President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan answered the questions of journalists on the plane back from Qatar, reports Turkish independent newssite T24. Regarding the air raids, dubbed “Claw Sword Operation”, which was carried out in the north of Syria and Iraq after the terrorist attack in Taksim, Erdogan said, “It is not possible for this to be limited to just an air operation. How much of a force from the Land Forces should be involved here; our relevant units, our Ministry of Defense and our General Staff decide together; We do our consultation, and then we take our steps accordingly.”
On Monday, YPG-/PYD retaliated against the air raids by shooting misses into Turkish border towns. In addition to material damage, three Turkish citizens died as a result.
Erdogan added: I can easily say that; First of all, this operation in the north of Iraq and Syria is not an operation that was carried out with random thought – who would say what or how? As we have said before, if someone harasses our country and our people, we will make them pay the price. As a matter of fact, there are terrorist organizations in our south that are planning many attacks or carrying out such attacks and posing a threat. It’s on the Iraqi side, it’s on the Syrian side.
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As I always say, I didn’t say for nothing when I warned terrorists, ‘We may arrive suddenly at your doorstep one night’. We acted in deliberation, carefully palling countermeasures against terror. As soon as (Beyoglu) terror strike happened, the planned hour came. As a matter of fact, the operation carried out last night was a complete manifestation of this. Because rendering these terrorist organizations inoperative and destroying them is an indispensable duty of our security forces right now.
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Nor is our counteroffensive limited to just an air campaign. How much power from the Land Forces should be involved here; our relevant units, our Ministry of Defense and our General Staff shall decide together; We do our consultation, and then we take our steps accordingly. We have already alerted the nations that have a presence Syria, and we have taken and are taking our steps accordingly.
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