AP Photo/ Ismail Coskun
Turkey will deploy troops in Syria’s Idlib province under as part of a “de-escalation” agreement reached by Ankara, Tehran and Moscow within the Astana format of talks on the Syrian conflict, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
Erdogan described the US as a strategic partner of Turkey and said that the US decision to arm Kurdish militias in Syria could lead to hurting the US allies.
Ankara described Kurdish YPG and YPJ forces [a core of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces] as a Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a separatist militant group aiming to establish a Kurdish state in Turkey.
Earlier on Thursday, reports appeared that Turkey deployed additional forces on the border with Syria’s Idlib province additionally to 80 armoured vehicles and 18 MRAPs deployed earlier. According to local sources, it’s clear that Ankara is preparing for a military operation inside Syria.
