In a fiery speech on Wednesday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused the USA of responsibility for the bloodshed in Syria by not recognizing the Kurdish YPG militia as a terrorist organisation and called on the Obama administration “to decide” whether it wants to be on the side of Turkey or on the side of ‘terrorist organizations.’ Erdogan added that despite the written proof in his possession that he presented to the Americans, they refuse to see the Kurds as terrorists.
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Turkish security forces have ended an nearly two-month military operation backed by a curfew in the southeastern town of Cizre against rebels of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), the interior minister said Thursday.
Russian war planes have been bombing around the Syrian city of Aleppo in support of a Syrian government offensive to recapture the city, sending tens of thousands of people fleeing to the Turkish border.
The PYD and PKK share not only ideology but fighters, with the PKK drawing Syrian Kurdish fighters to its camps in northern Iraq and Turkish Kurds serving in PYD ranks.
“Our ambition is to rally support behind our Kurdish enclave in Syria through this office”, Kurdish media network Rudaw quotes Abdulsalam Ali, the Syrian Kurdish envoy to Moscow, as saying.
Military sources said the army also seized up to 15 kg (33 pounds) of explosives and four suicide-bomber vests when it detained 34 people trying to cross into Turkey from a swathe of Syria under Islamic State control.
“Hey America! How many times have we had to tell you?”
The spokesman said the U.S. understands Turkey’s concern about the perceived threat the YPG poses to Turkey, but it does not agree with its ally that the YPG is a security threat to Turkey. The report didn’t say whether authorities believe the group may be linked to Islamic State extremists.
“If you’re putting one of them on your terror list, and ignoring the other, that’s naive to say the least – and unacceptable”, Cavusoglu said while on an official visit to Hungary.
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“In the past we have stopped people at the gates to Europe, in Edirne [in northwest Turkey] we stopped their buses. I’m not going to repeat what I’ve said before about the main pilot of the coalition”, Fabius told reporters, in a clear reference to the United States. Kurdish officials have suggested their goal is to take more or less the entire Aleppo Province border with Turkey, which mostly belongs to ISIS, but which includes this strip of territory as well.
