Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the PYD and its armed wing the YPG are being used by Russia and Assad regime to advance their own agenda in the region, describing the YPG as “hired soldiers of Russia” because they fight moderate opposition forces instead of Daesh (ISIS).
Addressing Justice and Development Party MPs at the Turkish parliament on Tuesday, Davutoglu said: “Neither Daesh nor YPG are primary components of these territories. The YPG and the PYD are legionnaires [and] hired soldiers of Russia.”
“Lately, PYD started to stab the groups which fight against Daesh in the back. Especially after the tension between Turkey and Russia escalated, PYD has become Russia’s mercenary prioritizing to harm Turkey. PYD and YPG certainly do not represent Kurdish people in the region. They are not representatives of Syria but Russia’s legionaries and mercenaries,” Davutoglu said
“Turkey will continue to retaliate whenever and wherever it is necessary in order to protect its own borders and prevent an ethnic cleansing that poses threat for its security. We will not allow any further human tragedy or intense refugee flow and will prevent the weakening of Syrian opposition forces,” Davutoglu added.
Davutoglu said that Moscow and Assad regime were displacing thousands of people by using the PYD with the aim of changing the ethnic demographic nature of Syria’s north.
“Gaining legitimacy from the international community under the pretext of carrying out an anti-Daesh fight, Russia and PYD aim at empowering the Assad regime by attacking only anti-Assad groups without any single assault on Daesh,” Davutoglu said.
“Ethnic cleansing has been carried out on all anti-regime opposition groups not affiliated with Daesh so as to clear them out of Syria,” Davutoglu added.
Davutoglu went on to say that Turkey’s recent shelling and operati ons have halted YPG’s advance in Azaz, adding that Russian fighter jets were randomly shelling the area without distinguishing between civilians and the military.
“Russian warplanes are not only using smart bombs but they are dropping all their bomb stocks without thinking or estimating where they hit since they are trying to use up their expired bomb stock in their inventories,” Davutoglu said.
Davutoglu added that Russian jets conducted 200 sorties over the small town of Azaz on Monday alone. He condemned Russian air strikes which killed hundreds of civilians in Syria, calling the bombing campaign as “vile, cruel and barbaric.”
“Those vile, cruel and barbaric planes have made close to 8,000 sorties since September 30 without any discrimination between civilians and soldiers, or children and the elderly,” Davutoglu said. (Source: Anadolu Agency)
