Retreat or fall under Turkish military, Russia tells YPG

MOSCOW

The Turkish army will crush the YPG if it refuses to withdraw from the Syrian-Turkish border, the Russian presidential spokesman said on Oct. 23.

An agreement reached by the Turkish and Russian presidents in Russia’s coastal city of Sochi on Oct. 22 suggests the removal of YPG/PKK elements and their weapons from the region, Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said if the YPG/PKK do not retreat, the Syrian border guards and Russian military police will step aside, “and remaining Kurdish formations would then fall under the weight of the Turkish military machine.”

Referring to the United States, “Now they prefer to leave the Kurds at the border and almost force them to fight the Turks,” he said in remarks to Russian news agencies.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also urged the YPG to pull out from the border zone.

The Syrian government should get back control of all oil facilities in the northeast of the country, the RIA Novosti news agency cited the ministry as saying on Oct. 23.

Meanwhile, a column of Russian military police arrived in the Syrian city of Ayn al-Arab, or Kobane, located near the Syrian-Turkish border, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Oct. 23.

“In accordance with the agreements reached by the presidents of Russia and Turkey on October 22 in Sochi, today, at 12 o’clock, a column of Russian military police crossed the Euphrates river and moved in the direction of the Syrian-Turkish border,” the ministry said in a statement.