TurkeyTurkey will not agree to U.S. support for Kurds fighting ISIS in Syria: Erdogan

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday (Sunday) that Turkey would not agree to any U.S. arms transfers to Kurdish fighters who are fighting Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Syria.

ISIS increased its pressure on the Kurdish city of Kobani, just inside Syria across the Turkish border, but Turkey views the PYD, the main Syrian Kurdish group defending Kobani, as an extension of the PKK, a pro-Kurdish independence group which, in 1984, had launched an insurgency campaign against the Turkish state – a campaign which, until it officially ended in 2012, had cost the lives of about 42,000 Turks (see “Turkish jets bomb Kurdish positions,” HSNW, 15 October 2014)

The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by the United States and the EU.

The United States is supporting the PYD in its effort to hold off ISIS and prevent the fall of Kobani. That support, so far, has been limited to intelligence sharing, but Washington has not ruled out supplying arms to the PYD.

“The PYD is for us, equal to the PKK. It is a terror organization,” Erdogan told a group of reporters on his return from a visit to Afghanistan. “It would be wrong for the United States with whom we are friends and allies in NATO to talk openly and to expect us to say ‘yes’ to such a support to a terrorist organization.”

The Guardian reports that Erdogan’s comments were reported by the state-run Anadolu agency on Sunday.

Analysts say that Turkey’s opposition to arms transfers to the Kurdish forces has been hobbling the U.S.-led coalition’s campaign to fight the Islamist extremists, and has heightened tensions between Turkey and Washington.

Turkey has demanded that the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition broaden its campaign against the Islamist militants by providing greater aid to moderate Syrian rebels who are fighting both ISIS and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Turkey has so far accepted an estimated 200,000 Syrians fleeing Kobani, and announced it would train and equip moderate Syrian rebel fighters trying to remove Assad from power.

The Guardian notes that the White House said President Barack Obama spoke to Erdogan on Saturday about the deteriorating situation in Kobani and the steps required blunt ISIS advances.

“The two leaders pledged to continue to work closely together to strengthen cooperation against [ISIS],” a White House statement said.

Several air strikes hit Kobani neighborhoods on Saturday evening. U.S. warplanes launched eleven air strikes near Kobani on Saturday and Sunday, U.S. Central Command said.

The UN humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, said that while 900,000 people have been registered as refugees in Turkey since the Syrian crisis began nearly four years ago, “the reality is that the numbers are nearer to 1.6 million.”

“Of course countries have concerns about security, and about the impact on their economies and on essential services like health and education. But it’s also a crisis with a huge human impact,” she said.

“The international community has to continue to do all it can to find a political solution to this crisis.”