ALEPPO (Syria) / ISTANBUL
People in Syria's Aleppo province gathered on Friday to demand that President Ahmed al-Sharaa launch an operation to clear the country of PKK/YPG terrorists.
Demonstrators held placards with slogans, including "Assad and the SDF have similar names in terms of crime and pronunciation." "If our state does not meet our demands, we will take individual actions and intervene in Sheikh Maqsoud," "The SDF and Assad are two sides of the same coin," "Delayed justice creates new criminals," as well as "The existence of the SDF means division and instability for Syria."
Khalil Krez from Aleppo, who took part in the demonstration, told Anadolu that he has been protesting the Assad regime for years, but now he is protesting the remnants of the PKK/YPG terrorist group.
The PKK/YPG terrorists' occupation of parts of Aleppo and the eastern Euphrates River is unacceptable, Krez said.
He called on President Ahmad al-Sharaa to launch an operation, saying, “We will continue to fight anyone who is not under the state's umbrella. We will keep protesting until all of Syria is liberated.”
Ibrahim Hajj Junaid, another participant of the gathering from Aleppo's Azaz district, said Syria will be liberated from the terrorist organization PKK/YPG in the same way that the people liberated the country from the clutches of the Bashar al-Assad regime.
"We want to cleanse our country of all traitors. It is unacceptable for the (terrorist) organization to be based in our country. They have taken our children and brothers hostage. We are only waiting for the new government to give the go-ahead to begin operations," Junaid said.
The US-backed terrorist organization PKK/YPG still occupies parts of Aleppo and the eastern regions of the Euphrates River.
The PKK, which has waged a 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, is classified as a terror organization by Türkiye, the US, and the EU. The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.
Since the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in December in Syria, the PKK/YPG has attempted to exploit regional instability to create a “terror corridor” along the border with Türkiye.
