ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Friday evening that Ankara is against the creation of any state in northern Syria and that he will stop such efforts at any cost.
“We will never allow the creation of a state in southeast Turkey and northern Syria and we will pay the price whatever it might be,” said Erdogan at a fast breaking event in Ankara.
“On no account will we allow changing the demography of the region,” he warned.
The Turkish president said that international and divisive forces are aimed at putting Turkey in a corner “and change the ethnic balance in the region,”
Erdogan said that there are efforts to stir tensions in Turkey in the name of supporting Kobani “and bring that fire into Turkey,”
The Turkish president downplayed last year’s destructive fighting in Kobani, saying that “the same thing happened in many Iraqi and Syrian cities,”
In recent weeks Turkey has voiced concern over the rapid advance of Kurdish forces known as the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) against ISIS militants alongside its southern border with Syria.
