Turkey's complaints about cooperation between Washington, Syrian Kurdish militia reached new level when the Foreign Minister urged US to choose its partner in fighting terror
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu slammed the US administration for its support to Syria's Kurdistan Union Party (PYD) which Ankara says is directly linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
“The US must choose where it wants to stand. It must decide who will be its partner in fighting against Daesh, whether it is Turkey or terrorist organizations,” he told reporters in Budapest. “We already have to submit certain documents proving how PKK and PYD are linked to eacher,” he said. “We have provided to Biden a list of names and photos to show how PYD acts in the PKK's organization and which posts its officials hold in the terror network.”
Çavuşoğlu was speaking at a joint news conference on Tuesday with his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijarto, on Tuesday. His remarks were apparently a response to Kirby's statement which has sent shock waves to the Turkish capital, Ankara. His statement is not first of its kind. In October 2014, the US Department of State deputy spokesperson announced that PYD is not a terrorist group under US law.
In a snub to Turkey, the State Department spokesman John Kirby reiterated that the Obama administration does not recognize the Kurdish Democration Union Party (PYD), the PKK's affiliate in Syria as a terrorist organization. "We do not recognize the PYD as a terrorist organization. We recognize that Turks do," Kirby told a daily press briefing this week. His remarks have sparked outrage and fury in Ankara.
Çavuşoğlu said it was not a “sober view” if some countries did not recognize PYD as a terrorist organization while all regional countries labelled it as a terrorist group. “This is not a rational approach. You include a terrorist organization in your list of terrorist groups but you do not recognize another group as terrorist network, despite its clear link to the one you see terrorist,” he explained.
The Turkish minister also said one can not encounter against terrorism with this means, urging for the same approach to all organizations listed as terrorist.
“There is a mentality suggesting you should allow something alone if it may not cause trouble for you. As PYD does not lead a trouble to me, I can can cooperate with it, they suggest. But, that's a snake that will bite you also one day in the future,” Çavuşoğlu warned, saying that many countries were targeted by terrorist organizations they had once supported.
“Daesh is a bad organization because it is radical, but PYD is a good one because it is a Marxist-Leninist organization. That is to say, it is a secular organization for them,” he said. “However both are terrorist organizations. You are not allowed to say one is good while the other is bad. Is it possible to aprove such an understanding,” the minister asked.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been a fierce critical of US support to Syrian Kurdish militia and often publicly criticized his US counterpart for airlifting heavy weapons to PKK's off-shoot. Earlier in February, Erdoğan slammed US for its military support to PYD. "You can't say that the PKK is a terrorist organization and the PYD is not," said Erdogan, referring to the rift between the two NATO allies, during a visit to Chile.
The President's remarks were apparently a response to US support for the PYD that also floated during US Vice President Joe Biden's trip to Turkey in January. The Obama administration does not consider the PYD a terrorist organization. Rather, it sees it as a close partner in fighting against Daesh. In every occasion, the US says it understands Turkey's concerns over Syria's Kurdish militia, but it will continue to support them in the fight against Daesh.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been a fierce critical of US support to Syrian Kurdish militia and often publicly criticized his US counterpart for airlifting heavy weapons to PKK's off-shoot.
