Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged both Russia and Iran to back its fights against “terrorism” in Syria at the Russia-Iran-Turkey summit in Tehran.
“Tell Rifat and Manbij have become hotbeds of terrorism. The time has come to clean up these harbours where the terrorist organisation has taken shelter,” Erdoğan said.
“We are determined to drive out the centres of evil that target our national security from Syria,” he said. “What we expect from Russia and Iran as guarantors of the Astana [process] is that they support Turkey in this fight.”
The Turkish president repeated his claim that the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), Democratic Union Party (PYD), People’s Defence Units (YPG) are a common issue for all of them.
“It should be clearly understood that there is no room in the future of our region for separatist terror organisations,” he said.
“We will continue our fight against terrorist organisations in the time to come,” he added.