Trump warns Turkey
ISTANBUL: President Donald Trump has threatened Turkey with economic devastation if it attacks a USallied Kurdish militia in Syria, weakening Turkey’s currency and prompting sharp criticism from Ankara yesterday.
Relations between the two Nato allies have been strained over United States backing for the Kurdish YPG, which Turkey views as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) waging a decadeslong insurgency on Turkish soil.
A diplomatic crisis last year, when Trump imposed sanctions on two Turkish ministers and raised tariffs on Turkish metal exports, helped push the Turkish lira to a record low in August.
Trump yesterday said the US was starting the military pullout from Syria he announced in December, saying it continued to hit Islamic State fighters there.
‘‘Will attack again from existing nearby base if it reforms. Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds. Create 20 mile safe zone . . . Likewise, do not want the Kurds to provoke Turkey,’’ Trump wrote on Twitter.
The lira slid more than 1% on the news.
Turkey’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Trump should respect Washington’s alliance with Ankara.
‘‘Mr @realDonaldTrump It is a fatal mistake to equate Syrian Kurds with the PKK, which is on the US terrorists list, and its Syria branch PYD/YPG,’’ spokesman Ibrahim Kalin wrote on Twitter.
‘‘Terrorists can’t be your partners & allies. Turkey expects the US to honour our strategic partnership and doesn’t want it to be shadowed by terrorist propaganda,’’ he said yesterday.
The Kurdish YPG has been a US ally in the fight against the jihadists and controls swaths of northern Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to crush it after Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of the region. — Reuters