Rojava

Ankara/Washington. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his American counterpart Donald Trump discussed the ongoing Turkish military operation in Afrin, Syria in a phone conversation on Wednesday, the Turkish presidency said, Anadolu Agency reported.

The United States reiterated its commitment to Turkey that it will take back heavy weapons it delivered to the People’s Protection Units (YPG) but refrained to give a certain time frame during high-level bilateral political and military talks in the Turkish capital Ankara on Jan. 23 and 24.

Washington might cut off arms support to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), if it observes that the group violates its agreement with the U.S. and uses them for any other purpose than fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to the Pentagon.

Some 500 Syrian youths in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa have submitted applications to the draft office in order to voluntarily join the Turkish military to take part in the ongoing operation into Syria’s Afrin district.

Turkey will "thwart games" being played along its border, starting with Syria's Manbij city, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Jan. 24, as the Turkish military entered the fifth day of its military operation into Syria's northwestern Afrin district.

Turkey arrested dozens of people overnight for "spreading terrorist propaganda" about its Syrian incursion, state media said on Tuesday, raising to nearly 100 the number of such detainees, including politicians, journalists and activists.

Turkey will cooperate with the U.S. in Syria only if Washington ends its support to the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and takes back the arms it has provided to the group, Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has said.

All militants, including those from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), will pay the price for “shedding blood,” Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar said on Jan. 23.

Members of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) who leave anti-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) operations and mobilize in Syria’s northwestern city of Afrin will lose backing from the United States, the Pentagon told state-run Anadolu Agency on Jan. 23.

Kurdish people who live in Greece shouted slogans on Tuesday during a protest in central Athens against the Turkish offensive targeting Kurds in Afrin, Syria. Kurdish protesters, accompanied by some leftists, gathered in Syntagma Square, decrying Turkey's intervention in the war-torn country as "barbaric" and headed for the Turkish Embassy, which was being guarded by riot police in vans.