WEB DESK / AGENCIES
“Our Ally Turkey is at the forefront of the crisis and has legitimate security concerns. It has suffered horrendous terrorist attacks. And it hosts millions of Syrian refugees. NATO has been informed by Turkish authorities about the ongoing operations in Northern Syria. It’s important to avoid actions that may further destabilise the region, escalate tensions, and cause more human suffering,” said NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday after his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
Stoltenberg said Turkish authorities informed NATO about the ongoing operation in northern Syria.
“It is important to avoid actions that may further destabilize the region, escalate tensions and cause more human suffering,” said Stoltenberg.
“I count on Turkey to act with restraints and ensure that any action it may take in northern Syria is proportionate and measured,” he added.
Stoltenberg also said that gains made against Daesh must not be jeopardized adding Daesh still poses “a great threat to the Middle East and North Africa and to all our nations”.
He will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Friday, said Stoltenberg.
Turkey on Wednesday announced launch of Operation Peace Spring east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria to secure its borders by eliminating terrorist elements to ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees and Syria’s territorial integrity.
Turkey has said the terrorist group PKK and its extension the YPG/PYD constitute the biggest threat to Syria’s future, jeopardizing the country’s territorial integrity and unitary structure.
Turkey has also stressed that supporting terrorists under the pretext of fighting Daesh is unacceptable.
Turkey has a 911-kilometer (566-mile) border with Syria and it has long decried the threat from terrorists east of the Euphrates and the formation of a “terrorist corridor” there.
Turkey plans to resettle two million Syrians in a 30-km-wide (19-mi) safe zone to be set up in Syria, stretching from the Euphrates River to the Iraqi border, including Manbij. However, the presence of terror groups such as the PKK, PYD, and YPG risk its formation.
Turkey has rid an area of 4,000 square km (1,544 square miles) in Syria of terrorist groups in two separate cross-border operations. Since 2016, Turkey has conducted two major military operations in northwestern Syria — Operation Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch — to purge the region of the terrorist groups Daesh and the YPG, which is the Syrian branch of the terrorist group PKK.
The two operations were in line with the country’s right to self-defense borne out of international law, UN Security Council resolutions, especially no. 1624 (2005), 2170 (2014) and 2178 (2014), and under the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, while being respectful of Syria’s territorial integrity.