BALADI NEWS
Turkish forces won’t leave Syrian territory until the people of the country ask Ankara to withdraw, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on Saturday.
“We will not leave Syria until the people of Syria say, ‘Thank you, you may leave now'”, the president said at a rally in Istanbul.
On October 9, Turkey launched Peace Spring military operation, with the support of the Syrian National Army to secure Turkey's borders from the Kurdish militias, and establish a safe zone in north Syrian, in which Turkey plans to repatriate some 3,000,000 Syrian refugees.
The offensive was criticised by the US and European countries, with Washington imposing sanctions on Ankara over the issue. The sides, however, came to terms after the US and Turkey agreed to a 120-hour ceasefire that later became permanent.
At the same time, President Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin established joined patrols on the Syrian border to ensure peace in the region.
The operation allowed Ankara to create a so-called safe zone on a 75-mile stretch of land between the Syrian towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad, in order to resettle Syrian refugees there.
Source: Al-Masdar News.