Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkish Presidency)
Oct 14, 2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said that United States
military activity with Kurdish forces in Syria poses a threat to Turkey’s
national security, a day after US President Joe Biden cited threats from Turkey
as grounds to extend a 2019 national emergency order on Syria.
After Turkey launched its Operation Peace Spring against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria (Rojava) in October 2019, former US president Donald Trump declared a national emergency and issued an executive order authorizing sanctions against Turkish officials.
Biden on Thursday extended the order for another year
“The situation in and in relation to Syria, and in particular the actions
by the Government of Turkey to conduct a military offensive into northeast
Syria, undermines the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,
or ISIS, endangers civilians, and further threatens to undermine the peace,
security, and stability in the region, and continues to pose an unusual and
extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United
States,” read a statement from Biden.
Erdogan responded saying the US is a threat to Turkey
“We express the same approach the US President used in his statement
concerning Syria yesterday, regarding their own activities in the region,” he
said during the closing ceremony of the 4th Turkey-Africa Business and Economic
Forum in Istanbul.
“The activities carried out by the USA in this country [Syria] with the
PKK’s extensions in Syria pose an extraordinary threat to Turkey’s national
security,” he said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed
group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey but proscribed as
a terrorist organization by Ankara.
Ankara considers Kurdish forces in the People’s Protection Units (YPG) –
the backbone of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – as the Syrian
front for the PKK. Turkey has intensified its military operations on PKK bases
in the Kurdistan Region and the YPG and SDF in Rojava following a PKK attack in
front of the Turkish interior ministry’s general security directorate in Ankara
earlier this month.
On October 5, the Pentagon confirmed that US troops in Rojava shot down a
Turkish drone deemed a potential threat to American forces.
Erdogan said shooting down the drone has created a security problem between
the NATO allies
“How can we be together in NATO? How can you do something like this? There
is a security problem between us,” Erdogan said, adding that Biden’s statement
did not align with the spirit of alliance and strategic partnership.
Erdogan was cited by Al-Monitor on Monday saying that Turkey has
“successfully” completed the first phase of its operations in Syria and claimed
that only YPG members were targeted during the campaign. He said Turkish troops
have “neutralized” 162 members of the Kurdish forces. Turkey uses the term
“neutralized” to denote adversaries captured, wounded, or killed.
Kurdish officials, however, have accused Ankara of targeting civilian
facilities. “During the past 72 hours, Turkey targeted more than 145 locations
in our safe region, including power stations, water and energy facilities,
hospitals, and schools,” SDF General Commander Mazloum Abdi said on Sunday.
The SDF said that Turkey’s campaign has killed 45 people including 11
civilians and members of the anti-drug forces at a training center.
Rudaw
--