ANKARA
YPG/PKK terrorist ringleader Ferhat Abdi Sahin, codenamed Mazloum Kobani, is wanted by Interpol with a red notice, and the U.S. should hand him over to Ankara, Turkey’s president said Thursday.
Speaking live on Turkey’s state-run broadcaster TRT, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country has been harassed by terrorists in northern Syria for eight years.
Erdogan underlined that some NATO countries armed the YPG/PKK terror group, and that Germany, France and the U.S. met the leaders of the terrorist organization.
Reiterating that Turkey had no issues with Kurdish people, Erdogan said: “Kurds are our brothers, we do not have problems with them, we fight only terrorists.”
Erdogan said the Operation Peace Spring was named so due to the existence of large numbers of springs to the east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria.
He reiterated that the international community had been informed on Turkey’s anti-terror operation east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria.
On Oct. 9, Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring to eliminate terrorists from northern Syria east of the Euphrates River in order to secure Turkey’s borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees, and ensure Syria’s territorial integrity.
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 the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.
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