Turkey says Kurdish YPG has not left border zone

Turkey is discussing with Russia how to address the presence of Kurdish YPG fighters in areas covered by an agreement between the two countries, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Thursday.

Ankara halted its incursion into Syria last month after agreeing with Moscow to allow the YPG to pull out of a stretch of land east of the Euphrates, as well as the towns of Tel Rifat and Manbij, west of the river.

Turkey said the withdrawal had not been completed and threatened to resume its offensive.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that it was almost done and that Ankara had assured Moscow that it did not plan to launch a new military operation.

Mr Akar said that Russia told Turkey on October 29 that 34,000 militants and more than 3,200 heavy weapons were removed from a 30-kilometre-deep strip of land in Syria on the Turkish border.

“Findings to the contrary are being discussed with the Russian Federation,” Mr Akar told a parliamentary commission.

He said Turkey had determined the YPG was still present in the Manbij region “wearing the clothes of [Syrian] regime elements” and had asked Russia to address the issue.

Turkey and Russia back opposing sides in Syria’s eightyear civil war but they have worked together on several fronts to broker deals between President Bashar Al Assad’s forces, supported by Moscow, and the opposition, backed by Turkey.

The two countries agreed last year to establish a deescalation zone in the Idlib region of north-west Syria.

Idlib is the last major rebel stronghold and is home to about three million Syrians, some of whom fled violence in other parts of the country.