In remarks Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted that he would personally demand President Donald Trump rescind his support for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), as Turkey’s “patience has ended” with the anti-Islamic State collaboration between the two.
The Pentagon announced this week it would expand military support for the YPG, considered one of the most successful militias fighting ISIS today. Turkey considers the YPG an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Marxist terrorist group seeking to establish an independent Kurdistan. In a report published Thursday, the Turkish state-run Anadolu News Agency describes the PKK as an “umbrella organization” that “franchises” itself to regional affiliates, making international support of their subgroups more palatable.
“We would like to believe that our allies will prefer to side with us and not with terrorist organizations,” Erdogan said in remarks during a press conference with Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma. The president added that he hoped the Pentagon would “reverse” its decision to arm the YPG “before I go to America.” READ MORE
