ANKARA: The US announcement that Washington would supply arms and military equipment to a terror group which is actively fighting against Turkey is “unacceptable,” Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said Wednesday.
Speaking in an interview with broadcaster A Haber, Canikli said “We cannot accept the presence of terrorist organizations that would threaten the future of the Turkish state… We hope the U.S. administration will put a stop to this wrong and turn back from it.”
The deputy PM said the U.S. claim that cooperation with the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) was the only way to fight Daesh in a ground offensive was not based on facts.
U.S. President Donald Trump authorized the Defense Department to equip “Kurdish elements” of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday “to ensure a clear victory” over Daesh in Raqqa, Syria.
The U.S. support for the SDF has been a major strain on relations between Washington and Ankara as the YPG forms the backbone of SDF forces.
Turkey considers the PYD and its armed wing, the YPG, to be the Syrian affiliates of the
PKK, a proscribed terrorist organization in the U.S., Turkey and the EU.
But Washington has adamantly resisted similarly designating the YPG, using it as a principal partner in the ground war in the fight against Daesh in northern Syria.
The Pentagon said the U.S. is “keenly aware” of Turkey’s security concerns as it announced the policy shift.
“We want to reassure the people and government of Turkey that the U.S. is committed to preventing additional security risks and protecting our NATO ally,” White said.
“The U.S. continues to prioritize our support for Arab elements of the SDF,” she said, adding that Raqqah “and all liberated territory should return to the governance of local Syrian Arabs.”
The Pentagon did not immediately specify what types of support the U.S. would begin to supply under the new authorities, but a Defense official said it would include small arms, machine guns, ammunition, armored vehicles, trucks and engineering equipment.
