Turkey, UK discuss bilateral relations and regional issues

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday discussed with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson bilateral relations and regional issues.

This came in a telephone conversation between them, according to a statement issued by the Directorate of Communication of the Turkish Presidency.

The statement said Erdogan told Johnson that his country is closely following the withdrawal of Kurdish YPG fighters from the safe zone, handing over of their weapons and destroying their bases.

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On Thursday, Turkey and the US reached a truce agreement which allowed Kurdish fighter to surrender their weapons and leave the areas in northeastern Syria in which Turkey launched a military campaign a fortnight ago.

With the participation of the Syrian National Army, the Turkish Army launched on 9 October Operation Peace Spring to the east of the Euphrates River area in northern Syria. This is the third and largest of Turkish offensive into northern Syria – Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016 and Operation Olive Branch in 2018. The aims of the current operation are to push the Kurdish militias such as the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – which Turkey perceives as a national security threat on its border region – further back from the Syrian-Turkish border and to establish the planned safe zone east of the Euphrates River that could house over two million refugees.