Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that Ankara will clear Syria’s northern regions bordering Turkey from Kurdish groups, and will create a safe zone there, RIA Novosti reported citing Erdoğan’s announcement on the air of NTV.

“We [Turkey] will not allow creating an antiterrorist corridor in northern Syria directed against our country,” the Turkish president said in İskenderun, Turkey. “We will create a safe zone, and our Syrian brothers will return home.

“We will clear the entire southern border [of Turkey] from terrorists [i.e. the Kurdish self-defense forces], starting from Manbij [town in northern Syria], just as we did in Afrin [town in northern Syria].”