Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on Sunday in a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about the need to “cleanse” the north of Syria from Kurdish forces, writes AFP.

Recep Erdogan and Vladimir PutinPhoto: Volodymyr Smirnov / TASS / Profimedia

“It is important and a priority that the territory along the border be cleared of terrorists, in an area at least 30 km deep, in accordance with the Sochi Memorandum of 2019,” Erdogan said, referring to Kurdish militants. People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, according to a press release from the Turkish president.

According to the Kremlin, the leaders of the two countries discussed the “issue” of resolving the conflict in Syria on the basis of “observing the conditions” of the Russian-Turkish agreement of 2019.

“The defense and foreign policy bodies of the two countries will continue close contacts on this matter,” the Russian president said in a statement.

The Turkish head of state has threatened since early November to launch a ground military operation in northern Syria to push back YPG fighters, whom Ankara accuses of being behind an attack in Istanbul on November 13 that killed six people. Kurdish forces deny involvement.

In 2019, an agreement between Ankara and Moscow ended another Turkish offensive, promising to create a 30-kilometer “security zone” to protect Turkey from attacks that could come from Syria. An agreement on similar terms was separately concluded between Ankara and Washington in 2019. Turkey accuses Russia, as well as the United States, of not complying with these agreements and not withdrawing the YPG from the Turkish border.

On November 20, Turkey carried out a series of airstrikes in northeastern Syria against the positions of Kurdish militants, whom it qualifies as “terrorists.”

Several hundred international coalition soldiers are stationed in the region under the control of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the spearhead of the fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, driven from its homelands in Syria in 2019.

Moscow and Washington spoke out against Turkey’s new ground invasion in northern Syria. (Source: Agerpres)