Erdogan defies international pressure

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday defied international pressure to stop the military operation in northern Syria, demanding Kurdish fighters lay down their arms and withdraw from the strip along the Turkish border and rejected a ceasefire called by US President Donald Trump.

A week after the start of the Turkish offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, the military operation has re-mixed the cards in this region, which has been the focus of the conflict in Syria since 2011.

Syrian regime forces, in agreement with Kurdish fighters, returned to areas that had been out of Damascus's control for years, as Moscow began to fill the vacuum left by the withdrawal of US troops.

After President Donald Trump initially gave a green light to the Turkish offensive by ordering the withdrawal of US troops from border points in northern Syria, he came under heavy criticism and called on Ankara to halt its offensive, imposing sanctions.

Trump sent Turkey's deputy Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to try to wrest a ceasefire.

After Erdogan announced that he would only talk to Trump, the Turkish presidency reaffirmed that he would meet US officials on Thursday.

However, the Turkish president has refused to "sit at the same table with a terrorist organization," referring to the YPG, stressing that Kurdish fighters must lay down their arms and retreat.

"Immediately, this evening, all terrorists will lay down their weapons and equipment, destroy all their fortifications and withdraw from the safe area we have defined," he said.

Safe area
The fighting is still fierce, especially in the Turkish border town of Ras al-Ain. The declared objective of the Turkish operation is to establish a 32-kilometer "safe zone" on Turkey's border, which will return a portion of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees on its territory, away from its borders, the Kurds who consider it a source of destabilization.

To avoid confrontations between Russian-backed Syrian forces and Turkish troops with pro-Ankara Syrian factions, Moscow announced that Russian military police were "patrolling along the seam" in Manbij.

After Erdogan on Tuesday condemned the "dirty deal" between Kurdish forces and the Damascus regime, he said he did not care "who the Russians or the regime ... ... will come out of the YPG from Manbij."

The Kremlin announced on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin had invited Erdogan to visit Russia, and the Turkish president said it was "very likely" to respond to the invitation.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the crisis triggered by the Turkish incursion into Syria, saying the conflict was between Turkey and Syria and that it was "okay" if Russia supported Damascus.

Trump told reporters at the White House that imposing US sanctions on Turkey would be better than fighting in the region and that it was up to the countries of the region to resolve the crisis.