Sun 13 October 2019:
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Saturday said Turkey is not afraid of any sanctions against it.
“If Turkey was afraid of sanctions, we would not have started this operation [in northern Syria]. This is a vital national security issue for us,” Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told Germany’s public international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
Reiterating that Turkey will respond tit-for-tat to possible U.S. sanctions, Çavuşoğlu stressed that no country has the ability to down Turkish economy.
On Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said President Donald Trump has authorized an executive order that will allow the Treasury in consultation with the president and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “very significant new sanctions authority that can be targeted at any person associated with the government of Turkey, any portion of the government.
“The president is concerned about the ongoing military offensive and potential targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure, ethnic or religious minorities, and also the president wants to make very clear it is imperative that Turkey not allow even a single ISIS fighter to escape,” Mnuchin said, using another name for Daesh.
“We do not mediate and negotiate with terrorists. The only thing to do is to let the terrorists take away their weapons,” he said.
He also said that some EU countries especially France back the terror groups in the region.
Referring to the detainees in the prisons which are under control of the SDF — a major component of which has been the YPG — he said necessary steps will be taken to prosecute them.
Tal Abyad town is clear
Turkish military liberated a village in northern Syria’s Tal Abyad from YPG/PKK terrorists, National Defense Ministry said Sunday.
Suluk village in southeastern c terrorist organization as part of the Operation Peace Spring in the region, the ministry said.
Turkey-backed Syrian National Army is combing the area to ensure safety.
The ministry also said the number of PKK/PYD-YPG terrorists neutralized in Turkey’s anti-terror operation in northern Syria has risen to 480.
Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralized” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.
The ministry provided the latest figure on Twitter amid Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring, which it said continued successfully throughout the night.
Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, the third in a series of cross-border anti-terror operations in northern Syria targeting terrorists affiliated with Daesh and the PKK’s Syrian offshoot the People’s Protection Units (YPG), on October 9 at 4 p.m.
The operation, conducted in line with the country’s right to self-defense borne out of international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, aims to establish a terror-free safe zone for Syrians return in the area east of the Euphrates River controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by YPG terrorists.
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