Turkish Foreign Minister: We’ll talk with the Russian side about the exit of the YPG from Manbij and Ain Arab and Qamishli
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey doesn’t want to see any members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the safe area after the 120-hour deadline, pointing out that Ankara will discuss with Moscow on Tuesday the exit of the YPG from Manbij, Ain Arab and Qamishli.
“We’ll talk on Tuesday with the Russian side about the exit of the YPG from Manbij and Ain Arab and Qamishli”, he said in an exclusive interview on Turkish Channel 7 television.
“Russia understands our concerns, and we don’t want to see any terrorist element across our borders”, he added.
“Our troops will be in the safe area during the withdrawal of the YPG, and they are watching all the steps taken”, he said.
“After 120 hours, we don’t want any YPG elements in the region to remain under any name”.
“We want Russia to remove the YPG militants from the areas where they’re present and continue cooperation in this context”, the minister said.
On October 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the launch of a military operation in northern Syria, called the spring of peace.
Turkey claimed that the operation was aimed at eliminating the threats posed by fighters of the Syrian Kurdish YPG and the militants of the Islamic State (banned terrorist in Russia and a large number of countries) and to enable Syrian refugees in Turkey to return to their homes after the establishment of a “safe area”.
