Operation to Raqqa after al-Bab: Turkey has no intention of staying in Syria

Turkish troops will not remain in Syria once the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is defeated and they will leave the lands to their “true owners,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, while vowing to advance the ongoing Euphrates Shield operation to Raqqa after al-Bab.


“Just like Jarablus, al-Rai, Dabiq were cleaned [of ISIL] and the locals returned, al-Bab will be cleared and the people of al-Bab will resettle there,” Erdoğan told reporters in Istanbul on Feb. 12 before departing for an official trip to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Stressing that Turkey aims to establish a “terrorist-free zone” in the region, he said the Euphrates Shield operation aims to eventually head to Manbij and Raqqa after the al-Bab offensive.

“After removing Deash, the YPG [Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units] and the PYD [the Syrian-Kurdish Democratic Union Party] from the region and getting Deash out of Raqqa, it will be too much of a luxury for us to say there. But it is currently too early to talk about such issues,” Erdoğan said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL.

“There will be no stop after al-Bab. There might be a problem of communication there. The capital of Deash is not al-Bab, but Raqqa. The ultimate goal is to cleanse a 5,000-square-km area,” he added.
 [hurriyetdailynews.com]
12/2/17