Deputy premier: Turkey hopes US will end support to YPG

Turkey hopes the US will end its policy of supporting the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said on Wednesday, adding that Ankara could not accept US support for the group.
Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by the US, Turkey and Europe. US President Donald Trump has approved supplying arms to the YPG to support their fight against Daesh in Syria.
“We cannot accept the presence of terrorist organizations that would threaten the future of the Turkish state... We hope the US administration will put a stop to this wrong and turn back from it. Such a policy will not be beneficial, you can’t be in the same sack as terrorist organizations,” Canikli said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster A Haber.
Meanwhile, a top Syrian Kurdish official welcomed the US decision, saying it would “legitimize” the force as it prepares to march on Raqqa, the de facto capital of Daesh.
The YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Units) forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has driven Daesh from much of northern Syria with the help of US air support. The US is eager to expel Daesh from Raqqa and sees the Syrian Kurds, who are among the most effective fighters in the country, as the best-placed force for the task.
Ilham Ahmed, a top official in the SDF’s political office, said the decision to provide heavier arms carries “political meaning” and “legitimizes the YPG and the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
She said the decision is likely to be met with “aggression” from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is to visit Washington next week. The SDF’s rapid advance against Daesh last year prompted Turkey to send ground forces across the border for the first time in the more than six-year-old civil war to help allied Syrian opposition forces to battle Daesh and halt the Kurds’ progress.
Since then, Turkey is believed to have positioned more than 5,000 troops in northern Syria, and has escalated its airstrikes and cross-border artillery attacks against the Kurdish forces.

Source: Arab News