Syria has taken Turkey’s shelling of its territory to the UN, saying it amounts to “direct Turkish support for terrorist groups.”
In a letter on Sunday, the Syrian foreign ministry called on the UN Security Council to “put an end to the crimes of the Turkish regime.”
“The foreign ministry strongly condemns the repeated Turkish crimes and attacks against the Syrian people and Syria’s territorial integrity,” Syrian official news agency, SANA, reported.
Turkish forces continued to shell positions of Kurdish fighters of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo for a second day on Sunday.
According to Turkey’s Anadolou news agency, the Turkish army attacked PYD targets around the town of Azaz by its howitzers stationed on the country’s border with Syria. Similar bombing took place on Saturday.
Ankara accuses the PYD, and its military wing, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), of having links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group that has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said after the Saturday attacks that Ankara “will retaliate against every step (by the YPG).”
“The YPG will immediately withdraw from Azaz and the surrounding area and will not go close to it again.”
Davutoglu also noted that Turkey “can if necessary take the same measures in Syria as we took in Iraq and Qandil,” referring to Turkey’s bombardment of PKK situations on Qandil mountain last year.
The Syrian government condemned Davutoglu comments as “blatant interference” in Syrian affairs.