Turkish Cypriot MPs voice support for Turkey's Afrin op

By Erdal Turkoglu

HATAY, Turkey

Turkish Cypriot deputy parliament speaker and a group of lawmakers visited Tuesday Turkey's southern Hatay province in a bid to show solidarity with Turkey's ongoing Operation Olive Branch.

"Imperialist countries are trying to prevent Turkey from becoming a great power by supporting terrorist organizations in the region and supplying weapons to them," Zorlu Tore, the deputy parliament chief, told journalists during the visit in Hatay's Reyhanli town near the Syrian border.

Reyhanli has been targeted by rocket and mortar attacks carried out by PYD/PKK terrorists from Afrin in northwestern Syria, killing four civilians, after Operation Olive Branch started on Jan. 20.

Separately, three more civilians have also been killed in such attacks in Kilis province, some 140 km northeast of Reyhanli and in nearby Kirikhan town.

"These terror attacks are a shame for humanity. Therefore, Turkish soldiers are conducting Operation Olive Branch," Tore said.

On Jan. 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to clear PYD/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin, northwestern Syria.

According to the Turkish General Staff, the operation aims to establish security and stability along Turkey’s borders and the region as well as to protect Syrians from terrorist oppression and cruelty.

The operation is being carried out under the framework of Turkey's rights based on international law, UN Security Council resolutions, its self-defense rights under the UN charter, and respect for Syria's territorial integrity, it said.

The military also said only terror targets are being destroyed and that "utmost care" is being taken to avoid harming civilians.