Turkey says US support for YPG Kurdish militants in Syria ‘big mistake’
Tehran (KNA) - Turkey's foreign minister says it is a “big mistake” for Washington to support the Syrian Kurdish militants of the People's Protection Units (YPG), stressing that the matter has strained relations between the two NATO allies.
Mevlut Cavusoglu met with Turkish citizens at the Turkish consulate in New York on Sunday.
Washington has infuriated Ankara by announcing a plan for the formation of a Kurdish militant force in Syria near the Turkish border.
The plan prompted Turkey to launch a cross-border military operation on January 20 inside the Arab country, code-named Operation Olive Branch, with the declared aim of eliminating the YPG militants from northern Syria, particularly Afrin region.
The YPG forms the backbone of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an anti-Damascus alliance of predominantly Kurdish militants supported by the United States.
Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.
"Despite knowing and acknowledging that (the YPG) is the same organization (as the PKK), seeing this cooperation as necessary is really a big mistake," Cavusoglu said, adding that he would "broadly" discuss Ankara-Washington ties with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday.
Source: PressTV