Alwaght- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu blamed the US for supporting the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, calling it a “big mistake" that had strained ties between the NATO allies.
Turkey has been infuriated with Washington’s support for the YPG, which Ankara views as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) waging a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.
“Despite knowing and acknowledging that (the YPG) is the same organization (as the PKK), seeing this cooperation as necessary is really a big mistake,” Cavusoglu , who is in the US on an official visit, said, Reuters reported.
Turkey's top diplomat said tensions between Ankara and Washington stemmed from US support for the YPG and the issue of Gulen, the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen whom Ankara blames for a 2016 failed coup.
On Sunday, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said he had told U.S. Chief of Staff Joseph Dunford that Turkey expected the United States to stop its support for the YPG as soon as possible, according to the state-owned Anadolu news agency.
“We reiterated our warnings and stated that we expected our US counterparts to take the necessary measures and end their relationship with the YPG, which is no different than the PKK, as soon as possible,” Akar was quoted as saying.
“We reminded them that the United States, our ally and strategic partner here (Syria), and U.S. soldiers cooperating with such an organisation (YPG) cannot be acceptable in any way,” he said.
