Turkey's rightfulness registered over Syria: Speaker

ANKARA

Turkey's rightfulness has been registered with the agreements reached with the U.S. and Russia over Syria, the Turkish parliament speaker said.

"Turkey's rightfulness, first with the agreement in the meetings with the U.S., and now with the agreement that our president made with Putin, has been registered," said Mustafa Sentop on Tuesday in an interview with the Al Jazeera news network.

"Turkey has reached its targets related to the terror groups’ elimination [from northern Syria]," he said.

On Oct. 9, Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring to eliminate terrorists from northern Syria east of the Euphrates River in order to secure Turkey’s borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees and ensure Syria’s territorial integrity.

Ankara agreed with Washington on Oct. 17 to pause its operation to allow YPG/PKK terrorists to withdraw from the planned safe zone.

On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a "historic" meeting in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi just hours before the pause was set to expire.

Ankara and Moscow reached a deal under which PKK/YPG terrorists will pull back 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Turkey’s border with northern Syria within 150 hours and security forces from Turkey and Russia will conduct joint patrols there.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union -- has been responsible for deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.