Türkiye by no means refrains from its combat towards terrorist organizations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan‘s chief adviser Akif Çağatay Kılıç stated Wednesday.
“We never backed away from our operations in the north of Syria and Iraq, and our fight against terrorism,” Kılıç informed the TRT Haber tv channel.
His remarks got here after 12 Turkish troopers have been killed in a PKK terrorist assault final week, adopted by Türkiye’s airstrikes towards terror targets in northern Iraq and Syria to eradicate members of the PKK terror group and different terrorist parts.
“No one can anymore question the steps taken by Türkiye to ensure its own security and regional security,” Kılıç added.
On Saturday, President Erdoğan vowed that Türkiye would pay “whatever the cost” to stop the emergence of a “terrorist structure” in northern Iraq and Syria, each areas alongside Türkiye’s borders.
PKK terrorists usually conceal out in northern Iraq to plot cross-border assaults in Türkiye. They even have a Syrian department, generally known as the YPG.
In its greater than 35-year terror marketing campaign towards Türkiye, the PKK — listed as a terrorist group by Türkiye, the U.S. and the European Union — has been chargeable for the deaths of greater than 40,000 folks, together with girls, youngsters and infants.
Kılıç stated Türkiye is the second largest military of NATO, and it has some expectations from its allies relating to its stance towards terrorism.
“We have allies which make misreadings in some cases,” he stated, including some allies “unfortunately choose a wrong path” to make use of some terrorist teams to cease or destroy different terrorist teams.
Türkiye has lengthy complained of the U.S. working with the PKK/YPG on the pretext of combating Daesh/ISIS. Turkish officers say utilizing one terrorist group to combat one other is mindless.
SWEDEN’S NATO BID
Turning to Sweden’s bid to affix NATO, Kılıç stated Sweden modified its legal guidelines and structure and restricted the mobility of a number of the terrorist organizations inside the nation.
“Sweden has taken serious steps,” he added, stressing that the ultimate say on the Nordic nation’s NATO membership lies with the Turkish General Assembly.
The Turkish parliament’s international affairs fee on Tuesday accredited Sweden’s NATO membership bid. The subsequent step is a vote by the complete parliament, the place the ruling alliance holds nearly all of seats.
Finland and Sweden-both Nordic nations near or bordering Russia-applied for NATO membership quickly after Russia launched its battle on Ukraine in February 2022.
Türkiye accredited Finland’s membership within the alliance this March however stated it was ready for Sweden to abide by a June 2022 trilateral memorandum to handle Ankara’s safety considerations.
On Ankara’s bid to buy F-16 fighter jets from the U.S., Kılıç stated U.S. President Joe Biden doesn’t have a “negative view” on the problem, however careworn that it’s a matter of the Congress.
In a cellphone name on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan informed his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken that Türkiye expects the U.S. administration and U.S. Congress to behave in step with the spirit of the NATO alliance and hold guarantees on the sale of F-16s to Ankara.
Ankara requested F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits in October 2021. The $6 billion deal would come with the sale of 40 jets in addition to modernization kits for 79 warplanes already within the Turkish Air Force’s stock. The U.S. State Department has informally notified Congress of the potential sale.
However, key lawmakers on Capitol Hill have vowed to kill the deal over a number of calls for, together with making the acquisition contingent on Ankara’s approval of Sweden’s NATO membership bid. Ankara maintains that the jets would strengthen not solely Türkiye but in addition NATO.
Regarding Türkiye’s plan to buy Eurofighter Typhoon plane, Kılıç stated the UK and Spain don’t have any issues with the procurement.
“There is an objection by Germany, and we are working on it,” he added.
‘ISRAEL IS CRUEL’
Turning to Israel’s ongoing battle in Gaza, Kılıç stated Türkiye doesn’t settle for that the world watches what is going on in silence.
“In the first weeks, the Western world was supportive of Israel,” he famous.
Stressing that many protests have been held throughout European capitals and likewise within the U.S. to specific help for Palestine, Kılıç stated: “Even so, the governments did not want to see it; the people shouted their support for Palestine. Our president did this at the forefront.”
Now, greater than 150 nations help the stance towards Israel, he added.
“Israel is cruel. Israel’s policies are cruelty. Those being massacred right now are Palestinians,” Kılıç careworn.
Countries within the area are at the moment making efforts to stop the battle from spreading, he stated, including Türkiye is working with the Gulf nations to discover a “fair and lasting” answer to the problem.
Israel launched a large navy marketing campaign on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border assault by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing a minimum of 21,110 Palestinians, largely girls and kids, and injuring 55,243 others, in response to native well being authorities.
The onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure broken or destroyed and almost 2 million folks displaced amid acute shortages of meals, clear water and medicines.
Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed within the Hamas assault.
Source: www.anews.com.tr