ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he would order an intervention to prevent any splintering of Syria, a warning aimed particularly at the country`s Kurdish forces.

`We cannot accept under any pretext that Syria be divided and if we notice the slightest risk we will take the necessary measures,` the Turkish head of state said, adding that `we have the means`.

Erdogan`s warning is the latest aimed at the Kurdishdominated Syrian Democratic Forces and to the United States, which backed the SDF`s offensive against the militant Islamic State group. Turkiye said that it was `only a matter of time` before Syrian Kurdish fighters seen by the West as essential in the fight against the IS group fighters will be wiped out. `Conditions in Syria have changed. We believe it`s only a matter of time before PKK/YPG is eliminated,` Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference in the capital Ankara.

Turkiye sees the People`s Protection Units (YPG) the main component of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) -as a terror group linked to its outlawed domestic foe the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK).

Saying there is no room for `terror` in Syria, Erdogan said that `should the risk present itself, we could intervene in one night`.-AFP