Erdoğan: Turkey could launch a military operation in northern Syria

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey would not allow a Kurdish state to be established in northern Syria in a visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey’s Harran.

“We will not tolerate even the slightest threat,” Erdoğan said, adding that Turkey was ready to launch a new military operation in an interview with the Russian İzvestiya newspaper.

“There are negative developments in Syria at the moment. If this forms a threat on our border, we will respond like we did with the Operation Euphrates Shield,” the president said.

Erdoğan also added that Ankara had been ready to liberate Manbij and Raqqa from terrorist groups, but the US-led coalition opted to cooperate with Kurdish groups instead.

Referring to the PYD and the YPG, Erdoğan said he was “dismayed that strategic partners are cooperating with terrorists.”

Turkey launched the Operation Euphrates Shield in Aug. 2016 to maintain its border security, confront the Daesh terrorist organization and prevent the PKK terrorist organization and its PYD/YPG affiliates from establishing a terror corridor on Turkey’s border.