ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has provoked outrage after telling a crying six-year-old girl in military uniform she would receive state honors if she dies for the nation.
The remarks, coming at a time of strong nationalist sentiment in Turkey, sparked fury on social media.
Erdogan was delivering a speech on Saturday, broadcast live on TV, at his ruling AK Party congress in the southern city of Kahramanmaras when he saw the weeping child, Amine Tiras, in the audience. She is dressed in military fatigues and the maroon beret of the Turkish Special Operations Forces.
He called the little girl on stage and tried to comfort her before telling the crowd: “She has the Turkish flag in her pocket. If she becomes a martyr, God willing, this flag will be draped on her,” AP reports.
Erdogan then kissed the girl’s face and allowed her to return to the audience.
Critics were shocked to hear the president apparently glorifying the death of a child in the spirit of nationalism.
In a tweet, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which opposes Ankara’s operation in Afrin, likened the Erdogan’s behavior to “child abuse.”
The president does not seem to have responded to the criticism.
Support for the Turkish military incursion into Afrin, however, remains high among his core supporters.
Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch in the northwest Syrian canton on January 20 with the stated aim of pushing the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) back from the Turkish border.
On Monday, Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies took full control of Afrin’s borders, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Turkish forces are now in control of about 250 kilometers of the border, running from the Jarablus area on the western bank of the Euphrates River to the Atmah area in Idlib, the UK-based conflict monitor said. Turkey’s state-run media confirmed the advance.
Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch now controls some 22 percent of Afrin, according to Observatory figures.
The advance was made despite the UN Security Council’s 30-day ceasefire agreement, approved unanimously on Saturday. Global powers have told Ankara the resolution also applies to Afrin.
French President Emmanuel Macron told Erdogan the truce must be implemented without delay.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has also called on all players to ensure de-escalation takes place on all fronts in Syria, including Afrin.
Turkey welcomed the Security Council’s ceasefire, but said it would not apply to its Afrin offensive, which Ankara has framed as a counter-terrorism operation.
The YPG has stated it will abide by the ceasefire, but reserves the right to act in self-defense.
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