Erdogan says Turkey must clear Syria’s Efrin of YPG

Erdogan says Turkey must clear Syria’s Efrin of YPG
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey needed to clear the Efrin region of northwest Syria of Kurdish YPG militia fighters.

Erdogan, speaking in Ankara to officials from the ruling AK Party, also expressed disappointment with the United States, which backs the YPG.

Ankara views the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.

“We need to cleanse Efrin of the structure there called the YPG terrorist organisation,” Erdogan said.

Turkey has long been angered at the United States’ support for the YPG and Erdogan has repeatedly accused Washington of violating the alliance between the two countries.

“We are greatly disappointed by the United States not keeping its promises. Many issues that we could have resolved easily... were pushed to a dead-end,” he said.

Turkey has expressed displeasure at the US stance towards a deal between the YPG and ISIS under which hundreds of terrorists withdrew from the Syrian city of Raqqa before it fell to the SDF.

Erdogan has previously said that Efrin would be on Ankara’s agenda after its current operation in Syria’s Idlib province, where Turkey and Russia have set up observation points under a “de-escalation” deal agreed by Ankara, Moscow and Tehran to ease the bloodshed in Syria.

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