Ankara carried out an operation in Syria and Iraq because of Russia's failure to fulfill its promise to ensure the withdrawal of Kurdish units from the border with Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters aboard his plane on his way home from Qatar.
"Despite our repeated warnings to Russia, which has a responsibility to clear out terrorists in northern Iraq and Syria as per our 2019 Sochi deal, Moscow has failed and refuses to perform its duty," Erdogan said, as cited by the Daily Sabah newspaper.
According to him, Turkey stated that it would not "remain silent against terrorism" and would take action if Russia "failed to do so." "As such, we have struck and eliminated 12 terrorist nests in Ain al-Arab (Kobani)," The Turkish president noted.
He vowed that Turkey "will not be restrained; this counterterrorism operation, both from the air and the land, will continue."
