The United States is “two-faced” for refusing to call the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia terrorists, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday, reflecting Ankara’s growing irritation at Washington’s backing of the group.
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“We’ve made the correction, so everybody’s moving on”, said Col Warren.
The United States as well as Russian Federation sees Kurds, including the PKK, in Iraq and Syria as allies in its fight against the IS.
Speaking at a press conference in Antalya, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said that “wearing an insignia of a terrorist organization by USA soldiers, who are our ally and are assertive about fighting against terrorism, is unacceptable”.
“This situation also damages Turkish-U.S. ties”, Ozcan added.
One should remember that it was sectarian tension in both Iraq and Syria which gave rise to Islamist extremism and sectarian violence there, and the Islamic State militant group is just the newest and most radical incarnation of that tension.
Turkey’s military killed at least 28 ISIS fighters in shelling north of the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday in retaliation for the latest attacks against a Turkish border town, broadcaster CNN Turk said, citing a military statement.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the U.S. on Saturday for its “support” of PKK terrorist group’s Syrian wings, PYD and YPG.
But the SDF is still dominated by the YPG, which Turkey sees as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
He added that the YPG is “taking the fight to Daesh in northern Syria and is a very effective fighting force”.
“In that case, we would recommend they use the patches of Daesh, al-Nusra and al-Qaida when they go to other parts of Syria and of Boko Haram when they go to Africa”, he said in reference to Jihadi extremist groups.
She would not specifically elaborate on what the American forces are doing on the ground. “Even though relations between Obama and Erdogan are not good, Turkey will continue to attach a great deal of important with its relationship with US because that is the relationship the President values above all else”.
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“And then they wear the badges of the terrorist organisation responsible for the last two attacks in Ankara”, he declared. “(…)We continue to maintain that the PKK is a designated terrorist organization and we work with Turkey in sharing intelligence and other things in combating the PKK.
