Main opposition CHP welcomes end of Euphrates Shield operation in Syria

ANKARA

AFP photo

Turkey’s decision to end Euphrates Shield Operation is the right step, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said, adding that he has long been advising the government not to go further south into Syria at the expense of more martyrs.

“Turkey had to create a buffer zone to ensure its own security. It went there to create such a zone. Turkey has to ensure its own security, so we supported that. Now they are in withdrawal,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on a radio show on late March 30.

His comments came after Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım announced that Turkey had successfully completed its months-long Euphrates Shield operation in northern Syria that aimed to clear its border off jihadist militants.

“After this point, if we take action in the event that our security is threatened or if action is needed against DAESH [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL], then it will be as part of a new operation,” Yıldırım said on March 29.

Kılıçdaroğlu recalled the CHP’s initial criticism of the implementation of the operation, stating that Turkey should not have gone further south into Syria.

“They were to go deeper [to the south of Syria]; that was what they were saying. We objected to that. We had so many martyrs. Our children were dying there,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

“‘How come you are doing that, why are you going deeper into Syria,’ we said to them, objecting to the operation. The eventual standpoint proves us right,” he added.

The Euphrates Shield operation was launched on Aug. 24, 2016, in a bid to clear Turkey’s border of ISIL and stop the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) from merging its Kobane and Afrin cantons.