Erdogan refuses to arm Kurds in Syria
US President Barack Obama called his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and they pledged to step up the fight against the ISIS group in Syria
Is tanbul/ Washington, Oct. 19: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday rejected calls for Turkey to arm the main Kurdish party in Syria, describing the group as a terrorist organisation.
Mr Erdogan said the Democratic Union Party ( PYD) was the same as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party ( PKK), which has waged a 30- year insurgency for self- rule in south- eastern Turkey.
US President Barack Obama called his Turkish counterpart Mr Erdogan and they pledged to step up the fight against the ISIS group in Syria, the White House said Sunday.
The two presidents discussed “Syria, particularly the situation in Kobane, and steps that could be taken to counter ISIL advances,” in a Saturday night phone call, the White House said, using an alternate acronym for ISIS. “The two leaders pledged to continue to work closely together to strengthen cooperation against ISIL,” the White House said. Mr Obama also “expressed appreciation for Turkey hosting over a million refugees, including thousands from Kobane.
The armed wing of the PYD, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units ( YPG), has been engaged in heavy fighting in recent weeks with the ISIS group for control of the northern Syrian town of Kobane.
“There has been talk of arming the PYD to form a front here against the Islamic State. For us, the PYD is the same as the PKK, it’s a terrorist organisation,” Mr Erdogan said aboard a plane returning from Afghanistan.
“It would be very, very wrong to expect us to openly say ‘ yes’ to our Nato ally America to give this kind of support. To expect something like this from us is impossible,” he was quoted as saying by the state- run Anatolia news agency. French President Francois Hollande last week called on Turkey to open open its border to allow reinforcements to reach Kobane while the PYD itself called on Ankara to allow its territory to be used for transferring weapons. The US said on Thursday it held direct talks for the first time with the PYD.