ANKARA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Turkish top general and intelligence chief met their Russian counterparts in Moscow on Thursday as Ankara seeks Russian support for opening Syrian airspace to Turkish military jets, as well as coordination with Russian troops in Turkey's potential military intervention against Kurdish militia in Syria's northern province of Afrin.
"We are talking with both Iran and Russia for the use of the (Syrian) airspace. We have to be in coordination with them for an aerial operation," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a televised interview on Thursday.
"There are a few Russian troops in Afrin. We should be coordinated when we intervene so that the Russian monitoring troops are not negatively affected or confronted," he noted.
There are "various countries and players in the Syrian theater," therefore good coordination is needed to avoid confrontation, Cavusoglu explained.
Chief of Turkish General Staff Hulusi Akar and Turkish National Intelligence Organization Chief Hakan Fidan travelled to Moscow to discuss the issues, the minister said.
The discussion about a possible military operation against Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) elements in Afrin came a day after the National Security Council of Turkey convened and decided to take "all necessary precautions" against the YPG.
Ankara considers the YPG in Syria a terrorist group for its links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The Turkish government hopes Moscow will remain silent about Turkey's operation in Afrin, and expects Moscow to persuade Damascus to open airspace to Turkish jets in northern Syria, a Turkish official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Turkish-backed Syrian opposition group Free Syrian Army (FSA) will launch a ground offensive, while Turkish jets will back them and the armed forces in Syria will hit the YPG targets with artillery fire, said the official.
The Turkish army reinforced its troops in the Syrian border since last week, and the military has started to hit YPG targets in the Afrin district since Sunday.
Turkey has long been preparing for a military incursion in Afrin, but Washington has said it would help the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by the YPG militia, set up a new 30,000-strong border force.
On Jan. 13, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country will not allow a "terror army" along its borders and any venture in the region "has no chance of success" if Turkey has no consent to it, referring to the Syrian Kurds' advances as an autonomous entity in Syria's northern regions.
Erdogan's government has for long opposed the growing influence of the Kurds in northern Syria, fearing that any separatist sentiment could inspire Turkey's 14 million Kurds.
In a bid to calm down Ankara's anger, the Pentagon on Wednesday said the SDF force is not a new "army" or conventional "border guard" force.
"We are keenly aware of the security concerns of Turkey, our coalition partner and NATO ally. Turkey's security concerns are legitimate," U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.
"Some people misspoke. We are not creating a border security force at all," Tillerson added.
Asked if a planned operation in northern Syria was delayed after the U.S. statements, Foreign Minister Cavusoglu on Thursday said "no," and vowed that Turkey "will intervene in Afrin."
On Aug. 24, 2016, Turkish troops, artillery and tanks were surprisingly deployed in northern Syria.
"Operation Euphrates Shield" in Syria was a military movement to clear the Azaz-Jarablus line of its border with Syria from the threat of Islamic State (IS) and to prevent the Syrian Kurdish militia merging in Afrin and Kobane regions from establishing a "Kurdish belt."
The offensive took 216 days and ended on March 29, 2017, and Turkey lost 67 soldiers, along with nearly 600 rebels from the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
