Turkey rips US plan to arm Kurds

Erdogan says he’ll take up issue when he meets Trump

USA TODAY

The United States must support its NATO ally Turkey and reverse its decision to arm Syrian Kurds in the battle against the Islamic State, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday.

Erdogan rebuffed U.S. efforts to downplay the ambitious military plan announced Tuesday, saying he would take up the issue with President Donald Trump when they meet in Washington next week.

“A terrorist group cannot be defeated with another one,” Erdogan said. “I want to believe that Turkey’s allies will side with us, not with terrorist organizations.”

Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he was confident the U.S. can resolve tensions with Turkey over the issue. “We will work very closely with Turkey in support of their security,” he said.

U.S. officials said Tuesday that Trump approved directly arming the Syrian Democratic Forces, about 50,000 fighters almost evenly divided between Arabs and Kurds. The SDF will be a driving force in the effort to drive IS militants from their last major Syrian stronghold in Raqqa. The Kurdish YPG organization, which Turkey views as a terrorist group, is a driving force in the SDF.

Turkey says Arabs, not Kurds, should lead the effort to take back Raqqa and wants the Kurds removed from the complicated military equation. The U.S. decision to arm the Kurds drew an outcry across Turkey. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stressed that “every weapon they (Kurds) obtain is a threat to Turkey.”

Prime Minister Binali Yidirim said the U.S. still has the “opportunity” to alter its position. “If a negative decision is taken, its consequences will not only be against Turkey but have a negative impact on the U.S., too,” Yidirim said.

Turkish leaders thus far have declined to detail what steps Turkey might take. The U.S. flies military strikes against the Islamic State out of Incirlik, a Turkish base.

Turkey views the YPG as an arm of the leftist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which for decades has pressed a violent struggle for Kurdish self-determination in Turkey. Turkey, the U.S. and European Union all view the Kurdistan Workers’ Party as a terrorist group.

The Pentagon policy had been to provide arms only to Arab fighters. The Kurds, however, have proven to be formidable fighters. Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said arming the entire SDF was “necessary to ensure a clear victory over ISIS in Raqqa.”