Syria: ‘We won’t accept any role by Turkey' – Kurdish fighters react to Tillerson's Ankara visit

US-backed Kurdish fighters offered their views on a possible role by Turkey in the offensive to liberate Raqqa from the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS; formerly ISIS/ISIL), as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits Ankara, speaking from near Kobane on Thursday. SOT, Ahmad Sheikho, member of Movement for a Democratic Society (Arabic): “Turkey, because of their failure in their external affairs regarding events in Syria or even their relations with Europe, and even America proved their failure in those relations. And then they didn’t join the campaign against IS and didn’t permit at the beginning the usage of airports by the coalition fighter jets for such campaigns as Incirlik Air Base to fight IS, and in addition to this, America knows about the links between Turkey and IS." SOT, Namer Kobanoi, SDF fighter (Kurdish): “Those meetings will affect us in the respect that Turkey is asking the Americans to fulfil some of their demands, but on the other hand this will not affect how the operations are going, since the people in northern Syria and the fighters of the SDF are doing what they were asked for and they are fighting IS with the efforts of all the people in the north of Syria, without any discrimination. And we live as brothers and accordingly, those meetings won’t affect the Raqqa liberation campaign, and we in the SDF will foil all Turkish plans and intention towards the north of Syria and the Kurdish people." SOT, SDF Soldier (Kurdish): "Yes there are constant meetings between the Turks and Americans related to the region’s events and Raqqa operations, but we won’t accept any role by Turkey in the Raqqa campaign. They will undermine our efforts and victories against IS. Where was Turkey when IS occupied the whole of northern Syria? We don’t see any difference between Turkey and IS, and our people know this and we are aware of the Turkish intentions. And according to the reports even the Americans rejected Turkish participation and they undermined the importance of those meetings, and as you know we are progressing with the Raqqa campaign and we freed wide areas from the suburbs and Tabaqah city." Video ID: 20170330 072 Video on Demand: http://www.ruptly.tv Contact: [email protected] Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ruptly Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruptly