Turkey Says Cannot Handle New Migrant Wave from Syria

Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that his country cannot handle a new wave of migrants from northern Syria, Reuters reported.

Turkey and U.S. have agreed to establish a safe zone in northeast Syria along Turkey’s southern border, and to clear the area of Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters. On Sunday, Turkish and U.S. troops carried out their first joint military land patrol in the region.

Erdogan said on Saturday he expects to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the United Nations later this month to discuss military operations in northeast Syria, where Turkey plans to resettle one million Syrian refugees.

Turkey, which hosts 3.6 million refugees from the Syrian conflict and already holds territory in northwest Syria, wants to extend its military presence into the northeast to push back Syrian Kurdish militia fighters from the border and establish conditions for the return of a large number of Syrians.

Describing his plan to meet Trump at the U.N. General Assembly, Erdogan said we would discuss “what kind of steps we will take” along the Syrian border east of the Euphrates river.

“There are differences between what is said and what has been done,” he said in a speech in the Turkish city of Eskisehir. “We must resolve this.”

He said Turkey could not accept military training by U.S. forces of Kurdish Syrian YPG fighters, who have been Washington’s main ally on the ground against Islamic State in Syria but are designated a terrorist organization by Turkey.