In the past, Bahceli's party had also called for the reintroduction of the death penalty, primarily to execute the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. The paramilitary PKK is classified as a terrorist organization in the EU and the US and has been in armed conflict with the Turkish state since 1984.

A senior U.S. diplomat in northern Syria, William V. Roebuck, in a memo, called it “a catastrophic sideshow” and “an intentioned-laced effort at ethnic cleansing” with reference to Erdogan’s plan to replace the Kurdish population with Syrian refugees from Turkey. There was a similar displacement after the Turkish occupation of Afrin.

Turkey is working to ensure that Syria's transformation over the last month will not bring new instabilities to the region, President Tayyip Erdogan told the Iraqi Kurdish prime minister, Erdogan's office said on Tuesday.

Turkey threatened Tuesday to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria unless they accepted Ankara's conditions for a "bloodless" transition after the fall of strongman president Bashar al-Assad.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan threatened this week to launch attacks against Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria.

Turkish President Erdogan has threatened military action in Syria to prevent its division and eliminate terrorist groups like the PKK and YPG. Turkey aims to maintain Syria’s unity, improve relations with its new government,