Türkiye has zero tolerance for YPG in Syria: Erdoğan

Türkiye has zero tolerance for YPG in Syria: Erdoğan

ADANA
Türkiye has zero tolerance for YPG in Syria: Erdoğan

Türkiye has zero tolerance for the presence of YPG in northern Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, vowing soon to take some steps to resolve this problem once and for all.

"We have zero tolerance particularly for the terrorist organization YPG, which currently occupies one-third of Syria. We will soon begin to take steps to settle this issue once and for all," Erdoğan said at an address in his ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) meeting in the southern city of Mersin on Jan. 18.

YPG, supported politically and militarily by the United States in the region, controls almost all the Syrian territories in the eastern Euphrates. It fights against ISIL and acts as the guardian of the prisons where around 10.000 ISIL inmates are kept.

Türkiye calls on the U.S. to cut its partnership with YPG and stresses that it can assist the new Syrian administration in controlling these prisons and camps. It calls on YPG to disband itself and sends all non-Syrian members to abroad.

“Either by disarming terrorist organizations or by eliminating them, we are determined to prevent the implementation of new scenarios against Syria,” Erdoğan said.

Drawing attention to the new era taking shape in the region after the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Erdoğan underlined that the “policy of divide and rule for a century is now over.”

“No matter who says what, a century-long plot is being foiled. The winds of brotherhood, peace and stability are blowing and the doors to a new era of prosperity and development are opening up in our region,” he stated.

Erdoğan said the real owners of the region will shape the future of their people, recalling intensified talks between Ankara and Damascus in the new era during the visit of the Syrian foreign and defense ministers to the Turkish capital last week.

“That is the case because we are preparing for Syria’s future,” he stated.

On the refugees Türkiye has been hosting since 2011, Erdoğan reassured that Türkiye will not forcibly displace anyone.

“We don’t arbitrarily make life unbearable for anyone. We will not allow a few impertinent racist fanatics to cast a shadow over the solidarity between Türkiye and Syria. We will support every endeavor aimed at securing Syria’s political unity, territorial integrity, social peace, and reconstruction,” he said.

PKK,