Türkiye's determination to establish safe zone continues: Erdoğan

ANKARA

Türkiye's determination to establish a 30-kilometer-deep (18.6-mile) security strip next to its borders continues, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Nov. 28. 

"The terrorist organization, which has suffered great losses in operations Türkiye carried out along its southern borders, showed its dirty face by shedding the blood of innocents with its mortar attacks on civilian settlements on our borders," said Erdoğan, referring to cross-border terror attacks last week from YPG/PKK terrorists in Syria into southern Türkiye.

"We do not need to get permission from anyone while taking steps concerning the security of our homeland and our people, and we will not be held accountable to anyone," Erdoğan added.

“In a period of events that will fundamentally change the global security architecture, Türkiye has reached a level where it can meet its own needs despite the countless injustices and embargoes it was subjected to. No one can push our country to positions against its interests in political, diplomatic, economic and military spheres through empty and hollow threats,' he said. 

'Thankfully, this fact has begun to be recognized by all parties, particularly by our allies, after an arduous process. We now see that those, who still try to maintain their old habits on the level of political discourse due to pressures from anti-Türkiye lobbies, are getting used to live with this fact on an administrative level.  We are now getting preparing for this new situation by reviewing our regional and global relations. We know that there are no everlasting friendships or animosities in international relations, and that one should act according to the circumstances of the era without compromising fundamental principles. If we had not acted in this way, we would have burned bridges with many of the countries we call ‘ally’ because of their direct or indirect dirty relations with terrorist organizations. Not only we have avoided that, but also we have not completely cut off contact with some countries, with which we reduced our level of relations due to our different approaches toward regional political and humanitarian crises,” Erdoğan added.