The head of the Turkish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Akif Çağatay Kılıç, has said that the Afrin operation will be on the delegation's agenda in order to provide information.
"In the general assembly on Wednesday [Jan. 23], we will explain in detail our country's aims and concerns under Turkey's military operation in Syria," Kılıç said.
The Unified Left Group in PACE demanded to take up Turkey's Afrin operation to be discussed urgently. However, with efforts from the Turkish delegation, the issue will be discussed as a general topic in the assembly.
In relation to recent developments, Kılıç said: "We already know that the operation is just. The whole world has also accepted it. As President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan said, we will explain that the operation is not targeting the Kurdish people and territorial integrity of Syria. On the contrary, we are there to provide their security against the terrorists."
Commenting on the disinformation in PACE regarding the Afrin operation, Kılıç said: "Turkey is not in Afrin to bring more chaos to the region as some claim, but to end the chaos. We will tell this in PACE."
On Saturday, the Turkish military launched an operation on Afrin to clear its border of the PKK's Syrian affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia to prevent them from establishing an autonomous region, which Turkish officials call a "terror corridor," by connecting the northwestern Afrin canton to the Kobani and Jazeera cantons to the east.Erdoğan said that Turkey will continue the operation and eliminate the terrorists from the region in order to ensure the country's national security. He recently said: "We will take control of Afrin as we did in the Syrian towns of Jarablus, al-Rai and al-Bab, and Syrians will be able to return home."
Erdoğan has repeatedly said that Turkey does target the Kurdish people, but is aiming to clear the terrorist from the region. The operation is expected to pave the way for providing a secure environment to return Syrians to their homes.