Erdoğan: Turkey to go ahead with Syria op if US promises not kept

Turkey will press on ahead with its cross-border operation into Syria if promises given by Washington to Ankara are not kept, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of an official visit to Russia, Erdoğan also said he would discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin how a Syrian constitutional committee that is due to meet in late October can make concrete progress.

Erdogan will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea city of Sochi to discuss the future of Syria. Moscow is one of the main stakeholders in the lingering Syrian conflict providing the Bashar al-Assad regime military support.

“Turkey and Russia agree on every point of the fight against terrorism,” Erdogan said.

“We will discuss the steps to be taken to end the presence of PKK/PYD/YPG in areas where Syrian regime elements exist,” he added.

He went on to say that Turkey's operation in northern Syria neutralized 775 YPG/PKK terrorists. Also, seven Turkish troops, 79 Turkey-backed Syrian National Army troops and 20 civilians were martyred.

The successful operation aimed at establishing peace in the region has cleared an area of 2,200 square kilometers of terrorists and 160 settlements, he added.

Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring on Oct. 9 to eliminate terrorists from northern Syria in order to secure Turkey's borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees and ensure Syria's territorial integrity.

Ankara and the U.S. have agreed on a 20-mile (32-kilometer) safe zone south of the Turkish border in Syria, where Turkey wants to accommodate more than 3 million refugees it is currently hosting.

On Oct. 17, Turkey agreed to pause its Syria operation for 120 hours to allow the withdrawal of YPG/PKK terrorists from the planned safe zone. The pause ends on Tuesday evening.

Some 700 to 800 terrorists withdrew from the safe zone and 1,200 to 1,300 are planning to retreat, Erdogan said.

"We are tracking them down," he said.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union -- has been responsible for deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is its Syrian offshoot.