This archive report was first published on 26 October 2019.
Published on October 26, 2019, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to take matters into his own hands if a deal to clear 'terrorists' from the Syria border fails.
Speaking in Istanbul, Erdogan stated that if the YPG militia, which Turkey views as a 'terrorist' offshoot of Kurdish PKK insurgents, is not cleared within 150 hours, Turkey will 'take control and clean it ourselves.'
Under a deal agreed upon with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Tuesday, Moscow will facilitate the removal of the fighters and their weapons from within 30 kilometres of the border within a 30-day period.
The deadline for the deal is set to expire at 6pm local time on October 29.
Erdogan also expressed his satisfaction with the progress made in establishing a 'safe zone' to protect against attacks from the so-called Islamic State (IS) extremist group and the Kurdish YPG militia.
However, Turkey has repeatedly criticized American support to the YPG, who spearheaded the fight against IS under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) banner.
Erdogan also urged the international community to support establishing a 'safe zone' for some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
He warned that if there is no support for the projects to return between one and two million refugees in the first stage, Turkey will have no option but to open its doors and let them go to Europe.
