Erdogan: We’ll Go It Alone in Syria as Deadline Comes and Goes

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that with the deadline having passed for a joint plan with the United States to operate a so-called safe zone in northern Syria, Ankara will operate on its own, particularly against US-supported Kurdish militias it says are a threat to Turkey. “We plan to settle two million people in the safe zones we will establish. We calculated the costs and we will carry out efforts to making improvements. We will start taking steps as soon as the region is saved from the invasion of terror,” he told parliament on Tuesday during the opening of a new legislative session. The two million people he referred to are displaced Syrians who, lacking any other plans, could start heading for Turkey, which already hosts well over three million displaced Syrians. The deadline for joint action by Ankara and Washington was the end of September. “Turkey cannot lose even a single day on this issue,” Erdogan went on. “There is no other choice but to act on our own.”