SouthFront -- TURKEY CREATES ‘SECURITY ZONES’ NEAR JARABLUS

#MIDDLEEAST#SYRIA 26.08.2016 -

    

TURKEY CREATES ‘SECURITY ZONES’ NEAR JARABLUS

Turkish authorities have announced creation of “security zones” in area of the Syrian city of Jarablus. The Russian Defense Ministry has asked Turkey to provide additional information on the use of aircraft during ground operation in Syria to avoid air accidents.

Photo: xendan.org

Spokesman for the Turkish president Ibrahim Kalin said that Ankara creates “security zones” for refugees in area of the Syrian city of Jarablus, which was taken by Turkish troops and Syrian ‘oppositionists’.

“The main purpose of the ‘Euphrates Shield’ operation is to clear our border of all Islamic State [IS] terrorists and other terrorist elements,” CNN quoted his words. “During the last two years, we had been advocating for creation of ‘security zones’ near the border between Syria and Turkey for several reasons: firstly, to protect our border, but also to provide a shelter for refugees from Syria,” Kalin said, answering a question about further steps of Ankara. “Further, the control of these areas will be handed over to the Syrian people. This is currently happening in Jarablus.”

Apparently, Turkey also plans to use these “security zones” as a springboard for future operations.

Kalin also was asked about whether Turkey’s position regarding the possibility of further presence of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian government has been changed after normalization of relations between Moscow and Ankara.

“Firstly, our position on the future of Assad has not changed. We believe that there is no place for him in Syria’s future because he has completely lost legitimacy,” the spokesman for the Turkish president said. “As for the transitional period, which plays a key role in the process of transfer of power, we would like to focus on the mechanism, which will be used, but not on specific personalities. We work on this with Russia and the US under auspices of the UN,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry has asked Turkey to provide additional information on the use of aircraft during ground operation against the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria, the Izvestiya newspaper reported on Friday, citing an unnamed source.

“The Russian Defense Ministry has asked the Turkey’s military department to provide information about its air campaign’s plans in Syria to avoid air accidents, as Turkish fighter jets will intensively strike on targets in Syria for the first time and can meet with Russian warplanes in the air,” the source said.

As it was reported, on Wednesday, the Turkish Army with support of the international coalition launched a military operation “to clean out” the Syrian city of Jarablus of IS terrorists. The Turkish Air Force struck terrorists. During the operation, the Turkish Special Forces entered in Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Free Syrian Army has established control over Jarablus.

Later, it became known that Turkey has notified Russia, the US, Iran and other members of the international community about beginning of the military operation in northern Syria.