Türkiye will defend its interests and security in any region, even if the United States is present in it, the country’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.
The head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, commenting on Ankara’s policy regarding the presence in Syria of militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), banned in Turkey, said that the Turkish side has repeatedly conveyed signals to Washington about the need to “cease cooperation with a terrorist organization in the region.”
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“The issue was discussed with the United States, Turkey’s sensitivity on this issue was taken into account,” Fidan said.
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Ankara, he said, hopes that the United States, Great Britain and other states will refuse to cooperate in Syria and Iraq with the PKK, banned in Turkey.
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“Turkey does not take the position of ‘I will not touch this’ just because the US is involved in something. Turkey will defend its interests and security even if America is there, as we did in Syria,” Fidan said.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly stated that Ankara expects to resolve the issue of border security with Iraq. According to him, the Turkish side also seeks to create a security corridor 30-40 kilometers deep in Syria.
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The armed conflict with the PKK began in Turkey in 1984 and resumed in 2015. In northern Iraq there are PKK bases, against which the Turkish Armed Forces are conducting air and ground operations. The presence of Turkish troops in the Zlikan camp, northeast of Mosul, has become a point of contention between Baghdad and Ankara, which justifies its deployment as necessary to fight the PKK.