The Turkish community living in the United States voiced their reactions against U.S. support to the PKK terrorist group's Syrian affiliate in a press conference in front of Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday.
Representatives of the U.S. branch of the Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (MUSİAD), the Cihannuma Solidarity and Cooperation Platform Association and the Turkish-American National Steering Committee (TASC) were present at the press conference protesting the U.S. Congress for using taxpayer money to support the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People's Protection Units (YPG). Murat Güzel, the organizer of the event, emphasized the importance of increasing Turkish-Americans' role and influence in U.S. politics and stressed that the Turkish community should ask the U.S. authorities to account for their taxes.
Pointing out that the U.S. administration was aiming to allocate over $500 million to the PYD/PKK from the 2019 budget, Güzel said, "This money is being cut off from our taxes. Ironically, the U.S. intelligence organizations also described this group [PYD] as an extension of the PKK terrorist organization. As a matter of fact, in the past weeks, they have submitted a report [on this] to Congress. We, as taxpayers in America, have met the members of Congress and called them to account for the taxes we have paid and we will continue to do so."
"We have received very positive results, especially from talks we had yesterday and today, and we will increase our visits to the Democratic Party," he added. MUSİAD's U.S. President Mustafa Tuncer said they have told U.S. congressmen "terrorism cannot be supported by the taxes we have paid."
