Kirby’s comments follow remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who voiced concerns about US support for YPG, the military wing of the PYD – the Syrian branch of the PKK terror group. The State Department didn’t directly address this, simply saying they view the Kurdish PKK as “a terrorist organization”.
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“We don’t want to fall into the same mistake in Syria as in Iraq”, the president said, recounting how Turkey’s parliament denied a USA request to use its territories for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In an act of protest the three activist started screaming “murderer” at Erdogan while he was addressing the crowd at Quito’s Centre for Higher National Studies. Russian Federation strongly backed the PYD’s presence, which Ankara successfully blocked, in last month’s Geneva peace talks.
Diego Vintimilla, a legislator who is a member of the ruling socialist PAIS Alliance party, attempted to intervene and prevent Turkish security from physically hurting the women.
That difference is affecting Turkey’s ability to help the U.S.-led Western coalition fight IS, analysts say.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu yesterday asked that allies and friends choose either to be partners with Ankara or with terrorist organisations, the Anadolu Agency reported.
There have been repeated clashes between PKK separatists and the Turkish army in recent months, and the violence has recently escalated.
But Ankara worries they will fan Kurdish separatism in Turkey and that arms given to the Syrian Kurds will seep over the border to the PKK, with which armed conflict has resumed, our correspondent says.
The opening of the office in Moscow is also bound to fuel tensions in Russia’s relations with Turkey, which broke down in November after Ankara shot down a Russian warplane on the Syrian border.
Criticizing Washington’s characterization of the PYD as a “reliable partner” in the fight against ISIL, Erdogan urged the U.S.to show preference to its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally in Turkey rather than the PYD as a partner.
The US has established its cooperation with Syrian Kurdish fighters against Daesh (ISIL/ISIS). “Although we told them a hundred times, they remain silent in our presence but say they do not recognize these groups [as terrorist] behind our back”, said Erdogan.
Turkey is leery of Kurds’ advances in Syria, believing that Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria will boost separatism among fellow Kurds inside Turkey.
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A women and her children stand in the ruins of battle-damaged house in the Kurdish town of Silopi, in southeastern Turkey, near the border with Iraq on January 19, 2016.
