Turkey Calls on US, Russia to 'Fulfill Agreements' to Remove YPG from Border Areas

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Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın called on the US and Russia to "fulfill their agreements" with Turkey on northern Syria at the press conference he held after a cabinet meeting last night (November 19).

"Suicide attacks, harassing fire and especially the pressure against civilians by terrorists are not acceptable in any way," Kalın remarked, saying that the US and Russia are responsible for stopping these.

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Turkey launched the operation into northern Syria on October 9 to with the aim of clearing the border area from the Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG) and establishing a "safe zone" to repatriate millions of Syrian refugees it hosts.

It reached agreements with the US and Russia on October 17 and October 19 respectively to cease the operation in exchange for the withdrawal of the YPG from a 30-kilometer deep zone along the Turkey-Syria border.

Here are highlights from Kalın's speech:

"One of the fundamental reasons behind all the uproar about Operation Peace Spring is that the operation has foiled multiple schemes. That is the reason behind the uproar.

"Operation Peace Spring has foiled multiple schemes simultaneously, and apparently the geopolitical reverberations it caused in the region will continue in the near future.

"The operation continues as planned. On its 8th day, the operation has achieved great success sooner than expected.

"They are trying to portray PKK's defeat as the Kurds' loss and I would like to underline that this could not be further from the truth. Because, the terrorist organization is trying to impose its own organizational agenda as an issue of our Kurdish brothers and sisters. We must see this fact very clearly. (EKN/VK)