Ambassador of Turkey to Qatar Fikret Ozer
DOHA: Ambassador of Turkey to Qatar Fikret Ozer (pictured) has said that Operation Olive Branch in Afrin is targeting all terrorist elements, which threaten the security of both Turkey and the region and “all precautions are being taken to avoid collateral damage” to the civilian population.
“There have been no civilian causalities in the operation area to date,” Ambassador Fikret Ozer said in a press conference held here yesterday to update media on Operation Olive Branch.
He said that the operation was carried out by the Turkish armed forces in accordance with the Article 51 of the UN Charter, against PKK, PYD, YPG and Daesh targets in the region of Afrin in Syria to protect the national security of Turkey.
He said that Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens who were forced to flee their homes in Afrin by terrorists fully supported Turkish military operation. “Some of the local population is now returning to the towns liberated from the terrorists.”
The ambassador said that Operation Olive Branch was not carried out against any religious or ethnic groups.
“The Operation targets all terrorist elements, notably PKK, PYD, YPG and Daesh, which threaten the security of both Turkey and the region,” he stressed.
The ambassador said that Turkish institutions were providing continuous humanitarian aid to the region in order to prevent sufferings of the civilians.
“We are also establishing relief camps in Idlib and Azaz as a precaution for potential population movements,” he informed.
He said that Daesh was one of the major targets of the operation. “PKK, PYD, YPG and Daesh act in cooperation. The fact that PKK, PYD, YPG released Daesh terrorists following the launch of the Operation on condition that they would fight against Turkey is evidence of this cooperation.”
The Turkish ambassador said that Operation Olive Branch was launched as Turkey had been under direct attack of terrorist organisations including PKK, PYD, YPG and Daesh, which took advantage of the conditions of the civil war in Syria. The ambassador said that as many as 316 Turkish civilians had lost their lives in the Syria-originated terrorist attacks between 2015 and 2017.
“Since the beginning of 2017, more than 700 attacks were launched from Afrin to Turkey,” he said.
Fikret Ozer said that the objective of the operation was to ensure Turkish border security, neutralise terrorist elements in Afrin and thus, save the brotherly Syrians from the oppression and cruelty of those terrorists. “It is also aimed through the operation that the displaced refugees from Afrin safely return to their homeland.”
He said that the operation was being carried out on the basis of international law, in accordance with Turkish right to self-defence in line with Article 51 of the UN Charter and the relevant Security Council resolutions 1373 (2001), 1624 (2005), 2170 (2014) and 2178 (2014) and in full respect of Syria’s territorial integrity.
Fikret Ozer said that the operation would continue until complete elimination of terrorism-related security threat. He added that PYD and YPG were running disinformation campaign with visual shots of different times and locations, claiming that civilians were being killed in the operation.
