Washington's support of Kurdish fighters in Syria in the fight against ISIL terrorists has angered Ankara, especially after AFP pictures last week revealed US commandos sporting patches of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) detested by Turkey.
"If we join forces, they (the US) have their own special forces and we have our special forces," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a small group of journalists in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya.
Such a coalition could "easily" head to ISIL' de facto capital in Raqqa to the south in a second front, he claimed.
There was no immediate reaction to the proposal from the United States, whose strategy for fighting terrorists inside Syria is pinned on its alliance with the battle-hardened Syrian Kurds...
[AFP - NEWZ.GR]
30/5/16
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Turkey's Erdogan says U.S.-backed Syrian force largely Arab, in tacit approval...
ReplyDeleteTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday a U.S.-backed offensive against Islamic State in northern Syria was largely being carried out by Arab rather than Kurdish fighters, in a sign of tacit approval for the operation near Turkey's borders.
The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, including the Kurdish YPG militia, thrust into Islamic State-held territory around the city of Manbij this week, backed by U.S.-led air strikes and U.S. special forces on the ground.
Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist organization and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey's own southeast. It resents U.S. support for the YPG.
Ankara, bent on preventing territorial gains by the Kurdish militia near its borders, has previously said it would not tolerate the YPG crossing west of the Euphrates River, into the area where the U.S.-backed operation is now underway.
"What we have been told is that the YPG will predominantly act as a logistical force here and the main force will be Arabs," Erdogan told a news conference during a trip to Kenya......REUTERS