“The aggressive country of Turkey and its gangs want to massacre Afrin people by warplanes and artilleries,” said PYD co-chair Shahoz Hassan.

Saturday marked 50 days since the attack against Kurdish fighters who have been resisting the Turkish incursion with a “strong morale,” he added.

“The resistance of defensive forces will strengthen morale and power of the people, the way the people’s resistance gives power to the Kurdish fighters.”

Meanwhile, former PYD co-chair Salih Muslim said in a post of his official Twitter account: “To all humanity defenders: Afrin being slaughtered by IS and its sponsors, don't be silent. @realDonaldTrump @UN.”

Turkey launched its operation seeking to oust Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) from the Afrin region of northern Syria on January 20 and Erdogan said Thursday its forces could now enter Afrin town at "any moment".

But Ankara has always threatened to expand the operation to the east to oust the YPG from the swath of territory it controls right up to Iraq.

Speaking to supporters in the city of Mersin, Erdogan said the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels wanted to oust the YPG from all the towns they control close to the Turkish border.

Reporter’s code: 50101