Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that the terrorists of the Islamic State have been defeated, in military terms, in Syria; he noted this in an article for The New York Times.

In the Turkish leader’s words, even though President Donald Trump made the right call to withdraw the US troops from Syria, this withdrawal must be “planned carefully and performed in cooperation with the right partners.”

Erdoğan noted that in 2016, Turkey became the first country to deploy ground combat troops to fight ISIS in Syria.

“Militarily speaking, the so-called Islamic State has been defeated in Syria,” the Turkish president stressed. “Yet we are deeply concerned that some outside powers may use the organization’s remnants as an excuse to meddle in Syria’s internal affairs.”

He stated that, “Turkey proposes a comprehensive strategy to eliminate the root causes of radicalization.”