Turkey fears that the advances by Syrian Kurds against Islamic State on its 900 km (560 mile) border with Syria will fuel separatist ambitions among its own Kurds.
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On Monday, U.S. State Department Spokesman John Kirby said that his country does not recognize the PYD as a terrorist organization. How many did you take?
Can Acun, a researcher with the Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, said Turkey was facing a “serious crisis” with the United States on the issue.
“Are you our side or the side of the terrorist PYD and PKK organisation?”
The Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) has opened its first European representation office in Moscow, a development that reveals close ties between the PYD and Russian Federation and has caught the wary eye of Ankara. Turkey insists that the two are essentially the same group, and at times Erdogan and other top Turkish leaders have also claimed the PKK and YPG are the same as ISIS.
“We have written proof!” he said. “They are a partner”, he told reporters. “This happens once or twice and then we’ll open the gates and wish them a safe journey, that’s what I said”, Erdogan said.
Until now, Turkey has accepted 2.5 million Syrian refugees already.
Kurdish YPG militias have taken advantage of the rebels’ preoccupation with fending off the Russian-backed Syrian army offensive launched last week in the northern Aleppo countryside to gain ground near an important border crossing with Turkey, the Syrian insurgents say.
“The operations in Cizre have been successfully completed as of today”, Efkan Ala told state-run TRT television, adding that the curfew would nonetheless continue a little longer.
Kurdish-led fighters aided by Russian bombing captured a rebel-held former Syrian military airport near the border with Turkey, a monitor and rebels said on Thursday.
“Kurdish fighters have been some of the most successful in going after Daesh inside Syria”, he said, using another name for the Islamic State group.
The governor denied accusations that Turkey had closed its borders to the refugees, insisting that the country had chosen to assist the new arrivals at the displaced peoples’ camps just across the border, but would let them in if the need arises later.
Another Turkish soldier was shot dead on Tuesday by PKK militants in the Sur district, under curfew since early December, of mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey’s largest city Diyarbakir, the armed forces added in a statement.
The heavy bombing has forced tens of thousands of Syrians to flee to the safety of the border areas around Azaz town.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said that 274 rebels and foreign militants, 143 pro-regime fighters, and 89 civilians had been killed in the Aleppo offensive since February 1.
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The Turkish government had also recently announced its opposition to seeing the PYD participate in the Geneva peace talks.
