Trump warns Turkey of ‘economic devastation’ if it hits Kurd forces

ISTANBUL: United States President Donald Trump threatened Turkey with economic devastation if it attacks a US-allied Kurdish militia in Syria, weakening Turkey’s currency and prompting sharp criticism from Ankara yesterday.

Relations between the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies have been strained over US backing for the Kurdish YPG, which Turkey views as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that is waging a decades-long 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 said on Sunday the US was starting the military pullout from Syria that he announced last month, saying it was continuing 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.

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 terrorist 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.

Trump gave no details about the safe zone proposal. He announced last month he would withdraw US forces from Syria, declaring they had succeeded in their mission to defeat IS and were no longer needed.

However, US officials have given mixed messages since then. The US-led coalition said on Friday it had started the pullout but officials said later it involved only equipment, not troops.

The Kurdish YPG has been a US ally in the fight against the jihadists and it controls swaths of northern Syria.

Erdogan had vowed to crush it in the wake of Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of the region.

An official from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of militias led by the YPG, said on Sunday IS militants were “living their final moments” in the last enclave they hold near the Iraqi border.