Turkish Cypriots pledge to take part in Afrin operation

By Yunus Okur and Murat Demirci

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

Fifty members of an association in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on Wednesday applied for voluntary military service to take part in Turkey’s ongoing operation in northwestern Syria.

Turkey on Saturday launched Operation Olive Branch to remove PYD/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin.

Latif Akca, the head of a TRNC-based non-governmental organization that was established in honor of late founding President Rauf Denktas, gave the pledge of 50 people to the army at a recruiting office in Lefkosa.

“We are ready to be martyred for our beloved homeland,” he said.

“We will willingly pay our debt to the veterans and martyrs who came to the island to save the Turkish Cypriots in 1974, without thinking about death.”

Also, a 66-year old man from eastern Turkey applied for voluntary military service in the operation in Syria.

Muhsin Coskun from eastern Erzurum province said he wished to join the army in its fight against the PYD/PKK after he watched the news about the Afrin operation.

His uncle Yusuf Coskun was a veteran of the Korean War and his nephew Rasim Coskun was martyred during a PKK terror attack in 1996.

“I was called for military service during Cyprus operation; however, the operation ended just before we left.

“At that time, some countries said, ‘These are our weapons, you need to return them to us’. We now have our own helicopters, planes, tanks and rifles, all of them our weapons.

“We are so strong because we produce our own weapons,” Coskun said.