"Turkey is not Syria's occupier, it's liberator"

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stressed today that the only aim of Ankara's Olive Branch operation in Syria is liquidating terrorist groups threatening the entire region. "Turkey is not Syria's occupier, it's liberator," he noted.

The minister recalled that the civilians, whose rights are forgotten or concealed by countries that criticize Turkey's position and de facto support the preservation of terrorist organizations in northern Syrian areas located on the border with Turkey, are victims of the terrorists in the regions where the Olive Branch operation is taking place.

The Turkish experts Togrul Ismail and Orhan Gafarli, speaking with correspondents of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that it is constantly overlooked by the critics of Ankara - Turkey is waging a war against terrorists, as it previously fought against the ISIS terrorist group.

Togrul Ismail noted that liquidating terrorist groups in northern Syria is needed to stabilize the region. Turkey has already solved the problem with the Kurdistan Workers' Party on its territory, but there are external problems related to terrorists in Syria. Therefore, Turkey has launched the Olive Branch operation - the Syrian groups are a branch of the PKK terrorist organization. The main danger for Turkey is that the US considers these groups to be allies in the fight against ISIS, and it is unlikely that Washington will take its weapons back after the end of the fight against ISIS," he said.

Turkey, unlike the US, does not divide terrorists into "good" and "bad." "Recently, four terrorists were killed in Turkey, two of them were in the highest echelons of the PKK and the US weapons was found there during the search. The problem is that the fight against terror should be united. Everyone must fight against this disaster, and Turkey contributes to this struggle through the Olive Branch in Afrin," Togrul Ismail pointed out, adding that Ankara welcomes Moscow's understanding of this common goal.

"We have mutual understanding, we see that Russia acts as a normal state for which the fight against terror is a struggle against all terrorists. The current situation is not linked to the Kurdish issue. Terrorist organizations cannot be ethnic or religious. Terrorists use religions and nationalities as a smokescreen in order to gain support from certain sectors of society or foreign forces," the expert stressed.

Orhan Gafarli also noted the terrorist nature of the organizations against which Turkey is fighting. "There are terrorist organizations in the region that are indirectly linked to the Turkish Kurdish terrorist organization PKK. In Syria and Iraq, these groups continue their terrorist actions and try to get territory and create a republic. Turkey, Iran and Syria consider these organizations as terrorist ones. The most important thing for Turkey is preserving the borders of the states in the region," he said, adding that Russia's support of maintaining the borders of existing states is essential for Turkey.

At the same time, the expert drew attention to Ankara's support for the consistent democratization of Syria and Iraq. "Wishing to preserve the states within their current borders, Turkey seeks to ensure that all parties, including Arabs, Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites were represented in power structures of Syria and Iraq. In this situation, the reform of the Syrian Constitution, which was officially adopted at the Sochi Syrian National Dialogue Congress, is very important. I think it can give an impetus to the peaceful solution of the Syrian issue," Orhan Gafarli concluded.