Türkiye rebuked China's accusations concerning Turkish airstrikes on the PKK terrorist group’s Syrian branch YPG across its southeastern border in northern Syria, at a U.N. meeting on Wednesday.
Turkish Ambassador to the U.N. Feridun Sinirlioğlu responded to China's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Geng Shuang, who accused Ankara of ''repeatedly pounding northern Syria with airstrikes and artillery shelling and threatening to launch ground operations.'' Shuang also demanded that Türkiye and Israel ''immediately cease cross-border attacks.''
''No country is entitled to give us lectures about our fight against terrorism,'' Sinirlioğlu told the U.N. Security Council, which assembled to discuss the renewal of vital humanitarian cross-border aid from Türkiye to northwestern Syria.
''We reject the self-entitled statements we listened to today, what we should do, what we should not do while defending our borders and protecting our people.''
He said Türkiye's determination to fight terrorism is ''unwavering'' and it will continue to take every necessary step to protect its people, ensuring its border security.
Sinirlioğlu said over 500 Syrians have been killed because of PKK/YPG attacks in northern Syria in the last two years.
''The PKK/YPG oppresses the people in the northeast and pursues a separatist agenda,'' he said. ''Supporting this terrorist/separatist organization under the pretext of fighting Daesh is against foremost, the U.N. resolutions which reaffirm strong commitment to the territorial integrity of Syria.''
Türkiye has been combatting terrorism both at home and beyond its borders for decades now against foes like the PKK and its various subsidiaries as well as Daesh and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization in the U.S., European Union and Türkiye, and has been waging a bloody terrorist campaign against the country for four decades, attacking both security personnel and civilians. It has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people since 1984, with its massacres peaking especially in the 1990s.
Since it gained global prominence in 2014, Daesh led multiple attacks on Türkiye, which was one of the first countries to recognize it as a terrorist group a year prior. The group has claimed over 300 lives and injured hundreds more in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed assaults.
Last month, Türkiye launched Operation Claw-Sword in northern Iraq and Syria, a cross-border aerial campaign against the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, which have illegal hideouts across the Iraqi and Syrian borders.
The operation was launched days after the PKK/YPG carried out a bomb attack on Istanbul's popular Istiklal Street, killing six people and injuring 81.
After the air operation began on Nov. 20, Erdoğan also signaled an impending ground operation in northern Iraq and northern Syria to eliminate the terrorist threat, stressing that Türkiye is committed to destroying the PKK terrorist group until its last terrorist is eliminated and "will not ask for permission" to protect its borders.
Ankara has also been headlining rehabilitation efforts in the region, constructing briquette homes and overseeing the safe and voluntary return of displaced Syrians to their homes.