Ankara Says Received No US Proposals To Withdraw PKK Militants From Syrian-Turkish Border

Turkey has not received an offer from the United States to withdraw the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the Syrian-Turkish border, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th November, 2022) Turkey has not received an offer from the United States to withdraw the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the Syrian-Turkish border, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Tuesday.

On November 25, Washington offered Ankara to withdraw Kurdish fighters in northern Syria without conducting a ground operation by the Turkish armed forces, according to the Abdulkadir Selvi, a columnist for the Hurriyet Daily newspaper with links to government circles.

"There have been no such proposals," Kalin told the A Haber broadcaster.

Kalin also noted that back in 2019, an agreement was reached on the withdrawal of Kurdish militants from the buffer zone of 30 kilometers from the border with Turkey, but "the agreement was not implemented."

On November 22, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Russian side had not fulfilled its obligations to "cleanse" the Syrian regions from Kurdish armed groups under the agreement of 2019. Moscow refuted all the statements, noting that the Russian side fulfills all its obligations, and added that patrolling the territories is a shared responsibility.

In October 2019, Moscow and Ankara signed a memorandum of understanding, which provided for the introduction of the Russian military police and the Syrian border service to Syria's border with Turkey, outside the zone of the Turkish operation Peace Spring. The measure was aimed at facilitating the withdrawal of Kurdish detachments and their weapons 30 kilometers from the Syrian-Turkish border. Russian Defense Ministry said in late October 2019 that the withdrawal of Kurdish formations had been completed ahead of schedule. Then, a joint Russian-Turkish patrol started.

Since November 20 Turkey has been conducting an air operation against militant bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party and, as Ankara believes, its armed wing, the People's Defense Units, both designated by Turkey as terrorist, in northern Syria. The strikes followed recent deadly terrorist attacks on Turkish territory. Erdogan called the operation a success and admitted the possibility of conducting an additional ground operation soon.