Erdogan Threatens US Over McGurk Visit to YPG Allies
US special envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition Brett McGurk with YPG leaders in Kobani. Photo: CBS
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his fury at a recent
visit made by America’s special envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition Brett
McGurk to Kobani, asking how Ankara could trust Washington again.“How can we trust [you]?” he asked of the Americans rhetorically.
“Is it me who is your partner or the terrorists in Kobani?” he added angrily.
“Do you accept the PKK as a terrorist organization? Then why don’t you list the PYD and the YPG as a terrorist organizations, too?” he added.
Turkey views the YPG, and the group’s political wing the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as little more than the Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The YPG have been the foremost US ally on the ground in the fight against ISIS in Syria. They began ad-hoc coordination during the siege of Kobani by ISIS militants.
Since then US-led air power has assisted them on offensives against ISIS and even helped them close off all of Syria’s northeastern frontier with Turkey (by expanding through the border-city of Gire Spi last summer) much to Ankara’s consternation. From Russia Today:
‘Me or terrorists?’ Furious Erdogan tells US to choose between Turkey and Syrian Kurds
Riled by a meeting between a US
official and members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG),
which controls the Syrian town of Kobane, Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan has told Washington to choose between Turkey and, as he put it,
the “terrorists.”
A delegation featuring Brett McGurk, the United States’ envoy to the
coalition it leads against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), met
the YPG over the last weekend in January. The YPG took full control of
Kobane late last June, in what was a powerful symbol of Kurdish
resistance. According to US officials, the trip appeared to be the first
of its kind to northern Syria since 2013. It took place after the YPG’s
political wing, Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), was excluded from
new peace talks in Geneva. Ankara had threatened to boycott the talks
if the PYD were invited.“He [Brett McGurk] visits Kobane at the time of the Geneva talks and is awarded a plaque by a so-called YPG general?” Erdogan told reporters on his plane while returning from a trip to Latin America and Senegal, the Beser Haber newspaper reported.
“How can we trust [you]?” Erdogan said.
“Is it me who is your partner, or the terrorists in Kobane?” the Turkish president said, adding that both the PYD and the YPG are “terrorist organizations.” Ankara considers them to be part of the PKK, banned in Turkey as a terrorist group.
The conflict between the Turkish government and
Kurdish insurgent groups demanding greater autonomy for the large ethnic
group has been continuing for decades. With several failed ceasefires
between the sides, Ankara has been blamed by a number of human rights
groups for putting civilian lives at risk in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish
southeast. In August, Ankara launched a ground operation to crack down
on Kurdish fighters linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The
violence ended a two-year truce with Kurdish militants fighting a
guerrilla war for independence.
“Turks have a phobia of Kurds because they are scared of their Turkish Kurds, some 20 million of them living in Turkey,”
Abd Salam Ali, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party’s representative to
Russia, told RIA Novosti, adding that “Kurds have interfered with
Erdogan’s plans in Turkey.”
“Islamic State has military bases in Turkey, and is using it as a corridor. Turkey currently plays a role similar to the one Pakistan played in the 1980s. When the Soviet forces were stationed in Afghanistan, jihadists arrived there through Pakistan, along with the money and arms. Now Turkey is exactly the same corridor [for militants in Syria], and it plays its own game. But Kurds appeared to stand in [Ankara’s] way. They have forced IS away from Rojava [also known as Syrian Kurdistan]. There’s only one piece left, a 90km-long territory between the Kurdish towns. If we force IS out of there and reconnect the Kurdish cantons, Turkey won’t be able to influence [the situation in Syria],” Abd Salam Ali noted.
“Islamic State has military bases in Turkey, and is using it as a corridor. Turkey currently plays a role similar to the one Pakistan played in the 1980s. When the Soviet forces were stationed in Afghanistan, jihadists arrived there through Pakistan, along with the money and arms. Now Turkey is exactly the same corridor [for militants in Syria], and it plays its own game. But Kurds appeared to stand in [Ankara’s] way. They have forced IS away from Rojava [also known as Syrian Kurdistan]. There’s only one piece left, a 90km-long territory between the Kurdish towns. If we force IS out of there and reconnect the Kurdish cantons, Turkey won’t be able to influence [the situation in Syria],” Abd Salam Ali noted.
Late last month, President Erdogan once again
refused to search for a peaceful solution to the conflict, which began
back in 1984 and has taken at least 40,000 lives, mainly those of
Kurdish people. He pledged that “those with guns in their hands and those who support them will pay the price of treason,” referring to the Kurdish militants, deemed terrorists by the government.
According to Turkey’s General Staff, the number of PKK members killed during military operations in the southeastern districts of Cizre and Sur reached 733 on Sunday. But according to Amnesty International estimates, at least 150 civilians, among them children, have been killed during the Turkish operation, with over 200,000 lives put at risk. Turkey’s security operations in the mainly Kurdish southeast resemble a “collective punishment,” the human rights watchdog said last month. Amnesty slammed the international community for choosing to turn a blind eye to what Ankara has been doing to the Kurds. “While the Turkish authorities appear determined to silence internal criticism, they have faced very little from the international community. Strategic considerations relating to the conflict in Syria and determined efforts to enlist Turkey’s help in stemming the flow of refugees to Europe must not overshadow allegations of gross human rights violations. The international community must not look the other way,” John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Program Director, pointed out.
Up to 21 academics were detained by Turkish authorities in
mid-January for signing a petition demanding that Ankara abandon its
military crackdown on Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country.
The petition denouncing Turkey’s military operation against Kurds was
signed by as many as 1,200 academics. Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said they all sided with the Kurdish militants, who are
considered terrorists by the government. “Unfortunately these
so-called academics claim that the state is carrying out a massacre.
You, the so-called intellectuals! You are dark people. You are not
intellectuals,” he stated.According to Turkey’s General Staff, the number of PKK members killed during military operations in the southeastern districts of Cizre and Sur reached 733 on Sunday. But according to Amnesty International estimates, at least 150 civilians, among them children, have been killed during the Turkish operation, with over 200,000 lives put at risk. Turkey’s security operations in the mainly Kurdish southeast resemble a “collective punishment,” the human rights watchdog said last month. Amnesty slammed the international community for choosing to turn a blind eye to what Ankara has been doing to the Kurds. “While the Turkish authorities appear determined to silence internal criticism, they have faced very little from the international community. Strategic considerations relating to the conflict in Syria and determined efforts to enlist Turkey’s help in stemming the flow of refugees to Europe must not overshadow allegations of gross human rights violations. The international community must not look the other way,” John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Program Director, pointed out.