Erdoğan: We Will Participate in Both Mosul Operation, Negotiations

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spoken at the International İstanbul Law Congress.

President Erdoğan said, “And now the operations into Mosul have started. We told them; we are sorry but we won’t be responsible for the outcomes of an operation in which Turkey is doesn’t participate. We will both participate in the operation and negotiations. It is not possible that we will be outside of it because a history lies there for us”.

“Nobody should expect us to leave Bashiqa”

As to Bashiqa military base located near Mosul, Erdoğan said:

“Right now we have fellows in Mosul. There are Arabs, Turkmans, Kurds. It is not possible for us to be insensitive here. ‘Leave Bashiqa’. Nobody should expect us to leave Bashiqa. We are in Bashiqa, and we have carried out operations against DAEŞ (ISIS –Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-) terror organization and we will continue doing that”.

“It is us who trained our fellows in Mosul”

Stressing that local forces have been trained in Bashiqa camp for fight against ISIS, Erdoğan told:

“If this is about fighting the terror organization, we are the ones who have been giving this fight from the beginning. It is who have trained our fellows in Mosul so they can combat DAEŞ. In the same way, it is us who have trained Peshmerga there. If these didn’t happen, you wouldn’t be able to find a proper staff to combat DEAŞ”.

“We cannot say ‘yes’ to Sunni-Shia conflict”

Erdoğan said that there is a sectarian conflict in Mosul:

“The efforts to leave our country outside the Mosul operation is because we will disrupt the sectarian conflict trap that is trying to be set under the cover of [fighting] DEAŞ. That is why we are not let in there, we told them the same thing. We cannot say ‘yes’ to a Sunni-Shia conflict”.

Syria

About the Euphrates Shield Operation, Erdoğan defended the operation saying “You call it self-defense or whatever, and we’ve gotten in”.

“Our border with Syria is 911 kilometers but it is right for the ones who have nothing to do with Syria to enter Syria, and when it comes to us ‘Murderer [Syrian President Bashar al] Assad hasn’t invited you, how do you go there?’. We are sorry but we do because if we are under terror threat, we go there if that country threatens us with howitzers, missiles. You know better its place in law. You call it self-defense or whatever, and we’ve gotten in”.

Criticizing the United States for not keeping its promise about Manbij, Erdoğan said Democratic Union Party (PYD) and People’s Protection Forces (YPG) are terror organizations and the US going against its word let them into Manbij though the city is predominantly Arab.

Erdoğan also accused the US of giving Green Card to Fethullah Gülen, the leader of the Gülen Community, which is charged with carrying out July 15 coup attempt. (HK/TK)