MP urges US against supporting terrorists in N.Syria

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - A Turkish independent lawmaker urged the U.S. against actions supporting terrorism in Northern Syria ahead of Turkey's planned operation east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria.

"We hope that the U.S. would not exhibit behavior supporting the [PKK] terror group [in northern Syria]," Ozturk Yilmaz, a lawmaker from eastern Ardahan province, told journalists in Ankara.

Yilmaz underlined that the PKK's presence in northern Syria would pose a danger for the country's territorial integrity.

He stressed that the perception that "Turkey performs operation against Kurds" in northern Syria should also be discredited prior to the operation.

"Turkey should take careful steps to prevent this perception," Yilmaz said.

Since 2016, Turkey’s Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in northwestern Syria have liberated the region from YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists, making it possible for Syrians who fled the violence to return home.

Turkey has long decried the threat from terrorists east of the Euphrates in northern Syria, pledging military action to prevent the formation of a "terrorist corridor" there.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. YPG is the Syrian branch of the terrorist organization PKK.