“We need to cleanse Afrin of the structure there called the YPG terrorist organization,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his AK party on Friday.
Afrin is the western-most canton of Rojava, the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria under control of the PYD and its armed forces of the YPG. Ankara believes the Kurdish groups are extensions of the PKK, a named terrorist organization. The PYD and YPG follow the doctrine of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, but insist they are distinct organizations.
Turkish forces are currently setting up observation points in Idlib province, on Afrin’s southern border. Six of the planned 12 posts are established, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.
Turkey’s military operations in Idlib are purportedly to establish a safe zone in the province, as agreed by Turkey, Russia, and Iran during the Astana process seeking to bring Syria’s civil war to an end.
The first observation posts, however, are overlooking Afrin. “We need to be dominant at observation points in Idlib. We have to,” said Erdogan. “If not, different terrorist groups will try to invade those areas.”
Turkish forces have repeatedly carried out attacks on the Kurdish forces in Afrin. The YPG publicizes near daily attacks and on Friday stated that the Turks had stepped up their activity, bringing heavy weaponry to the border.
The YPG are receiving US support in the war against ISIS. The Kurdish force is the leading faction within the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who defeated ISIS in Raqqa and are currently battling the group in Deir ez-Zor province.
Ankara has complained that its NATO ally the United States has backed the Kurdish force and has reported that weapons supplied to the SDF had been used to attack Turkish forces in Turkey, despite US reassurances that the arms would not make their way into PKK hands.
Erdogan said on Friday that he was “greatly disappointed by the United States not keeping its promises.”
Problems that could have been easily solved were ignored and he “doesn’t want the same thing to happen in Afrin.”
“Don’t try to trick us by saying that the SDF is a democratic establishment. It is a terrorist organization,” he declared. “We know who’s who.”
