Turkey rejects military operation limited to Syria's Afrin

Turkey rejects military operation limited to Syria's Afrin

ISTANBUL, Jan. 21, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag (C) answers a question at a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey, on Jan. 21, 2018. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday voiced hope for the ongoing military operation against Kurdish militia in Syria

Ankara, Jan 23 (IANS) Turkey had given no guarantee to Russia or any other country that military operation will be limited to Syria's Afrin, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Monday.Nobody has the right to impose limits on Turkey's operation against the US-backed Kurdish militia the People's Protection Units (YPG), Xinhua quoted Bozdag as saying.Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry official also rejected Russian media reports that the Turkish military operation along the Syrian border will be limited to Afrin.Turkey has made no such commitment to Russia, the official was quoted by state-run Anadolu Agency as saying."Turkey's measures against the YPG cannot be limited to Afrin alone. There is also Manbij and east of the Euphrates River," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in Vancouver, Canada last week.Turkey on Saturday launched the operation dubbed as " Operation Olive Branch" with intense air raids and shelling seeking to oust from the Afrin region of northern Syria YPG, which Ankara considers a terror group affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).It is Turkey's second major incursion into Syria after the August 2016 Euphrates Shield Operation in an area to the east of Afrin against both the YPG and Islamic State (IS) terrorists.--IANSsku/

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