President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that he condemns the U.S. for supporting the PKK’s Syrian wing Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its military wing, People’s Protection Units (YPG), referring to the U.S. soldiers whose shots were taken while wearing the insignias of the YPG.
Erdoğan said, “This is not what was promised to us. I am someone who believes that politics should be conducted honestly. Therefore, our allies, those who are with us in NATO, cannot and should not send their own soldiers to Syria, with insignias of the YPG.”
The president also said, “Saying solely ‘We are against terrorism’ does not mean standing against terrorism.”
Erdoğan made the comments in the terror-stricken Diyarbakır province on Saturday. The president was there together with Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım to open an airport in the southeastern province.
The construction of the airport started two years ago and cost more than TL 230 million ($78 million), and is expected to serve regular international flights. Erdoğan said during the inauguration ceremony that economy and cultural life of the Diyarbakır province will enliven with the opening of the new airport.
Erdoğan condemns US for supporting PYG, YPG during airport opening ceremony in Diyarbakır
Prime Minister Yıldırım said during the ceremony that Turkey had no “Kurdish problem” only a terrorism problem.
“The PKK does not care about Kurdish people’s problems. Your problems and Turkey’s problems are just the PKK terrorist organization. We are committed that that PKK should no longer a problem for us,” he said.
Following the inauguration, Erdoğan and Yıldırım are scheduled to pay a condolence visit to the relatives of the bombing attack victims murdered by the PKK terrorist organization on May 12 in the Dürümlü region. The blast killed 16 people and injured 23 others.
Ties between Washington and Ankara have been more strained recently as several photos of the U.S. troops in Raqqa wearing uniforms with YPG insignia appeared in media. On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that such images of an ally of Turkey are unacceptable.
“Our advice for the U.S. is that they should wear Daesh, al-Nusra, and al-Qaeda insignias when they go to other places in Syria and should wear Boko Haram insignias in Africa,” he said, saying it was a double standard and hypocritical.
The Obama administration has been insisting that YPG and PYD are effective partners in the fight against Daesh, whereas Ankara continues to reiterate that there cannot be any distinction between good or bad terrorist organizations and asserts that these organizations are affiliated with the PKK, a designated terrorist organization by the U.S., EU and NATO.
