UPDATE - G20: Erdogan urges global action against terror

By Sorwar Alam

UPDATES WITH MORE STATEMENTS FROM PRESIDENT ERDOGAN

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday emphasized the need for global action against terrorism saying that no region was safe from terror threats.

Speaking after the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Erdogan said the international community needed to share the burden in the fight against terrorism.

“[At the G20 summit] We have emphasized on showing a principled, consistent and stable stance in the fight against globalized terrorism,” Erdogan said.

"I hope that this meeting will be a breaking point for our position of accepting [to deisgnate] terror targets without regards for religion, ethnicity or language," he added.

He also spoke against the U.S. arming PYD/YPG terror groups in Syria in order to combat Daesh in Raqqah.

“We will never keep silent when support and arms are provided to terrorist organizations near our borders,” Erdogan said.

The PKK/PYD is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) involved in the plan to capture Raqqah and has been supplied with U.S. arms.

- Iraq unity

Ankara views the PKK/PYD, which is the Syrian branch of the PKK, as a terrorist group and fears weapons supplied to the PKK/PYD for the operation to oust Daesh from Syria's Raqqah will end up in the hands of PKK terrorists fighting Turkish security forces.

More than 1,200 people, including security force personnel and civilians, have lost their lives since the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU -- resumed its decades-long armed campaign in July 2015.

Erdogan also vowed that Turkey would not tolerate a Kurdish state in northern Syria and said he supported the unity of both Iraq and Syria.

“Iraq will be a strong country as long as it protects its unity,” Erdogan added.

He also addressed the western countries' stance regarding the Fetullah terrorist Organization (FETO), an illegal network accused of orchestrating last year’s coup attempt in Turkey.

"Militants of the terror group who organized a deadly coup attempt on July 15 last year in my country and martyred 250 of my citizen and left 2,193 other wounded are seeing the Western countries as a safe harbor," he added.

According to the government, the coup on July 15, 2016, was organized by followers of U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of pursuing a long-running campaign to overthrow the government through supporters within the Turkish state, particularly the military, police and judiciary.