President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday said that the Turkish Army would encircle Syria's Afrin city center as part of the ongoing Operation Olive Branch in the coming days.
“The Turkish army will lay siege to the Afrin city center in the coming days. There will no longer be an opportunity for arms shipments from the outside or a chance for the [PKK/PYD/YPG] terrorist organization to negotiate with anyone. In order to ensure the safety of our Syrian brothers and sisters and our own borders, our fight will continue until the last terrorist is neutralized,” Erdoğan said at a ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party parliamentary session in Ankara.
“On the 32nd day of Operation Olive Branch, 1,715 terrorists have been neutralized and we have 32 martyrs. We did not go there [to Afrin] to cause destruction. We entered to make it a livable and safe region. It is important to us to that the places we take steps in remains secure,” he added.
Operation Olive Branch was initiated on Jan. 20 in Afrin to establish security and stability, eliminate terrorists of PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG and Daesh, and save locals from the terrorists’ oppression and cruelty.
Afrin has been a major hideout for the PYD/PKK since July 2012, when the Assad regime in Syria left the city to the terror group without putting up a fight.
“For years, we have been waiting for the coalition to prevent the threats posed by terrorist organizations in Syria to our nation. We saw that the threats were increasing, and it was causing destruction within our borders. There was no other option but to mobilize. After Operation Euphrates Shield, that region became peaceful and safe. The same will happen Afrin, Idlib and Manbij,” Erdoğan said.
In the wide-ranging Euphrates Shield Operation launched in August 2016, the Free Syrian Army -- with the support of the Turkish army -- had cleared 2,000 square kilometers (772 square miles) of land along the Turkish-Syrian border of terrorist elements.
The president slammed the U.S. support of the PYD and its military wing the YPG, which are branches of the PKK terrorist organization that has waged war against Turkey for more than 30 years
“The people of the region do not have the slightest complaint or problem with Turkey. We do not neglect the possibilities of diplomacy. We documented the shipments even when they [U.S.] said they were not providing arms to terrorist organizations. These [weapons] came from the west, they do not originate from Syria,”
The U.S has supplied the PYD terror organization and its armed wing, the YPG, with more than 5,000 truckloads of weapons to allegedly use in the fight against Daesh, despite Ankara’s warnings that the fact they are the Syrian offshoots of the PKK terror organization.
The president said that Ankara was in constant contact with all involved parties regarding Syria.
“There will be negotiations in the coming days, and the operations in the field will continue. We are in constant contact with all involved parties regarding Syria. I spoke with Putin and Rouhani yesterday in phone calls. We know the power of words,” Erdoğan said.
