The Turkish President blames Kurdish organizations for the attack in Istanbul.
(Photo: AP)
Istanbul, Ankara Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the use of ground forces against Kurdish militias in Syria. “We have been taking action against the terrorists with our planes, cannons and rifles for a few days,” said Erdogan on Tuesday, referring to the Kurdish militia YPG. “God willing, we will wipe them out with our tanks and our soldiers as soon as possible.”
Turkey is thus expanding its military action against Kurdish organizations that it blames for the bomb attack in downtown Istanbul a week ago. At the weekend, the Turkish air force said it had bombed bases of the YPG militia and the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK in Syria and Iraq in retaliation.
According to official Turkish information, Kurds then fired mortar shells at Turkey in the border area with Syria. As a result, two people were killed.
Both the PKK and the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have said they had nothing to do with the Istanbul bombing. The fighting has also called the United States into action. The State Department in Washington said Turkey had been advised against operations in Syria. Because this weakens the fight against the extremist group Islamic State (IS).
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The YPG militia is the US’s most important ally against ISIS in Syria. Turkey, on the other hand, called on the United States to drop all support for the YPG.
During her visit to Ankara, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) called for preventing an escalation of violence. Turkey’s reaction must be proportionate, Faeser said on Tuesday.
The Federal Minister of the Interior visiting her Turkish counterpart.
(Photo: AP)
Russia also warned Ankara to exercise restraint on Tuesday. “We hope to be able to convince our Turkish partners to refrain from excessive use of force on Syrian territory,” said the Russian President’s Syria Envoy, Alexander Lavrentiev, on Tuesday in the Kazakh capital Astana, according to the Interfax news agency.
There, new talks in the so-called Astana format were scheduled with Russia, Turkey and Iran. Russia is supporting government troops in the Syrian civil war.
Lavrentiev said that Moscow was not informed in advance about the Turkish airstrikes. Erdogan said on Monday that he had not informed the United States either. US President Joe Biden had met Turkish President Erdogan in person at the G-20 summit in Bali shortly before.
Soylu defended the actions in Syria
The federal government had already called on Ankara to comply with international law on Monday. Turkey justifies its offensive with the right to self-defense. “The right to self-defense does not include a right to retaliation,” said Foreign Office spokesman Christofer Burger.
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In his meeting with Interior Minister Faeser, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu defended Turkey’s actions in Syria and Iraq, saying there were efforts to establish a terrorist state there. Ankara cannot allow that. Faeser said they stand with Turkey in the fight against terrorism, but civilians must be protected and international law must be respected.
Soylu is considered a nationalist hardliner in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s cabinet. At the meeting of the two interior ministers, topics such as combating organized crime and migration were also discussed, it said.
Dozens of people died in the attacks.
(Photo: AP)
The Turkish army says it has “neutralized” 184 terrorists since the start of the most recent military offensive in Syria and Iraq. The Turkish government and armed forces also commonly use the term for Kurdish groups that have recently been attacked in both neighboring countries. The Turkish Ministry of Defense spoke of attacks from the air and with land-based guns on Tuesday night. The number of victims mentioned could not be independently verified.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and the President of the Kurdish autonomous regions in northern Iraq, Nechirvan Barsani, condemned the violations of Iraqi territory at a joint meeting on Tuesday. Turkey’s attack on Kurdish areas in the country killed several people, including civilians.
More: Attack in Istanbul: why difficult times are coming to Turkey and its partners