Turkey won't take part in Raqqa operation if Kurdish militants do: Erdogan spox

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman on Thursday ruled out the possibility of Turkey joining an operation by coalition forces against Islamic State militants in Syria's Raqqa if Kurdish fighters also take part. "Negotiations are still ongoing, there is nothing certain yet. Our principled stance is the same as it was with Manbij and Jarablus. It is out of the question for us to take part in an operation in which the PYD/YPG are present," Ibrahim Kalin told an interview on state run news channel TRT Haber. Turkey considers Kurdish YPG forces fighting in Syria as closely linked to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, and deems both groups terrorist organizations. "In principle, we support Raqqa and the other Syrian cities being cleansed from Daesh, but as we said before, we have principles and conditions on the issue," Kalin said, using an Arabic name for Islamic State. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Daren Butler)