Turkish President, Saudi King discuss Syria military operations

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has discussed his country's latest military operations in Syria with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz.

According to the state-run Anadolu news agency on Tuesday, Erdogan told Salman during a phone conversation that Turkey's ongoing Operation Olive Branch in Syria's Afrin Province will permit citizens who were forced to flee to return home.

The two leaders also stressed the importance of Syria's territorial integrity and the significance of a political solution to the conflict in Syria.   

They also reaffirmed their mutual determination to increase bilateral relations.

Turkey has been waging “Operation Olive Branch” against Syria’s Afrin region since January 20 in a bid to eliminate the US-backed Kurdish forces from the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The latter has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.

The Turkish Afrin operations are not authorized by Damascus.

ME