Turkey will not withdraw its troops from northern Syria, Turkish media quoting Turkey’s Chief of General Staff Yasar Guler reported Monday.

“We have no plans to withdraw, to leave [Syria] for now,” Guler said when asked by reporters about Turkey’s military presence in Syria during an appearance at the screening of a documentary on Sunday. “The decision to withdraw from there belongs to the Republic of Turkey. It will not take into account what others say. There is no such decision at this time,” he added.

Turkish footprint in Syria: The precise figures remain undisclosed by Turkey, but at least 10,000 Turkish troops are believed to be deployed across northern Syria. Last year, the pro-government Daily Sabah estimated the number of Turkish soldiers in the country at 20,000.

The Turkish presence dates back to 2016, when several thousand Turkish troops crossed the border into Jarablus in what Ankara called Operation Euphrates Shield. The incursion was declared to be in support of the US-led coalition’s war against the Islamic State. Its main purpose was to prevent the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces from connecting areas under their control east of the Euphrates River with the Kurdish-majority enclave of Afrin to the west.