"After Al-Bab we will advance to Manbij. There are terrorist Kurdish organizations there. They must retreat to the east and they promised to do that. Some of them are said to have already retreated. Because it is not their land, the Arabs live there. Let the Arabs live there, Turkey is not going to seize this territory," Erdogan said addressing graduates of an Ankara military college.
The Syrian Kurds have been fighting against the Daesh (banned in Russia) terrorist group for years and has been controlling several areas of Syria, including Manbij.
Turkey has been conducting the Euphrates Shield military operation in northern Syria since August 24. The declared goal of the operation is combating the Daesh. The operation has been widely criticized both by the Syrian Kurds and Damascus accusing Ankara of violating Syria's territorial integrity.
