Turkey announced yesterday that it would continue to fight the Syrian-backed Syrian Kurdish "protection units" despite warnings from US President Donald Trump, which threatened to destroy the Turkish economy if Ankara launched an attack on the Kurds after the US withdrawal from Syria.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mouloud Zhaoshoglu said that "American economic threats, linked to the protection units of the Kurdish people, will not terrorize Turkey," stressing that his country is not against the idea of an area between its borders and the positions of Kurdish fighters.
"We will not intimidate us any threat, economic threats will not lead to anything."
The Turkish media quoted Oglu as saying: "We informed Washington that Turkey is not threatening any threat, and the goals can not be achieved through economic threats. The strategic partners do not speak through social media." Trump is under internal pressure from his security services, From Syria, and also urged the US administration to be unequal between Kurdish and Kurdish protection units.
"Turkey will continue to fight terrorism with determination," he said, stressing that "Turkey is not an enemy of the Kurds" and that "terrorists alone will be targeted."
"Terrorism is terrorism and must be drained from its source, and that is exactly what Turkey is doing in Syria," he said.
Trump said in a tweet on Twitter yesterday: "We will destroy Turkey economically, if the Kurds are attacked." He called for a 30-kilometer security zone, without giving details of its location or funding. Kurds do not provoke Turkey.
"Terrorists can not be your partners and allies," Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in response to Trump's comments. "There is no difference between the preachers and the protection units of the Kurdish people."
He said that Turkey expects the United States to respect their strategic partnership. "Mr. Donald Trump," he said, "is a grave mistake in equating the Syrian Kurds with the PKK, which is on the US list of terrorist organizations, and its branch in Syria, People Protection Units ».
Turkey considers the units to protect the Kurdish people a "terrorist" organization because of its alleged links with the PKK, which has been fighting Turkish territory since 1984 and is not hiding an attack against it to prevent the formation of a Kurdish state on its border. in Turkey.
The crisis between Washington and Ankara came after Turkey welcomed the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, which weakened the situation of the Kurdish fighters. Later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected the remarks made by US National Security Advisor John Bolton, saying that his country's withdrawal from Syria was conditional on the safety of the Kurds , Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara, last Tuesday: «Bolton's remarks are unacceptable for us, and can not be tolerated».
The possibility of imposing new economic sanctions on Ankara to lower the price of the Turkish lira, yesterday morning, to lose 1.3% of its value against the dollar, compared to prices last Friday evening, and the price of the dollar was 5.52 Turkish lira, about 8:00 GMT.
Last summer, economic sanctions imposed by the United States over Turkey's arrest of an American priest led to the collapse of the Turkish lira.
Ankara appears to be focusing its efforts on a possible attack against the Kurds, but it is also intervening in Idlib in northwestern Syria, where it sponsored a ceasefire agreement with Moscow in September that allowed an attack on the regime. Zhaoshoglu said yesterday that Turkey was needed to maintain peace. And to prevent violations in Idlib.
In another context, Israel admitted yesterday to launch an air strike last weekend on what it described as an Iranian arms depot in Syria. It also said it had completed the search for tunnels for the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia across the border with Lebanon. The UN Special Envoy to Syria, Geir Pederson, arrived today in Damascus on his first official visit since taking office. A Syrian diplomatic source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the envoy would meet in Damascus with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.
- Oglu: "We will not be intimidated by any threat .. Trump is under internal pressure."
- Israel recognizes air raid on Syria .. The UN envoy arrives in Damascus today