Erdogan threatens Kurdish fighters in Syria: “Either they put down their weapons or they will be buried with them”
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened this Wednesday the Kurdish militants fighting the Turkish forces in Syria, stating that they either disarm or “will be buried” in that country, where the regime has been deposed after decades in power. of Bashar al-Assad. While the new authorities are established, Syrian fighters supported by Turkey are fighting in the north of the country against Kurdish militiamen seeking independence for the region, located between northern Syria and southern Turkey.
“The separatist murderers will say goodbye to their weapons or will be buried on Syrian soil with them,” Erdogan said” at a meeting of his AKP party deputies. After the fall of the Assad regime and its flight to Moscow, Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish YPG militia must be dismantled, ruling out its presence in future Syria. The change of regime has left the Kurdish factions present in the country in an uncertain situation. “We will eradicate the terrorist organization that is trying to build a wall of blood between us and our Syrian brothers,” he said, referring to the YPG.
Turkey considers the YPG militia, the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces – supported by the US – an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed formation that has maintained a rebellion against the Turkish state since 1984. The PKK It is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the US and has demanded that Washington withdraw its support. However, the Syrian Democratic Forces have been one of the members of the coalition of forces that have managed to overthrow the Assad regime, supported by Russia and Iran until its fall.
Erdogan has also announced that he will soon open a Turkish consulate in Aleppo, the main city in northern Syria, stating that Turkey expects traffic to increase on the two countries’ border starting next summer, when it estimates that many Syrian refugees displaced to Turkey will begin to return to their country.
