MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : Turkey will solve Syria issue ‘on the field’ after elections, Erdogan says

30 March 2019 – MESOP NEWS – ANKARA,— Turkey will solve the Syria issue “on the field” after Sunday’s local elections, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, as he sought to drum up support for his AK Party in the vote.

Turkey has carried out two cross-border operations against Kurdish militants in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) in northern Syria and has warned that it will launch further incursions if the threats along its borders are not eliminated.

“First thing after the elections, we will solve the Syria issue on the field if possible, not at the table,” Erdogan told supporters in the first of his six rallies in Istanbul.

Ankara continuously threatening to launch a new offensive against the Syrian Kurdish fighters as Turkey fears the creation of a Kurdish autonomous region or Kurdish state in Syrian Kurdistan could encourage separatism amongst its own Kurds, according to analysts.

On August 24, 2016 Turkish troops entered the Syrian territory in a sudden incursion which resulted in the occupation of Jarablus after IS jihadists left the city without resistance. Most of Turkish operations were focused only against the Kurdish forces.