Turkey balks at including Kurds
by Agency Staff,
2016-02-25 06:10:06.0
TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday Syrian Kurdish militia forces must remain outside the scope of a ceasefire agreed between Syria’s warring parties, in a blow to the deal days before it is due to be enforced.
Lashing out at western policy in Syria, he said the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia were a "terror group" just like Islamic State (IS) jihadists and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front.
The issue has already provoked a rare rift between Ankara and its chief Nato ally Washington, which works closely with the YPG as an effective fighting force against IS in Syria.
"If Daesh (IS) and Al-Nusra are kept outside the ceasefire, then the PYD-YPG must similarly be excluded from the ceasefire for it is a terrorist group just as they are," Mr Erdogan told local officials in Ankara.
The US-and Russia-brokered ceasefire calls for a "cessation of hostilities" between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opposition groups, and is due to take effect at midnight on Friday. But the truce agreement, clinched on Monday, does not apply to jihadists such as the IS group and Al-Nusra Front.
Mr Erdogan said Turkey welcomed the Syria ceasefire as "positive in principle". and said: "We support a ceasefire that will help our Syrian brothers breathe."
AFP
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Picture: AFP PHOTO/ADEM ALTAN
TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday Syrian Kurdish militia forces must remain outside the scope of a ceasefire agreed between Syria’s warring parties, in a blow to the deal days before it is due to be enforced.
Lashing out at western policy in Syria, he said the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia were a "terror group" just like Islamic State (IS) jihadists and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front.
The issue has already provoked a rare rift between Ankara and its chief Nato ally Washington, which works closely with the YPG as an effective fighting force against IS in Syria.
"If Daesh (IS) and Al-Nusra are kept outside the ceasefire, then the PYD-YPG must similarly be excluded from the ceasefire for it is a terrorist group just as they are," Mr Erdogan told local officials in Ankara.
The US-and Russia-brokered ceasefire calls for a "cessation of hostilities" between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opposition groups, and is due to take effect at midnight on Friday. But the truce agreement, clinched on Monday, does not apply to jihadists such as the IS group and Al-Nusra Front.
Mr Erdogan said Turkey welcomed the Syria ceasefire as "positive in principle". and said: "We support a ceasefire that will help our Syrian brothers breathe."
AFP
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