ANKARA (Sputnik) – Earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the next phase of Turkey's Euphrates Shield military campaign in northern Syria would target the Kurdish-controlled Manbij and called on the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to leave the city.
“We do not consider the scenario, under which the Syrian army would enter Manbij, as negative one. The Kurdish self-defense units are leaving the city. The Syrian land must belong to the Syrians,” Yildirim said at the demonstration in the northern Turkish city of Sinop.