Turkey Plans to Prevent Creation of Kurd State by Forming Safe Zone - Party

Turkey's efforts to create a safe-zone in Syria with the help of the United States is an attempt to stop the Kurds from establishing their own territory, the leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) told the BBC in an interview published Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — US and Turkish officials are working out details to a plan creating a zone free of Islamic State (ISIL) militants in territories along the Turkish border with Syria.

"Turkey doesn’t intend to target ISIL with the safe-zone, the Turkish government was seriously disturbed by Kurds trying to create an autonomous state in Syria," Selahattin Demirtas said.

According to Demirtas, Turkish leadership stated it would not allow the creation of a Kurdish state.

"In fact, Turkey should work with the Kurdish forces to create this [safe zone] area," Demirtas added.

On Friday, Turkey launched a two-front military campaign against ISIL in Syria and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. The military action sparked clashes between police and rioters in the country.

The Turkish military campaign against ISIL and PKK positions takes place amid a surge in violence after a suicide bombing in the Turkish border town of Suruc killed 32 people, most of them Kurds, and injured over 100, and the murder of two police officers in the southern city of Ceylanpinar.

The Suruc suicide bomber was reportedly affiliated with the ISIL. The PKK claimed responsibility for the Ceylanpinar killings, saying the policemen had backed Islamic State.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara, was established at the end of the 1970s to fight for self-determination of the Kurdish community.