Erdogan announces a military operation east of the Euphrates in Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that his country will carry out the operation east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria, in an area controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units.

In a speech at the opening ceremony of the highway between Istanbul and Izmir, Erdoğan said his country had informed Russia and the United States about the upcoming operation.

"We have carried out operations in Afrin, Tripoli and al-Bab (Aleppo) and now we will carry out the operation east of the Euphrates River in Syria."

On July 22, Turkey threatened to carry out a military operation against the Syrian Kurdish people's protection units if a safe area was not established in northern Syria and if threats to its security continued.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mouloud Gawishoglu said in an interview with TRT News that his country would carry out its military operation east of the Euphrates River in Syria if the safe area was not established and if the border area was not cleared of what he described as terrorists.

Oglu was referring to Syrian Kurdish fighters, who form the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish National Union party, and Ankara regards it as a terrorist organization as an extension of the PKK, which is classified as a terrorist.

Turkey has repeatedly pointed to a military operation against Syrian Kurdish insurgents in the eastern Euphrates region after they extracted the city of Afrin, west of the north-western Aleppo countryside, during the process of olive branch which ended the spring of 2018.

But Washington has warned Ankara of the consequences of an attack on Kurdish units currently stationed in the city of Manbaj in the eastern suburb of Aleppo (west of the Euphrates). It also controls vast areas east of the river.

Before the "olive branch" Turkey launched the Euphrates Shield in August 2016 against those it describes as Kurdish terrorists in northern Syria.

Syria is seeking to protect it from security threats. It is part of efforts to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis, which begins with stopping the war and providing the necessary conditions for the return of the refugees.