Erdoğan on Turkey's cross-border military operation: Our fight against terror groups, not Kurds

Speaking during an event held at the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul late Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stressed in his speech: "Our fight is not against Kurds, but against terrorist groups [the Daesh and YPG]"

Turkey will not stop its operation against YPG militants in northern Syria, Erdoğan said, dismissing what he called "threats" from other countries.

"It doesn't matter what certain people say, we will not stop," Turkish leader also said in his remarks.

"Now there are threats coming from left and right, telling us to stop this," he added.

"We will not step back... We will continue this fight until all the terrorists go south of the 32-kilometre (20 mile) limit from our border that Mr Trump himself mentioned."

Speaking at Dolmabahçe palace in Istanbul on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Turkey will continue its fight against terrorism until the end, criticizing the western world for its hypocrisy on terror. #OperationPeaceSpring pic.twitter.com/qKiM1SDbCB

— ANews (@anewscomtr) October 11, 2019

Turkish president also said that Turkey's anti-terror operations in northern Iraq and Syria -- including Operation Peace Spring, launched this Wednesday, and Operation Claw in northern Iraq, launched this summer -- never target countries' territorial integrity or sovereignty.

"Turkey will ensure its border security and the safe return of Syrians by clearing terrorist groups from east of the Euphrates River as we did with west of the Euphrates," said Erdoğan, referring to previous anti-terror operations since 2016.

Turkish leader pointed out that the anti-terror operation dubbed "Operation Peace Spring" was meant to protect rights of all Syrian people -- Arabs, Kurds, Ezidis, Chaldeans -- not to divide the conflict-ravaged country.

Turkey on Wednesday launched Operation Peace Spring east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria to secure its borders by eliminating terrorists there and to ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees and Syria's territorial integrity.

Ankara wants to eliminate from the region terrorist elements of the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the PYD/YPG.

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.

Since 2016, Turkey has conducted two major military operations in northwestern Syria -- Operations Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch -- to purge the region of the terrorist groups Daesh and the PYD/YPG.

On May 27, Ankara launched Operation Claw against the PKK in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq, followed by the operation's second and third phases in July and late August.

The operation will continue until northern Iraq is cleared of PKK terrorists for the safety of both countries, said Turkey's National Security Council last month.