Erdogan says Türkiye “cannot allow Syria to be divided” and advocates “crushing” Kurdish forces

MADRID Dec. 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stated this Tuesday that the Turkish authorities “cannot allow Syria to be divided again” and has opted to “crush as soon as possible” the “terrorist groups”, among which he has included the Kurdish forces that control the north and northeast of the country.

“From now on, we cannot allow Syria to be divided again. We cannot allow the country’s territory to become a conflict zone again,” he said during a meeting of his party, the Justice and Development Party ( AKP).

Thus, he stated that “God willing, terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in other parts of the country will be crushed as soon as possible,” he said, as reported by the Turkish state news agency. Anatolia.

The PKK maintains ties with the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which heads the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the armed wing of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) that has the support of the international coalition that it heads. USA.

“Any attack against the stability of the new Syrian administration and the integrity of the Syrian territory will face us, together with the Syrian people,” said Erdogan, who has also supported a “voluntary, safe and dignified” return of the refugees. Syrians who are in Turkish territory.

The rebels, supported by Turkey, began the offensive on Sunday with the intention of now undertaking the expulsion of the Kurdish forces from the areas under their control after the dazzling success of the offensive launched on November 27 by Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS). and other jihadist and rebel formations against government troops.

Turkey, which supports several armed rebel groups operating in Syria, has in the past launched several military operations in Syrian territory against the YPG and has criticized the United States’ support for the SDF, the spearhead of the offensives against Islamic State until the territorial defeat of his ‘caliphate’ in Syria in 2019.