Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Operation Euphrates Shield, which the republic's Armed Forces are conducting in northern Syria, will continue until the threat to Ankara from the Syrian Kurdish self-defense forces (YPG) is eliminated. This was reported on Sunday, August 28, by RIA Novosti

"We will fight the terrorist group Islamic State (the activity of this organization is banned in Russia and a number of other countries) in [Syria's] Jarablus, [Iraq's] Bashiqa, and if necessary, in other places," Erdogan said. "We are equally determined in relation to the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD)," the Turkish president noted. "Our operation in northern Syria will continue until we uproot this separatist terrorist organization," he said.

Erdogan also added that residents of Jarablus began returning to their homes after Free Syrian Army fighters, an armed group of the so-called "Syrian opposition," with the support of the Turkish military, recaptured the city from the "Islamic State."

Ankara believes that the PYD and its armed wing, the YPG, are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist organization recognized in Turkey.

Erdogan vows to 'uproot' Kurdish Democratic Union Party