Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized the US and Russia for failing to fulfill their parts of agreements struck last month on the withdrawal of Washington’s allied Kurdish militants from Syria’s northern border regions, saying he would raise the issue with his American and Russian counterparts.
“I will tell him, with the use of documents, that the agreement we reached on the operation has not been fully implemented,” Erdogan said ahead of his flight to Washington, where he is scheduled to meet Trump at the White House on Wednesday.
Turkey launched an offensive in northeastern Syria on October 9 in a declared attempt to eliminate Kurdish militants from the so-called People’s Protection Units (YPG) from border areas.
The incursion came after the US abruptly pulled its forces out of the region, clearing the path for Ankara to go ahead with a planned military action against Washington’s longtime Kurdish allies.
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Nine days into the operation, Turkey agreed on October 17 to pause the offensive for 120 hours while the US facilitates the withdrawal of Kurdish militants from a planned 120-kilometer (75-mile) safe zone between the Syrian border towns of Tell Abyad and Ras al-Ayn.
Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group, which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.
Hours before the US-brokered five-day truce between Turkish and Kurdish-led forces was due to expire, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart signed a memorandum of understanding that asserted YPG militants must withdraw from the Turkish-controlled “safe zone” in northeastern Syria within 150 hours.
Erdogan further said on Tuesday that Kurdish militants had yet to leave key towns, including Manbij, Tal Abyad, Qamishli and Tal Rifaat.
“Unfortunately as of now it is not possible to say terror groups have withdrawn from the region,” he said.
Erdogan said the Russian-brokered deal had also not been fulfilled.
“Neither Russia nor the United States could remove terror groups within the given hour and the given day,” he said, adding, he would similarly raise the issue with his Russian counterpart by phone when he returns home.
The Turkish leader also said that Ankara would continue deporting Western members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group no matter whether countries of origin accept them.
Turkeys says its troops have managed to capture some runaway Daesh terrorists over the past month. These terrorists had escaped from a prison in northeastern Syria following the Turkish military operation.
Kurdish officials say nearly 800 Daesh prisoners have managed to escape from a prisoner camp after the offensive.
A number of European countries have commenced talks with Iraqi officials to enable the captured Takfiri militants being held in Syria to face trial in Iraq, but progress has been slow.
Daesh has already been driven out of all its urban bastions both in Iraq and Syria, but its remnants carry out sporadic terror attacks in both Arab countries. The group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was allegedly killed in a US raid in northern Syria last month.
Erdogan’s visit to Washington comes amid heightened tensions between the two NATO allies following Turkey’s offensive into northern Syria and Congress’ decision to recognize the Armenian genocide committed by Ottoman forces a century ago.
Turkey has also been suspended from the F-35 US fighter jet program after it acquired Russia's S-400 missile defense system despite numerous US warnings.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
