Alwaght- Turkey rebuked the US plan to set up a 30,000-strong force from the Kurdish-dominated SDF militias on its border with the war-torn Syria.
The Turkish government perceives the so-called Syrian Border Force, that may be stationed along the Kurdish-controlled parts of the Syrian border with Iraq and Turkey, as well as in the Euphrates River Valley, as a threat to its national security, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in the statement on Sunday.
"Turkey is determined to eliminate any threats against it, and has all possibilities to do this,” it said, denouncing what it called “the persistence of the United State in this erroneous approach” of cooperating with the Kurdish militias.
Turkey also slammed its NATO ally of misleading the public into believing the decision was taken on behalf of the so-called international coalition against ISIS, while in fact the US was likely acting unilaterally.
“It is unknown what coalition members made of this decision. Explaining the unilateral steps on behalf of the coalition is an extremely wrong move that could harm the fight with Daesh [the Arabic acronym for ISIS],” the ministry said.
The US-led coalition’s plan to set up such a force on the basis of the Syrian Democratic Force (SDF) veterans, who are set to make up half of the recruits, was unveiled by US Army Col. Thomas Veale, a spokesman for the US-led coalition, on Saturday.
Turkey has been calling on the US to withdraw its support for the Kurdish YPG units, a cornerstone of the SDF militia, as Ankara considers the YPG an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), outlawed as a terrorist entity in Turkey. In November, Washington promised to wind down its support for “certain groups” fighting IS in Syria following a phone call between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump.
US Defense Secretary James Mattis later confirmed Washington would stop arming the Kurdish militias, noting that “police forces” comprised of the local population would still be needed to “make certain that ISIS doesn’t come back".
The creation of the thousands-strong force build on the shoulders of the SDF runs contrary to Washington’s assurances to Turkey, the ministry argued. “Continued US cooperation with the YPG [US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units], which is contrary to its [the US’s] own obligations, jeopardize our national security and [the] territorial integrity of Syria, and that is unacceptable,” the statement read.
A top Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters on Sunday that the main reason behind summoning Philip Kosnett, the American charge d‘affaires in Ankara, last week was in fact Washington’s training of the new “Border Security Force” (BSF) within Syria, a move that was denounced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman, who called it "worrying."
