KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 (NNN-BERNAMA) —\u00a0Turkey’s\u00a0\u2018Operation Peace Spring\u2019 in the northeast\u00a0of Syria is necessary to protect the Turkish\u00a0border and to eliminate terror threats that can undermine national security, said Turkish Ambassador to Malaysia Merve\u00a0Safa Kavakci.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She asserted that it was also Turkey’s fundamental right to defend its security and safety of subjects within the Turkey-Syria border from the threats of terror groups \u2013 the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) and People’s Protection Units (YPG).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The corridor (border) that (is) until now used by terrorist organisations PKK and YPG is not acceptable to Turkey. It threatens the territorial integrity, the civil human liberty and lives of the Turkish citizens,\u201d she said in an interview with Bernama, here, to explain her government’s action in launching the military operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the operation is also needed in order to establish a safe zone for the passage of Syrian refugees who seek refuge in Turkey to return home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are currently some four million displaced Syrians in Turkey since the Syrian war broke in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kavakci said 400,000 of the refugees had returned home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There are 300,000 Syrian Kurds that had fled from atrocities carried out by terrorist organisations PKK and YPG on both sides of the borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTherefore, it is the right of the Turkish Republic to protect its border and to protect its citizens and to protect the human rights of the Syrian refugees who had been passing through the Syrian border,\u201d she reiterated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the criticism it received from the international bodies, including from the Arab League, following the operation launched last Wednesday, Kavakci said Turkey had to take matter into its own hands as its \u2018allies\u2019 had turned their backs on the peace process in that area, leaving Turkey alone to deal with the mounting humanitarian crises affecting the Syrian refugees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInternational communities should not have any worries about Turkey fighting off the terrorist factions. We have done that before, fought them on our own, against the ISIS (DAESH). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTherefore, for the security of all the Syrian Kurds, for the security of the Kurdish people within Turkey, and territorial integrity of Syria, we are carrying out this operation,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kavakci said Turkish forces were also very meticulous and diligent in carrying out the operations in order to avoid harming civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the terrorist groups had\u00a0rained attacks across the border on at least two cities near the border, killing 18 Turkish civilians\u00a0including a nine-month-old\u00a0baby so far, while another 147 had been wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Voon Miaw Ping KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 (NNN-BERNAMA) —\u00a0Turkey’s\u00a0\u2018Operation Peace Spring\u2019 in the northeast\u00a0of Syria is necessary to protect the Turkish\u00a0border and to eliminate terror threats that can undermine national security, said Turkish Ambassador to Malaysia Merve\u00a0Safa Kavakci. She asserted that it was also Turkey’s fundamental right to defend its security and safety of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":46487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46486"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}