Erdogan will urge Putin to remove Kurdish fighters from Syrian border: Report

Two specific areas the official mentioned were Manbij and Tal Rifaat in northwestern Syria.

Kovan Izzat 2021/09/28 12:34

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint press conference. April 4, 2018. (Photo: AFP)

Syria Vladimir Putin Recep Tayyip Erdogan YPG Afrin Tal Rifaat Manbij

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will ask his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to help him remove Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces from Syria’s border with Turkey when they meet on Wednesday, according to an anonymous Turkish official cited by Bloomberg on Tuesday.

Two specific areas the official mentioned were Manbij and Tal Rifaat in northwestern Syria.

Turkey and Russia had agreed in 2019 that YPG fighters and their weapons would be relocated at least 19 miles away from the Turkish border by Russian military police and Syrian border guards.

Turkey invaded the northwestern Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin in early 2018, displacing hundreds of thousands of Kurdish inhabitants. It occupies the region with its Syrian militiamen proxies. These forces have been responsible for numerous documented abuses against civilians.

The YPG has retained a presence in the neighboring Tal Rifaat area since it withdrew its remaining forces from Afrin in March 2018. Thousands of civilians from Afrin also continue to languish in displaced person camps since that Turkish invasion uprooted them.

In 2019, Turkey launched another cross-border military operation, codenamed Operation Peace Shield, against Kurdish forces in northern Syria, occupying additional swathes of Syrian Kurdish territory.

Erdogan will meet Putin in the Black Sea Russian resort city of Sochi on Wednesday. There they are expected to discuss Syria and other issues of mutual interest.