Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has pointed to cross-border military operations for a “safe zone” across two Kurdish cantons in northeast Syria.

As Ankara declared that joint operations with the US overseeing the zone are over, Akar said of the area across 480 km (270 miles) on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Akar said of the territory extending east across the Euphrates River to the Iraqi border, including the Kurdish cantons of Kobani and Cezire:

We are closely following developments in the east of the [River] Euphrates and our army is ready in all aspects.

This is not a joke. This should be known and understood by everyone….

We need to go to the conclusion, we are wasting time. We shouldn’t waste time.

However, the Defense Minister would not be bound to a timetable for any incursion: “We follow actions rather than time.”

“Terrorists to Be Taken Out”

The statement was a shift from Akar’s comments on Tuesday, “Negotiations with the US are continuing” over the safe zone. With it, he fell behind the remarks of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that day, “We have not achieved any of the results we desired in the east of the Euphrates. Turkey cannot lose even a single day on this issue. There is no other choice but to act on our own.”

See Syria Daily, Oct 2: Turkey’s Erdoğan — We Proceed With “Safe Zone” Without the US

After months of talks and tension, Ankara and Washington began joint air and ground patrols in September. However, key details were still unclear and possibly not agreed. These included the depth of the zone — Turkey sought 30 km (19 miles) while the US proposed only 15 km — and operational command of the patrols.

Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its YPG militia, the leading factions in the Kurdish cantons, as part of the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK. However, the YPG is the leading element in the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces, created in autumn 2015 to remove the Islamic State from northeast Syria.

The Erdoğan Government is seeking to move up to 2 million of the 3.6 million Syria refugees in Turkey, almost all Arabs, into the zone.

Akar linked the intention to the push against the “terrorist YPG.

Our demand is purely humanitarian, there is a tragedy in Syria. We want people to return to their home in peace and security. This can happen when terrorists are cleared out.

We need the terrorists to be taken out there….We need to see this with patrols, patrol bases.