Turkey is planning new offensives inside Syria against groups deemed terrorist organisations by Ankara, even after the completion of its six-month-long operation in the country’s north, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday, Anadolu reported.
Turkey announced last week that it had completed the Euphrates Shield operation in Syria, which began in August to expel Islamic State (IS) militants and Kurdish militia groups from the border area.
“The first stage, the Euphrates Shield operation… is over. But more will follow,” Erdogan said in a speech in the Trabzon region near the Black Sea ahead of the April 16 referendum on expanding his powers.
“There is no stopping, the road continues. We are making preparations for new operations in other regions for getting to the terrorists on their hills. We will give new names to the new operations,” he said.
Erdogan said IS, the PKK and also the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), a Surian Kurdish militia, would face “very nice surprises” from the spring.
The PYD is the Syrian offshoot of PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU.
the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was reported involved in almost daily clashes in the region. Turkey has been hit by a series of bombs both by IS and Kurdish militants since July 2015. The IS attack, on Istanbul airport in June, killed more than 40 people. Another 46 policemen and two civilians on September 2 in the Turkish city of Van.
