Reports about the Assad regime's plan to enter Syria's Afrin, where Turkey is carrying out Operation Olive Branch, and striking a deal with PKK-linked People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorists is propaganda, Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın said Tuesday.
Kalın noted that while the reports sound like propaganda, they do not mean there is no "secret negotiation" between the Assad regime and the YPG.
The top presidential aide said on his official Twitter account that Turkey's anti-terror operation will continue with determination, regardless of what happens.
Syrian state media said Monday that pro-Assad forces will begin entering Afrin "within hours," after reaching an agreement with the YPG terrorists in control of the region.
Afrin has been held by the YPG terrorist group since 2012. It is a strategic province for the YPG's goal of establishing an autonomous region in northern Syria. The YPG's ultimate aim is to establish an autonomous region in northern Syria by connecting the northwestern Afrin canton to the Kobani and Jazeera cantons in the northeast, which would provide the group access to the Mediterranean Sea.
Turkey has long said that it will not allow such an establishment, due to the group's organic links to the PKK terror organization, which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, the EU, and Turkey. However, despite clear organizational links between the groups, the U.S. has supported the YPG, under the Syrian Democratic Forces, in the fight against Daesh since 2015 by providing them weapons and military equipment, as well as logistical support.
