Turkey's Operation In Syria To End When 'Terrorists Leave Safe Zone' - Erdogan

(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Turkey's Operation in Syria to End When 'Terrorists Leave Safe Zone' - Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said that Ankara's operation in northern Syria would be terminated once the target area is cleared of what Turkey designates as terrorists and that, as of today, some 1,220 square kilometers (470 square miles) of land had already been cleared

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2019) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said that Ankara's operation in northern Syria would be terminated once the target area is cleared of what Turkey designates as terrorists and that, as of today, some 1,220 square kilometers (470 square miles) of land had already been cleared.

"As of today, we have cleared 1,220 square kilometers of territory of terrorists within Operation Peace Spring. When we clear a zone 30-35 kilometers in width from Manbij up to the border with Iraq, Operation Peace Spring will immediately end. There is no force capable of stopping us," Erdogan said at a meeting with the parliamentary group of Turkey's ruling party, Justice and Development.

Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria began on October 9. The offensive is part of Ankara's goal to clear its Syria-facing border area of Islamic State terrorist organization (banned in Russia) and Kurdish militia, which Ankara designates as terrorists, and create a so-called safe zone where Turkey, among everything, could relocate a portion of the some 3.

6 million Syrian refugees it currently hosts.

The international community has been vocally critical about Ankara's operation, with a number of countries including Turkey's and Russia's co-guarantor of the Syrian ceasefire, Iran, calling upon Erdogan to immediately stop the military action and withdraw troops from Syria. Moscow, in turn, has urged Ankara to refrain from actions that could create obstacles to settling the civil war in Syria.

A number of countries, including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and others, have already embargoed arms exports to Turkey, while others have threatened to proceed with political and economic measures aimed at halting Ankara's offensive.