Erdogan strongly condemns the Russian strikes and accuses Moscow of not wanting “lasting peace” in Syria and affirms: We have the right to move unless the militants are removed from our borders

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today, Wednesday, that Turkey has a legitimate right to move again if militants are not expelled from the area bordering its border with Syria, which has incursions into it several times in the past four years.

“If the terrorists are not eliminated here, as they promised us, then we have the legitimate right to mobilize again,” Erdogan said in a speech delivered to the representatives of his party (Justice and Development) in parliament.

In an offensive launched by Turkey a year ago with the support of Syrian opposition fighters, Turkey seized control of a 120-km strip of border land in northeastern Syria from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a terrorist group.

This incursion was widely condemned by Ankara’s Western allies, as the YPG was a major faction in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which helped Washington defeat ISIS.

Erdogan also expressed his concern about the situation in the Idlib region in northwestern Syria, which was the scene of fierce fighting between Syrian government forces and Turkish-backed opposition fighters until Ankara and Moscow reached a ceasefire agreement in March.

On Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and an opposition source said that air strikes on a camp run by Turkish-backed opposition fighters in northwest Syria had killed at least 35 people and wounded dozens.

“Russia’s attack on the forces of the Syrian National Army (the opposition backed by Turkey) in the Idlib region shows that lasting peace in the region is not desirable,” Erdogan said.

It is the first Turkish response to the Russian strikes on Monday, which targeted a training camp for the “Sham Legion”, allied with Ankara, northwest of Idlib, killing 78 of its fighters and wounding more than ninety others near the Turkish border.

This escalation is the bloodiest in eight months in the Idlib region, the last major jihadist stronghold of the rebels in Syria, part of which is still outside the control of Damascus, whose main ally is Moscow.

Opposition factions loyal to Ankara bombed sites of the Syrian Army in the same province, killing 15 loyal fighters in response to Russian raids, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Hay’at Tahris al Sham (formerly known as al Nusra Front) currently controls about half of Idlib and limited areas bordering the governorates of Hama, Aleppo, and Lattakia.

The region, which is home to three million people, about half of whom are displaced, are also active in less influential fighting factions, including the National Liberation Front.

The announcement of a truce in March after a Russian-Turkish agreement halted another offensive by the Syrian army, which within a few months was able to reclaim more territory outside its control.