Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in his recent speech in Ankara that the United States has not responded to Turkey’s expectations regarding the process of creating a safe zone, even though two months have already passed since reaching an agreement regarding the issue with the American side.
Turkey demands that a 30-40 kilometre deep safe zone be set up in the north of Syria, and also insists on the need for the withdrawal of Kurdish military formations including the YPG/PYD from the region, to ensure its control over the area.
The Turkish Parliament's National Defence Committee Vice-Chairman, Deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (APK) Refik Ozen, speaking to Sputnik about the current situation surrounding the issue of the creation of a safe zone, emphasised Turkey's lack of confidence in the American side in this matter:
"The situation shows that our concerns about procrastination and wasting time on the part of our American colleagues, unfortunately, have become a reality. For our part, in the course of negotiations with them, we point out our firm position on the situation in the north of Syria. Of course, we would like to work together with the Americans to clean up the region from terrorist elements".
"However, despite the ongoing joint patrols and flights, we still have not managed to achieve the desired result. Soon we are to face the task of creating a peace corridor in northern Syria 30 km deep into the country, and we intend to establish it with or without the United States", he said.
Ozen stressed that Turkey has advocated for the preservation of the territorial integrity of Syria from the very beginning:
according to him, Ankara's goal is to ensure the possibility of 4 million Syrians, currently hosted in Turkey, returning to their homeland.
"In the created zone, we want to build 140 villages with a population of 5000 people and 50 settlements with a population of 30,000 people, creating an environment suitable for living. We want to create such infrastructure so that our Syrian brothers, who are now in Turkey, can return home and live on their lands", Ozen explained.
