The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) condemned a recent statement by the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which praised a killed member of the PKK terrorist organization’s Syrian offshoot, the YPG.
In a news conference after a party meeting in the capital Ankara, AK Party spokesperson Ömer Çelik said CENTCOM’s condolences message was “worrying.”
“If the U.S. Central Command issues a condolences message about a YPG/PKK terrorist, then this is a worrying situation, which must be condemned,” he told reporters on Monday.
CHP Spokesperson Faik Öztrak also condemned CENTCOM’s message.
“It is not possible for us to accept the U.S. Central Command’s condolences message for a terrorist who has committed acts of terror in our country,” he said, adding that they condemn the message.
Öztrak went on to say that they expect Turkey’s allies to be more careful regarding these issues.
Regarding the U.S. Central Command openly voicing sympathy for YPG terrorists, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also decried the U.S.' continued cooperation with terrorists.
"The U.S. will eventually fall into a pit of its own making due to its cooperation with the terrorist organization," said Erdoğan.
The CENTCOM on Sunday praised three YPG terrorists that were killed in northern Syria on Friday. CENTCOM also extended condolences to the terrorists' families.
Turkey has long criticized U.S. support for the terrorist YPG. While the U.S. claims it fights Daesh terrorists with the help of its YPG allies, Turkey says using one terror group to fight another makes no sense.
The PKK is a designated terrorist organization in the U.S., Turkey and the European Union, and Washington's support for its Syrian affiliate has been a major strain on bilateral relations with Ankara. The U.S. primarily partnered with the YPG in northeastern Syria in its fight against the Daesh terrorist group. On the other hand, Turkey strongly opposed the YPG's presence in northern Syria. Ankara has long objected to the U.S.' support for the YPG, a group that poses a threat to Turkey and that terrorizes local people, destroying their homes and forcing them to flee.
Under the pretext of fighting Daesh, the U.S. has provided military training and given truckloads of military support to the YPG, despite its NATO ally's security concerns. Underlining that one cannot support one terrorist group to defeat another, Turkey conducted its own counterterrorism operations, over the course of which it has managed to remove a significant number of terrorists from the region.
Speaking to members of the Turkish press on his way back from Iran where he attended a trilateral meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Iran's Ebrahim Raisi in the capital Tehran for the seventh summit in the Astana format to discuss the recent developments in Syria, Erdoğan last week reiterated Turkey’s concerns over the United States' continued support of the PKK's Syrian branch YPG in the region.
Erdoğan called on the United States to pull troops from east of the Euphrates River, accusing the NATO ally, once again, of training and helping the YPG terrorists.
"The United States has carried thousands of trucks of weapons, ammunition and equipment to terrorist organizations there, including during the previous presidents. This is still going on. Even the coalition forces continue their support in the same way."
Regarding a new possible cross-border operation against the YPG, Erdoğan said that a new operation will continue to be on Turkey's agenda as long as its national security concerns are not resolved.
He continued: “America is feeding terrorist organizations there. As soon as America withdraws or doesn't feed these terrorist organizations, our task will become easier."
