Unfortunately, Turkey does not receive the required support for its counterterrorism efforts in Syria due to the faulty acts of NATO allies and EU countries. The situation sadly favors terrorism. Fighting against the PKK, its Syrian affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD), its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia and Daesh, Turkey has been trying to eradicate the terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq. The Daesh threat is about to come to an end thanks to Turkey.

Also, the world is indebted to Turkey since the outlawed PKK is in decline in Iraq thanks to Turkey.

Thanks to Turkey, the PYD and YPG have been rendered ineffective in many areas of northwestern Syria and a considerable amount of Syrian refugees could safely return to their towns. Also, as a result of Turkey's counterterrorism activities, the terrorist groups that have terrorized European capitals over the past years are no longer active. As more terrorists have been rendered ineffective, terrorist groups have declined in power to a great extent.

The counterterrorism fight would yield more results today had the U.S. and several EU countries not provided weaponry aid to the YPG. Unfortunately, a number of countries, particularly the U.S., clings to the lie that the YPG fights Daesh and the Pentagon has equipped the YPG with a great amount of modern weapons and combat vehicles. But it is a fact that the YPG has never fought against Daesh. Daesh militants have seized some of the weapons given to the YPG, showing that the YPG cooperated with Daesh to control some areas in Syria. In addition, it was eventually revealed that Daesh and the YPG organized many of the violent attacks in Turkey together over the past years.

The YPG and Daesh used Afrin in northwestern Syria as a base to organize attacks in Europe and Turkey. The terrorists who perpetrated the attacks always departed from Afrin. After the attacks, the perpetrators usually headed to Afrin to take cover. Thanks to Turkey's Operation Olive Branch, Afrin has been liberated from these terrorists and given to the hands of Syrian people again. Afrin is no longer a base for terrorist attacks.

In many EU countries, a number of media outlets, political circles, unions, churches and nongovernmental organizations are still spreading the lie that the YPG is not a terrorist group. Some of them unabashedly claim that the YPG is not linked to the PKK. These claims have been proven wrong as PKK militants and proponents in Europe have attacked mosques, associations, restaurants and business places owned by Turkish-Europeans.

Here is more proof. On Sunday, I was in Darmstadt, Germany. Terrorists attacked Emir Sultan Mosque in Darmstadt and tried to break the door of the mosque. They broke the windows but could not get in. They wrote profanity on the walls along with the initials of the PKK and YPG. Many other vandalized places also had the initials of these terrorist groups on their walls. The Darmstadt police can verify the accuracy of my statement. Hopefully, the perpetrators will be apprehended as soon as possible since this will deter future attacks. It would be naive to expect an end to such assaults as long as PKK and YPG supporters can freely move in Europe. In this sense, Europeans need to realize that the PKK and YPG are categorically the same.

Although some groups in Europe insist the YPG i

s not a terrorist group, they show their terroristic character with their signatures on vandalized buildings. These groups must be either too naive or too malicious to overlook such a simple truth.

EU countries must urgently take necessary steps with regard to the YPG and consider the group in the same category as the PKK, as Ankara does.