish soil.
Talks with Assad regime
After the air operation was launched, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also signaled a ground operation into northern Iraq and northern Syria to eliminate the terror threat.
“In Syria, we have been in talks with the (Assad) regime for a while, through the intelligence services. If the regime acts realistically, we are ready to work together on the fight against terrorism, the political process, and the return of Syrians. It is unthinkable otherwise,” Çavuşoğlu said.
Turkey’s fight against terrorism
Turkey follows the same policy in Iraq, Çavuşoğlu said, adding that Ankara offers both Iraq’s central and regional governments cooperation in fighting terrorism.
“If our interlocutors listen to our calls, we will march together and fight terrorism together. If they remain unresponsive, we will pull ourselves by our own bootstraps,” he added.