ISTANBUL
Türkiye will continue its righteous fight against terrorism until it is no longer under the terrorist threat, said the nation’s president on Monday.
“Our fight will persist until Türkiye is freed from the threat of separatist terrorism,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a rally in the Black Sea city of Corum, campaigning for local elections less than a week away.
Telling how terrorists tried to encircle Türkiye by establishing a terrorist corridor in neighboring Syria and how terror group Daesh/ISIS attacked the country, Erdogan said that Ankara had repelled these attacks through operations in northern Syria, near the Turkish border.
“We cleared out the terrorists’ nests with a strategy aimed at eliminating the source of terrorism. We did it in Gabar, we did it in Tendurek, and we did it in Bestler-Dereler,” he added, referring to areas in Türkiye near the borders, where terrorists have taken shelter, crossed the border when they could, and plotted attacks.
Now, with the help of armed unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), Türkiye can ferret out terrorists 300-350 kilometers (189-217 miles) from the border and “crush them,” said Erdogan.
Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).
Türkiye’s local elections, held nationwide every five years, are set for next Sunday.
