At a recent event, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will “crush the heads” of Kurdish fighters if they do not withdraw from a planned safe zone area in northern Syria.
On October 17, Turkey agreed to suspend an offensive for five days to allow the Kurds to retreat from the area.
However, on October 19, both sides accused the other of violating the ceasefire.
Turkey views the Kurdish forces as terrorists and wants to create a “safe zone” buffer inside Syria.
Despite the temporary ceasefire, some sporadic violence has continued – particularly around the border town of Ras Al-Ain.
Speaking at an event in the central Turkish province of Kayseri on October 19, President Erdogan said that if Kurdish fighters did not withdraw by October 22 in the evening – as agreed in the ceasefire – “we will start where we left off and continue to crush the terrorists’ heads”.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to hold talks next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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On October 19, he said that if those talks did not produce a solution, Turkey would “implement its own plans”.
Turkey’s defense ministry earlier accused Kurdish forces of carrying out 14 “provocative” attacks in the last 36 hours, mostly in Ras Al-Ain, but insisted Turkish forces were fully abiding by the agreement.
But the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) accused Turkey of violating the ceasefire.
They also accuse Turkish troops of failing to create a safe corridor for the evacuation of civilians and wounded people from the besieged town.
On October 19, the SDF urged US VP Mike Pence, who helped to broker the temporary ceasefire, to pressure Turkey to allow the passage of civilians.
The SDF said in a statement: “Despite the constant communication with the American side and the promise made by them to solve this problem, there has not been any tangible progress in this regard.”
