Turkey rejects EP's decision against Turkish incursion into Syria

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Ankara rejects a decision by European Parliament (EP) against Turkish incursion into northern Syria.

"We fully reject the position adopted today (Oct. 24) on the Operation Peace Spring," said the ministry in a written statement.

"We are not actually surprised by this decision taken by those who are constantly hosting terrorists in their parliament," said the statement, referring to the links of EP members to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-affiliated people.

Turkey has denied all allegations from the EP decision, said the statement, noting the legitimacy of the operation was approved by the deals made with the United States and Russia.

The EP adopted a biased decision that is inconsistent with the facts. It lacks common sense attitude toward Turkey despite all our explanations, said the ministry.

Earlier in the day, the EP strongly condemned the unilateral Turkish military intervention in northeastern Syria, urging Turkey to withdraw all its forces from Syrian territory.

In a resolution, the European lawmakers called on the council to introduce a set of sanctions and visa bans on Turkish officials responsible for human rights abuses, as well as to consider adopting economic measures against Turkey.

Following the recent U.S. decision to withdraw its troops from northern Syria, the Turkish army launched an incursion into Syria earlier in October in a bid to drive the Kurdish fighters out of the area.

Ankara sees the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, which is outlawed for its armed struggle against Turkey over the past three decades, while the U.S. troops fought the Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria with the help of the YPG fighters.

After the U.S.-Turkey deal reached on Oct. 17 which agreed to halt the operation for 120 hours, Turkey and Russia decided to renew the cease-fire period for another 150 hours.