The street in Ankara where the US Embassy is located will be named in "honour of the Olive Branch operation" carried out by Turkish forces and their allied Free Syrian Army terrorist group in the northern Syrian district of Afrin, Ankara’s Mayor Mustafa Tuna said on Monday.
"We signed a request to rename Nevzat Tandoğan Street, where the US embassy is located, as Olive Branch Street. The initiative will be introduced for consideration at Ankara’s municipal assembly today," Tuna, from ruling AKP party, wrote on his Twitter page.
It will most likely be approved, just days before U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to visit Ankara on Thursday.
Turkish army officially declared on January 20 the launch of an offensive targeting the positions of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and People's Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin region in northwest Syria. The Turkish AKP government's excuse was the threat against national interests and border security.
The operation has been conducted jointly with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) terrorist group.
AKP government is trying to secure the support of both the U.S. and the NATO by means of Afrin operation as Kemal Okuyan, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), noted at an interview he gave to soL news on January 31. Okuyan reminded that Turkey is giving the message that the US should make use of Turkey in Syria instead of the PYD through its aggressiveness in Syria.
Ruling AKP party spokesperson Mahir Ünal and government spokesperson Bekir Bozdağ said that Ankara protects the southern border of NATO as an ally of it, on February 11.
AL-QAEDA FOUNDER'S NAME GIVEN TI ISTANBUL STREET
In November, Turkey renamed the street where the United Arab Emirates has its embassy after a long-dead Ottoman military commander. It was a reaction to an Emirati minister's retweet of a claim that the Turkish president's "forefathers" pillaged the holy city of Medina.
In July 2017, the name of one of the Al-Qaeda founders, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, was given to a street in İstanbul by the Municipality of Ümraniye which from AKP party. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam was placed at the top of the list of international terrorists until 1989 when he was killed in a bomb attack.
