Turkey says ready to create 'safe zone' for Kurds in SyriaJanuary 15, 2019 - 16:44 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he responded positively to Donald Trump's call for a "safe zone" along its border with Kurdish-held Syria, the BBC reports. The leaders spoke by telephone after Trump threatened to "devastate Turkey economically" if it attacked a Kurdish militia when allied US troops withdrew. Turkey regards the People's Protection Units (YPG) as a terrorist group. On Tuesday, January 15, Erdogan told Turkish MPs he had agreed that a 32km (20-mile) deep safe zone "will be created by us". There was no immediate response from Trump or US officials, nor the Kurdish authorities who control more than 400km of the Turkish-Syrian border. However, the US president tweeted on Monday night that he had spoken to Erdogan to "advise where we stand" on the safe zone and efforts to eliminate the remnants of the Islamic State group in eastern Syria with the help of fighters from the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces alliance. "Also spoke about economic development between the US & Turkey - great potential to substantially expand!" he added. Turkey considers the YPG an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for three decades. Photo. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |