"Well will not allow PKK to take shelter in Iraq", Turkish Minister says

Shafaq News / Turkey will not allow the PKK/PYD/YPG to take shelter in Syria and Iraq, the country's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday, Anadolu agency reported.

"We will not allow the PKK/PYD/YPG to take shelter in Syria and Iraq. We will definitely not allow this. No matter what anyone says about it, we will do whatever is necessary," Cavusoglu told the parliament in the capital Ankara.

Last month, Turkey launched Operation Claw-Sword in northern areas of Iraq and Syria, a cross-border aerial campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has hideouts across Iraqi and Syrian borders from where they plan and sometimes execute attacks on Turkish soil.

"In Syria, we have been in talks with the (Assad) regime for a while, through the intelligence services. If the regime acts realistically, we are ready to work together on the fight against terrorism, the political process, and the return of Syrians. It is unthinkable otherwise," Cavusoglu said.

Türkiye follows the same policy in Iraq, Cavusoglu said, adding that Ankara offers both Iraq's central and regional governments cooperation in "fighting terrorism".

"If our interlocutors listen to our calls, we will march together and fight terrorism together. If they remain unresponsive, we will pull ourselves by our own bootstraps," he added.