Afrin Must Be Cleared Of Pkk/Pyd: Turkish President

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said that the northwestern Syrian province of Afrin "must be cleared of the terrorist groups PYD and YPG," the Syrian branches of the terrorist PKK.



In a speech to ruling party members in the capital Ankara, Erdogan said Turkey "was disappointed with the United States not keeping its promises since the crisis in Syria broke out," adding that he "doesn't want the same thing to happen in Afrin."



Turkey has pushed the U.S. to make sure that the PKK/PYD and PKK/YPG are not present in certain parts of Syria liberated of Daesh.



"We need to be dominant at observation points in Idlib, we have to," said Erdogan.



"If not, different terrorist groups will try to invade those areas."



The PYD and its military YPG wing are the Syrian extensions of the PKK, which has waged war against Turkey for more than 30 years, causing some 40,000 deaths.



The U.S. and the coalition have largely ignored PYD/PYG links to the PKK, which the U.S., EU, and Turkey lists as a terrorist group.



Since it resumed attacks over two years ago, the PKK has taken some 1,200 lives in Turkey, including security forces, women, and children. -