President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the operation by the Turkish military in the Syrian northwestern province of Idlib was largely completed. Erdogan noted, during an address to his ruling AK party, that while Turkish forces have managed to secure most of the Idlib province, the neighboring province of Afrin, which is controlled by a Kurdish militia, remained an issue – signaling a warning to the Kurdish militias in Syria, that Turkey will not remain indifferent to their actions and will possibly surprise them with an attack. Erdogan said, “Thanks God, the operation in Idlib is largely completed. Now, we have Afrin issue ahead of us. All of these matters pose threats to us and we are determined to tackle issues in every field that poses threat to our country. I want everybody to know this. We won’t make any concession in these matters. As I said before, we can suddenly come one night, we can suddenly hit one night,” the Turkish leader declared to the sound of a loud applause.
Turkey’s army began setting up observation posts in Idlib province this month under a deal with Russia and Iran to reduce fighting between insurgents and Syrian government forces, but the Turkish deployment was also seen as partly aimed at containing the Kurdish YPG militia. Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the PKK, an internationally recognized terror organization that has been waging an armed insurgency against Ankara for three decades. While Turkey has supported rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the Syrian civil war, since last year Ankara has shifted its focus toward securing its own border regions, both from jihadists and Kurdish forces that control much of the frontier areas inside Turkey’s southern-war-torn-neighbor.