Turkey to clear YPG/PKK terrorists east of Euphrates: Turkish FM

ANTALYA

Turkey will clear YPG/PKK terrorists from east of the Euphrates like in Syria's Afrin and Jarabulus at any cost, said Turkish Foreign Minister on Aug. 11. 

“Turkey won't allow U.S. to stall the process for the operation in east of Euphrates like they did in Manbij,” Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in Eid Al-Adha greetings in his hometown Antalya. 

“The U.S. has not done its part in implementing the roadmap that we have approved of together,” he added. 

Çavuşoğlu went on to say that, Turkey will clear east of the Euphrates either with or without the U.S. 

Turkey has promised a counter-terrorist operation east of the Euphrates in northern Syria, following two similar successful operations since 2016. 

In the last two years, Turkey’s Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations liberated the region from YPG/PKK and ISIL terrorists, allowing hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians to return to their homes. 

The Manbij deal between Turkey and the U.S. focuses on the withdrawal of YPG/PKK terrorists from the city to stabilize the region, which is located in the northern part of Syria’s Aleppo province. 

YPG/PKK is the Syrian offshoot of terror group PKK, which has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people in Turkey, including many children, women, and infants, for more than 30 years. 

Precautions taken for economy bringing positive outcomes

The measures economic authorities have taken to repel economic attacks and ameliorate the economy have been yielding quite positive outcomes, the foreign minister said.

“The interest rates and inflation are decreasing thanks to the significant measures we have promptly taken. On the other hand, when we take a look at other economic indicators, Turkey’s current account balance does not post deficits anymore. It is posting current account surpluses,” Çavuşoğlu said.

The current account surplus is an indicator of a producing and exporting economy, the minister conveyed.

“[We] are selling [products] to overseas, all over the world,” he added.

All of these developments display the upward trend in Turkey’s economy, according to the top diplomat.

“We have repelled every attack towards Turkey’s economy, coming from abroad. These kinds of attacks and plans have been very effective in different countries. The only country [these attacks] failed is the Republic of Turkey,” he said.

These attacks failed thanks to the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and hard works of Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, along with the efforts of other economic authorities, Çavuşoğlu underlined.

“There can be recession sometimes, the markets can shrink and unemployment [rates] can slightly increase,” he said. He added that necessary precautions to revive the markets have been taken and started to yield favorable outcomes.

The objectives in the tourism industry are also being revised, Çavuşoğlu said. Turkey aims to host 50 million tourists and gain a revenue of $50 billion by 2023, he added.

“The indicators point out to 50 million tourists, if nothing goes wrong. Revenues gained from tourism are rising,” he said.

“We are increasing per capita income via tourism,” he added.

“Now, we are getting the worth of our quality services,” Çavuşoğlu said.

Turkey’s range in the tourism industry is very diverse, the minister added.

“We are providing diversity from health tourism to sports tourism,” he said.