Speaking at a news briefing, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner said on Friday the US does not even contemplate designating the YPG as a terrorist group, against Turkey's wishes, but said Washington is opposed to YPG moves to expand territory in an around Aleppo in northern Syria.
US support for YPG has strained Turkey's relationship with Washington. Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist group, an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that is designated as a terrorist group both by Ankara and Washington. The US, on the other hand, says the YPG is an effective force against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and supports it in the fight against the extremist group.
- In remarks earlier on Friday, Turkish presidential spokesman İbrahim Kalın said the US was becoming more careful in its ties with the YPG. "I see some change in the US position. I think they are being more careful," Kalın told reporters in Ankara.
But Toner rejected any change in the US position. “I think if the question is have we changed our viewpoint or our position or attitude towards the YPG, I would say no,” he said in response to a question. “We've always been somewhat clear-eyed about where they are effective, where they benefit from our support, and where, in some areas – and I spoke about Aleppo – where we found some of their actions – and these are different groups, obviously different groups of the YPG that are operating in some of these areas. Some of them are not all that linked up – part of this complex situation we have on the ground – but we've been very clear when we find their actions to be counterproductive,” he said.
“We still view them as an effective fighting force that's taking on Daesh [ISIL] in many respects and many areas and parts of Syria very effectively, and we continue to support those efforts, but that's always been with the understanding that they're not going to seize territory or hold onto territory, but rather, liberate territory that then can be returned to the groups that have been displaced,” Toner said.
- Turkey has been shelling the YPG positions in northern Syria since Feb. 13 and vowed to continue to take measures it deems necessary for its security despite a US-Russia engineered ceasefire that went into force at midnight on Saturday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has insisted that the YPG should be excluded from the ceasefire, like ISIL and al-Qaeda's Syria branch, the Nusra Front.
- Ankara has also blamed a car bomb attack in Ankara that killed 29 people on the YPG and is frustrated with US refusal to designate the group as a terrorist organization despite its links to the PKK.
Asked if the US is close to designating the YPG as a terrorist organization, Toner said: “No, no.” When further pressed if it has ever been contemplated, he again said “no,” adding: “It's a long process by which you designate any organization that's a foreign terrorist organization. We're not even there with the YPG. We don't consider them to be one.”
[todayszaman.com]
27/2/16
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