22 July 2022
Turkey never asks anyone for permission before launching a military operation in Syria, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned Thursday, July 21.
“We can exchange ideas, but we have never asked and we (Turkey) will never ask for an authorization for our military operations against terrorism in Syria” he hammered, warning: “It can happen overnight, suddenly”.
During a tripartite summit with Iran and Russia on Tuesday in Tehran, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been threatening a Turkish military operation in Syria since May, said he was counting on the “support of Russia and the ‘Iran in the fight against terrorism’. But his two counterparts had clearly warned against any operation in northeastern Syria that would be detrimental to the region. But his two counterparts had clearly warned against any operation in northeastern Syria that would be detrimental to the region. Mevlut Cavusoglu recalled that Turkey had “suspended” its operations in eastern Syria in October 2019, “following the promises of the United States and Russia”.
An agreement signed under the auspices of Washington and Moscow promised the withdrawal of Kurdish forces 30 km from the Turkish border. But “these promises were not kept. Attacks against Syrian opponents and our soldiers have increased,” assured Mevlut Cavusoglu. “What would the United States do in our place? What would Russia do? What does she say to justify her invasion of Ukraine? That there was a threat against him”. “We denounced Russia’s aggression against Ukraine from the very beginning. But there are attacks carried out against us from this area” in northeastern Syria, insisted the minister.