Turkey to set up Syria ‘security zone’ after Trump call

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Ankara would set up a "security zone" in northern Syria suggested by US President Donald Trump.

Erdogan's comments came a day after he held a telephone call with Trump in a bid to ease tensions after the US leader threatened to "devastate" the Turkish economy if Ankara attacks Kurdish forces.

Turkey has welcomed Washington's planned withdrawal of some 2,000 US troops from Syria but the future of US-backed Kurdish militia forces labelled terrorists by Ankara has poisoned ties between the NATO allies.

Erdogan said he held a "quite positive" telephone conversation with Trump late on Monday where he reaffirmed that "a 20-mile security zone along the Syrian border... will be set up by us."

Trump on Sunday tweeted the United States would "devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds", a threat that drew angry retorts from Ankara.

The Turkish army has launched two major operations in Syria dubbed "Euphrates Shield" in 2016 and "Olive Branch" in 2018 to combat against Syrian Kurdish fighters as well as Islamic State jihadists.

But the last offensive sought to roll back gains by Syrian Kurdish fighters who have governed parts of northern Syria since 2012.

The deployment of Turkish troops and their proxy forces in areas of northwest Syria has drawn accusations by some critics of a Turkish military occupation. Erdogan dismissed the label and said: "Comparing Turkey´s presence in Syria with that of any other state or power is an insult to both history and our civilisation.

"If we did not have a presence there, if we turned our back on what is going on over there, closed our borders and our hearts to people coming from there, then we would have betrayed ourselves, indeed." Turkey is home to over three million Syrian refugees. Since early in the conflict, Ankara has called for a safe area backed up by a no-fly zone on its border with Syria to protect civilians from air and ground attacks.

But the support for the proposal has waned ever since. That plan was proposed to Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, so that a safe structure could be provided for Syrian refugees on the condition that Washington provide logistics and air support, while Ankara supply ground security, Erdogan said.

"Unfortunately Obama failed to take the necessary steps," he said, speaking to journalists after his parliamentary address. But after the discussion with Trump, Erdogan said that plan could be resurrected and the 20-mile "security zone" could be extended if needed. And it could be created in cooperation with the US-backed international coalition fighting against IS, which Turkey is also a member of.