Türkiye willing to make joint efforts with Syria, Russia to fight PKK/YPG

ANKARA (AA) – Türkiye has expressed willingness to collaborate with Syria and Russia in its efforts to contain Kurdish nationalist groups in the region.

“Currently, we want to take a step with Syria and Russia as a trio. For this, first our intelligence organizations should come together, then our defense ministers and, then our foreign ministers should meet,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters aboard returning from his Turkmenistan trip.

He said that leaders of Türkiye, Russia and Syria could also meet for talks after the meeting of intelligence, defense and foreign officials.

Erdogan added that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin welcomed this proposal in their latest phone talk.

Emphasizing that the PKK is active in Syria especially in its northern parts, Erdogan said his country will take matters into its own hands if countries like the US continue to provide “thousands of truck-loads” of weapons, ammunition, tools and equipment to “terrorists” in Syria.

The Turkish president also lashed out at EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s latest remarks targeting Türkiye over its ties with Russia and urging it to join EU’s sanctions against Moscow.

“I do not take Borrell as my interlocutor. He can only be Mr. (Turkish Foreign Minister) Mevlut’s (Cavusoglu) interlocutor,” Erdogan said, while describing Borrell’s remarks as “ugly.”

“In other words, Borrell cannot appoint or regulate our relations with Russia. He has neither the quality nor the capacity to make such a decision on these matters. It was a very ugly comment,” he added.