While the U.S., like Turkey, classifies the PKK as a terror group, it has lauded the Syrian PYD as an effective organization in countering Daesh (ISIL) militants. Tuesday’s move by the Turkish foreign ministry followed remarks by US State Department spokesman John Kirby, ruling out the organization as a terrorist one.
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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has scolded the United States for their position on Syria Kurds.
In a speech that stepped up his denunciations of Western policy in the refugee crisis, Erdogan confirmed he had threatened European Union leaders at a summit meeting in November that Turkey could say “goodbye” to the refugees.
According to the statement, seven PKK terrorists were spotted while they were trying to enter Turkey from Syria and fighting erupted when the soldiers opened fire on the terrorists.
“Are you our side or the side of the terrorist PYD and PKK organisation?”
The refugees have fled an offensive by Iranian and Syrian authorities forces -backed militias on rebel-held regions across the divided northern city of Aleppo. The Turkish head of state added the United Nations should not be calling on Turkey to take in more refugees from Syria, but should be urging other states to receive refugees from Turkey.
“Greek website euro2day.gr quoted earlier this week Erdogan as Migrants+Its+Border+with+EU” telling EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that Turkey could “open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and put the refugees on buses”. More than 40,000 people have died in the three-decade-long conflict.
The area of Syria near where the soldiers clashed is controlled by the PYD.
In another incident, one police officer was killed and another wounded when PKK rebels launched a rocket attack on an armored vehicle in the town of Sirnak, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Turkey fears that advances by Syrian Kurds against Daesh close to its 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria will fuel separatist ambitions among its own Kurds.
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“We understand they have concerns about support to Kurdish fighters in Syria, again, these are longstanding concerns”, he also noted, later adding, “We’ve been managing this particular issue for quite some time”.
