Turkey president vows to uproot ‘nests’ of terror

ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday vowed Turkey would soon begin an operation against towns in Syria controlled by Kurdish militia, calling the areas “nests” of terror. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia controls key Syrian northern towns including Manbij and Afrin and is an ally of the US but Ankara accuses the group of being a terror organization.

“Tomorrow, (or) the day after, (or) within a short period, we will get rid of terror nests one-by-one in Syria starting with Afrin and Manbij” in northern Syria, Erdogan promised in his weekly televised speech to his faction in parliament. Turkey, which from August 2016 to March 2017 waged its Euphrates Shield cross-border operation in Syria, has repeatedly threatened a new operation against the YPG.

But Erdogan has stepped up the warnings in recent days as Turkish media said dozens of military vehicles were being deployed to the border area. Erdogan told reporters after that the Afrin operation would be undertaken “together” with Syrian opposition fighters, like the Euphrates Shield action against the YPG and the Islamic State extremist group. Turkey says the YPG is a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984. But the issue has caused tension with the United States, which has handed weaponry to the YPG as a key player on the ground in the fight against IS.