Turkey Fighting Terrorists In Syria, Not Kurds - Erdogan's Spokesman

Ankara reaffirms that its fight is against terrorists, not the Kurds, and that it is willing to protect Kurds, along with other Syrians, from the terrorist threat, Ibrahim Kalin, Turkish presidential spokesman, said on Monday

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2019) Ankara reaffirms that its fight is against terrorists, not the Kurds, and that it is willing to protect Kurds, along with other Syrians, from the terrorist threat, Ibrahim Kalin, Turkish presidential spokesman, said on Monday.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump pledged to "devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds."

"It is a fatal mistake to equate Syrian Kurds with the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party], which is on the US terrorists list, and its Syria branch PYD [Kurdish Democratic Union Party]/YPG [Kurdish People's Protection Units]. Turkey fights against terrorists, not Kurds. We will protect Kurds and other Syrians against all terrorist threats," Kalin posted on Twitter.

He added that Turkey expected the United States to "honor" the strategic partnership between the two countries and did not want US-Turkish relations to be "shadowed by terrorist propaganda."

"There is no difference between DAESH [Islamic State terrorist group, banned in Russia], PKK, PYD and YPG.

We will continue to fight against them all," Kalin stressed.

Fahrettin Altun, the country's presidential communications director, also said that Turkey was not an enemy, but a protector of Kurds, emphasizing that the country was determined to eradicate terrorists from Syria.

Relations between Washington and Ankara have been strained over US support for Syrian Kurdish fighters, since Turkey regards the Syrian Kurdish units as part of the outlawed separatist PKK.

In early December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey was ready to launch a military operation against Kurdish fighters on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River as well as in Syria's Manbij, located near the Turkish border, if the United States did not remove the militia from there. After a phone conversation with Trump on December 14, Erdogan said that the start of the operation would be postponed. After the same phone call, Trump announced that US troops would be withdrawn from Syria.