Syria's district of Afrin, part of the Aleppo region in the northwest of the country on the border with Turkey, has to be cleared from People's Protection Units (YPG), the mostly Kurdish militant, and observation points should be established in the area, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday.
On Monday, Erdoğan said that Ankara had talks with Moscow on joint actions in the district, currently controlled by the YPG.
"Afrin is located next to our borders, its population is by 50 percent comprised of our Arab brothers. It needs to be cleared from YPG terrorists, and observation points should be established there later. If that does not happen, one set of terrorists will be replaced by another one, and the occupation will continue," Erdoğan said in his speech before regional heads of the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Ankara sees the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organization in Turkey.
Erdoğan slammed the United States over its support for the YPG, saying former president Barack Obama had failed to keep his promises while under Donald Trump Washington had continued to cooperate with the same group under the name Syria Democratic Forces (SDF).
The YPG constitutes the core of the SDF, backed by the U.S.-led international coalition against Islamic State and responsible for the campaign to oust Islamic State from Syria's Raqqa.
Ankara and Moscow announced on Thursday that Erdogan and Russian and Iranian counterparts Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani would meet for a summit on Syria on November 22 in Sochi.
