MOSCOW, October 24 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova - The details of the passage of 200 Peshmerga fighters from Iraq to Syrian Kurdistan's Kobani through Turkey in order to help repel the Islamic State (IS) offensive are not finalized, and the issue is still being discussed, Turkish Ambassador to Russia Umit Yardim told RIA Novosti on Friday.
“The details of this issue have been worked [discussed]; it is not finalized yet. My recent information is that about 200 people will be passing through Turkey to that region. Naturally, they will be passing under circumstances the Turkish side agrees [to],” the ambassador said, emphasizing that the fighters will be passing through the country without any weapons, flags or uniforms.
Yardim added that details and conditions of the Kurdish forces’ transit to Syria are still being discussed.
Earlier in the week, Turkish media reported that Ankara will allow a squad of 200 Iraqi Peshmerga fighters armed with heavy weapons to pass through its territory to join the fight against the IS in Syria’s Kobani.
For the past several weeks Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish region of Syria bordering Turkey, has been under attack by IS militants. Turkey has seen mass protests by its Kurdish population over Ankara’s position of noninterference in the Syrian conflict.
