ANKARA: Turkey summoned the US ambassador to Ankara on Monday to convey "in the strongest terms" its reaction to a statement on the killing of 13 Turks captured by Kurdish militants, which President Tayyip Erdogan called "a joke".
Turkey said on Sunday militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) executed the captives, including Turkish military and police personnel, amid a military operation in northern Iraq where the group was holding them.
The United States said it stood by fellow NATO member Turkey and that it condemned the killings if it was confirmed that responsibility lay with the PKK.
Ankara, already angered by Washington's partnership with Kurdish fighters in neighbouring Syria, was infuriated by the conditionality of the US statement.
The United States and European Union have designated the PKK a terrorist organisation, but in Syria US forces have been deployed alongside Kurdish YPG fighters who Ankara considers to be inextricably linked to the PKK.
"Now there is a statement made by the United States. It's a joke. Were you not supposed to stand against the PKK, the YPG? You clearly support them and stand behind them," Erdogan told supporters of his AK Party in the Black Sea city of Rize.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also complained on Monday about silence from "countries that are supposedly claiming to battle terrorism", adding they were trying to "gloss over" the issue "with ifs and buts".
Since Joe Biden was elected US President last year, Turkey has repeatedly said it wants to improve strained ties with the United States, but US support for the YPG has infuriated Ankara and remains a big disagreement between the allies.
Erdogan said that Ankara would continue its cross-border operations into Iraq against the PKK, which has waged a decades-old insurgency in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
"If we are together with you in NATO, if we are to continue our unity, then you will act sincerely towards us. Then, you will stand with us, not with the terrorists," Erdogan said.
He said nobody could criticise Turkey's cross-border operations in Syria or Iraq after the killings, and countries must choose between Turkey and the militants.
Turkey’s Erdogan accuses US of backing ‘terrorists’ in Iraq
https://arab.news/n3h6b
Turkey’s Erdogan accuses US of backing ‘terrorists’ in Iraq
- The PKK has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984
Syria Kurds chief says ‘all efforts’ being made to salvage deal with Damascus
- Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal
- The two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said Thursday that “all efforts” were being made to prevent the collapse of talks on an agreement with Damascus to integrate his forces into the central government.
The remarks came days after Aleppo saw deadly clashes between the two sides before their respective leaders ordered a ceasefire.
In March, Abdi signed a deal with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by year’s end, but differences have held up its implementation.
Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal, adding in a statement that the two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism, and pledging further meetings with Damascus.
Downplaying the year-end deadline, he said the deal “did not specify a time limit for its ending or for the return to military solutions.”
He added that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process” and that he considered failure unlikely.
Abdi also repeated the SDF’s demand for decentralization, which has been rejected by Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad last year.
Turkiye, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
In Damascus this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of the Kurds’ integration, having warned the week before that patience with the SDF “is running out.”
The SDF control large swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Daesh group in Syria in 2019.
Syria last month joined the anti-IS coalition and has announced operations against the jihadist group in recent days.
