US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Ankara on Thursday, meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and hammering out a 120 hour ceasefire deal aimed at allowing Syrian Kurdish forces to retreat to a distance of about 30 km from the Syrian-Turkish border.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that his forces would “crush the heads” of Syrian Kurdish forces if they did not complete a pullout from the border area.
“Today is the second day [of the ceasefire]. This process will end on Tuesday night. If the promises given to Turkey are not fulfilled, we will not wait, as before. We will continue the operation we started and will continue to destroy terrorists,” Erdogan said, speaking at a ceremony in Kayseri, central Turkey on Saturday.
The president added that Ankara would “implement its own plans” if Ankara could not reach a solution with Russia on the Syrian forces deployed in the country's north.
Erdogan said he planned to discuss the deployment of Syrian forces in a “safe zone” in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week.
“Yesterday I held talks with US President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, we will continue the dialogue with Mr. Putin. In the area where the operation is taking place, the troops of the regime [of Syrian President Bashar Assad] are under the protection of Russia. We will discuss this with Mr. Putin,” Erdogan indicated.
The president added that the…
