West ‘standing by terrorists’: Erdogan

ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday lashed out at Western states, accusing them of "standing by terrorists" in failing to support Turkey’s operation against Syrian Kurdish fighters.

"Can you imagine the whole West stood by the terrorists and all attacked us including Nato member states and European Union countries?" Erdogan said in Istanbul. "Since when did you start to side with terror? Did PYD-YPG (Syrian Kurdish forces) join Nato and we do not know about it?" he asked.

Ankara says the YPG is a "terrorist" offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984. The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara, the US and the EU.

Ankara’s military action against Kurdish forces who played a key role in the fight against the Islamic State group has drawn widespread international criticism and prompted some Nato countries to suspend new arms sales.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has repeatedly voiced "serious concerns" about the military operation launched on October 9 to push Syrian Kurdish forces back from the border. Erdogan denied any territorial ambition saying: "Turkey does not have an eye on any country’s territory ... We consider such an accusation as the biggest insult directed to us."

Turkey has announced a 120-hour suspension of the offensive following a deal with US Vice President Mike Pence, under which Kurdish fighters were to withdraw to allow a "safe zone" to be set up along the border.

Erdogan was to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.Meanwhile, Iran on Monday denounced as "unacceptable" any move by Turkey to establish military bases in Syria, saying such a step would face opposition from the Islamic republic and other countries.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey would set up 12 observation posts inside Syria as he warned Ankara would restart an operation against Kurdish forces across the border. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi criticised the planned move in response to a question at a news conference.

"The Turks can have any bases and can do anything on their own territory and within their borders, but if you mean... establishing Turkish bases in Syria, this is unacceptable," Mousavi said in remarks aired on state television.

Such a step, he said, would be seen by Iran as an "aggression against the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of an independent country. "Naturally it will face opposition from the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries," Mousavi added.

Iran has repeatedly called for an immediate halt to the Turkish offensive in Syria, launched on October 9 after the United States announced it would withdraw all its troops from the area. A US-brokered ceasefire gives Kurdish forces until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a buffer area Turkey wants to create on Syrian territory along its southern frontier.