Turkey says Kurdish militia role in Raqqa offensive would endanger Syria

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2016-09-27 | 08:18
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Turkey says Kurdish militia role in Raqqa offensive would endanger Syria
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Turkey says Kurdish militia role in Raqqa offensive would endanger Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday (September 27) said that cooperating with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in a potential offensive to retake the Islamic State-controlled city of Raqqa would endanger the future of Syria.

 

Turkey views the YPG, which has enjoyed U.S. backing in the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria, as a hostile force with deep links to Kurdish militants who have fought a three-decade insurgency on Turkish soil.

 

Cavusoglu, speaking at a joint news conference with his British counterpart Boris Johnson in Ankara, said some YPG elements still remained in the Syrian city of Manbij, west of the Euphrates River, despite Ankara's repeated warnings that they should withdraw and U.S. assurances that they would do so. He criticized Washington's cooperation with a group he said it was unable to control.

 

At the moment YPG elements are still in Manbij. Obama promised, Kerry, Biden promised, all officials promised. They now either cannot send them back, or the YPG doesn't listen to them, or you (the US) don't want to send them back (to west of Euphrates). More than 200 YPG elements are in Manbij. And if you cannot send 200 elements of the YPG back to west of the Euphrates, how can you trust the YPG in other areas he said.

 

Cavusoglu said Turkey, which launched a military incursion to drive Islamic State off its borders a month ago, had demonstrated that the strategy of supporting local groups could be successful and that this approach could be used in Raqqa or even a planned operation to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul.

 
REUTERS

                       

 

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