Turkey not resuming military operation in northeast Syria: Security source

Duvar English 

Turkey is fully abiding by the agreements it reached with Russia and the United States regarding northeast Syria and is not resuming its military offensive, Reuters cited an unnamed security source as saying on Nov. 25. 

The security source also said that Turkey was responding to attacks by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the region within the scope of self defense.    

Ankara reached separate agreements with Moscow and Washington last month to remove the YPG from a swathe of land in northeast Syria bordering Turkey, which in return stopped its military offensive against the militia. 

Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist organization due to it being the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – a group designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, Washington and the European Union. 

But, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Nov. 18 said neither Russia nor the United States had kept up their side of the deal, adding Turkey would launch a new offensive in northeast Syria if the area was not cleared of the YPG militia.  

Çavuşoğlu’s remarks later drew ire from Russia, with its ministry of defense saying that Moscow had carried out in full its obligations under the deal struck by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

“The head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s call for military action can only escalate the situation in northern Syria rather than sort things out in the way set out in a joint memorandum signed by the presidents of Russia and Turkey,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Nov. 19.  

A day later, on Nov. 20, the TASS news agency reported Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying that Ankara had assured Moscow that it did not plan to launch a new military operation in Syria despite earlier comments.

Lavrov also said that the withdrawal of the YPG militia in northern Syria was almost complete.