Turkish president Erdogan vows to ‘crush the heads’ of Kurdish forces if they do not withdraw
- Turkey has agreed to suspend its Syria offensive for five days if Kurdish forces withdraw from a proposed safe zone
- A Kurdish commander has accused Turkey of sabotaging a US-brokered truce by blocking the withdrawal of his forces
If the pull-out does not happen by Tuesday evening, “we will start where we left off and continue to crush the terrorists’ heads”, Erdogan said in a televised speech in central Anatolian city of Kayseri.
Turkey has agreed to suspend its Syria offensive for five days and to end the assault if Kurdish-led forces withdraw from the proposed safe zone away from the border, after talks with US Vice-President Mike Pence in Ankara.
Erdogan also provided some details from his talks with the Americans, adding that Ankara agreed to the 120 hour time deadline after its initial demand of “one night” for the withdrawal.
“If the promises given to our country are not kept, as we did in the past we will not wait and restart the operation as soon as the time we have given ends,” he said.