Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan again warned the EU countries that at some point his country could open its borders with European countries for refugees.
“Those who shout and wave their arms (about the Turkish operation in Syria) – do they have a border here? No. But we have 911 kilometers of the border with Syria, and we cannot help but notice what happens to them when we they’re attacking, firing. We’re doing what we need and will do. When we say that we open the borders, they are immediately excited. But the time will come and we will open the doors for refugees to Europe”, – Erdogan said, speaking in Ankara.
According to him, Turkey “does not look at foreign lands, it has no problems with the Syrians or Kurds, it has problems with the terrorists”.
“And if the leaders of large countries in search of a solution (the Syrian problem) put the terrorists next to them at the negotiating table, then how can they fight terrorism?”, – the Turkish leader added.
On October 9, Erdogan announced the launch of Operation Source of Peace in northern Syria against the Kurdistan Workers Party and the Islamic State terrorist group. Turkish aviation attacked the city of Ras al-Ain and a number of other Syrian cities on the border of the two countries on the same day.
The United States and Turkey said on October 17 that they agreed to suspend Turkey’s military operation for 120 hours and withdraw Kurdish forces from the 30-kilometer buffer zone on the border of Turkey and Syria, which Ankara intends to control on its own. The ceasefire ended at 22.00 GMT on Tuesday.
Russia and Turkey on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of understanding of 10 points, in particular, on the introduction of the Syrian side of the border with Turkey outside the zone of the Turkish operation “Source of peace” units of the Russian military police and the Syrian border service. They will facilitate the withdrawal of Kurdish troops and their weapons 30 kilometers from the Syrian-Turkish border, which should be completed within 150 hours. From this moment, joint Russian-Turkish patrols will begin to a depth of 10 kilometers from the border to the West and East of the area of operation of Turkey, except for the city of Qamishli