Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country’s pursuit of terror groups would be unrelenting, speaking in the pre-dominantly Kurdish city of Gaziantep, where a suicide bomber believed to be backed by the Islamic State attacked a wedding this month and killed some 54 people, 22 of whom were children. As Turkey’s military continues to push deeper into Syria, seizing territory controlled by both Kurdish forces as well as the Islamic State, President Erdogan said the cross-border offensive into Turkey’s southern neighbor was giving people who fled Islamic State-controlled regions a chance to return home, including to the recently-conquered city of Jarabulus.
“We said everything necessary will be done. Jarabulus was evacuated. The people of Jarabulus, people who it belongs to are coming back. ” / “We will give all kinds of support to those who want to return to Jarabulus. We will provide them with humanitarian aid,” stated Erdogan. The Turkish President added that Turkey will continue to cleanse Syria and Iraq from the Islamic State, and would exercise the same resolve in wiping-out the Kurdish PYD group in Syria, linked to the Kurdish PKK in Turkey, which Ankara views as a terrorist organization.