Turkey's anti-terror operation in northern Syria has led to hundreds of terrorists desert the PKK terror group and its Syrian branch, the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
As security sources reported yesterday, nearly 600 terrorists who were forcefully recruited in the cities of Raqqa and al-Tabqah have fled the terror group.
As the Turkish operation pushes forward, most of the Arab tribes who had worked with the terror group east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria have withdrawn their support, the sources added.
Also, over 40 terrorists surrendered to Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) elements, the Defense Ministry said yesterday.
A total of 673 YPG terrorists have been killed since Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria, the ministry added.
Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, the third in a series of cross-border anti-terror operations in northern Syria targeting terrorists affiliated with Daesh and the YPG, on Oct. 9 at 4 p.m.
The operation, conducted in line with the country's right to self-defense borne out of international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, aims to establish a terror-free safe zone for Syrians to return to in the area east of the Euphrates River controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by YPG terrorists.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union, has waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years, resulting in the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
Turkey has long decried the threat from terrorists east of the Euphrates in northern Syria, pledging military action to prevent the formation of a "terrorist corridor" there.
Since 2016, Turkey's Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in northwestern Syria have liberated the region from YPG and Daesh terrorists, making it possible for nearly 400,000 Syrians who fled the violence to return home.
YPG has killed over 1,000 civilians in northern Syria, rights group says
Recent reports reveal the YPG terrorist group’s dark history of targeting civilians. Accordingly, the YPG has killed 1,157 civilians in northern Syria since 2012, a rights watchdog said.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), 203 of the victims were children and 47 people, including two women and one child, were tortured to death.
The terrorist group's human rights violations have been documented in the provinces of Al-Hasakah, Raqqah, Deir el-Zour, Aleppo, Hama and Homs.
Some 3,100 people have been languishing in detention centers of the terrorist group located in areas that fall within its control in northern Syria, the SNHR said.
SNHR, is a nonprofit organization that documents human rights violations in Syria since the beginning of the devastating civil war that began in early 2011, when Bashar Assad's regime cracked down on protesters with unexpected ferocity.
The YPG has carried out ethnic cleansing in areas it captured since 2012 through forced displacement and arbitrary practices.
Russia promised to keep YPG terrorists away from Turkey-Syria border, Çavuşoğlu says
Meanwhile, Moscow has promised Ankara that YPG terrorists will not be in the Syrian territories across the border as Bashar Assad's forces move north, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said yesterday.
Russia "promised that the PKK or YPG will not be on the other side of the border," Çavuşoğlu said in an interview with the BBC. "If Russia, accompanied by the Syrian army, removes YPG elements from the region, we will not oppose this."
Earlier yesterday, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the Assad regime should get control over its border with Turkey as part of any settlement of the conflict in the region, as Ankara pressed on with its anti-terror operation in northeastern Syria.
Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın also held talks yesterday with a Russian delegation led by Alexander Lavrentyev, Moscow's envoy for Syria.
The talks focused on Turkey's Operation Peace Spring as well as the latest situation in Idlib and Manbij. The parties agreed to continue their cooperation in order to tackle the threat to Syria's territorial integrity posed by the terrorist groups.
Talks with the Russians come as U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and State Secretary Mike Pompeo visit Ankara to discuss the Turkish operation.
EU should fund Turkey for Syrian refugee cities, Hungary says
Turkey’s arguments to justify the ongoing operation continues to draw support from the international community.
The Hungarian prime minister has suggested that Europe should provide financial help to Turkey to build cities that Syrian refugees can return to.
Speaking to Hungarian broadcaster Hir TV on Wednesday, Victor Orban said they will think about Hungary's national interests while they comment on Turkey's anti-terror operation in northeastern Syria.
Orban said Turkey is expected to take a decision about over more than 3 million Syrian refugees in the following weeks.
"Two things can happen in Turkey. Related institutions in Ankara will either send these people back to Syria or put them on a journey to Europe," Orban said.
If the latter happens, these people will reach Hungary's southern borders, he said.
"We suggest the European Union provide money for Turkey to build cities which Syrian refugees can return to," Orban said.