LATEST: Erdogan — We Will Not Accept US Arms Supply to Kurdish PYD in Syria

A senior MP from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has declared that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (pictured) is threatening the country with his approach to the Kurdish question.

Speaking anonymously to the BBC, the MP derided last week’s Turkish airstrikes on positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey. He said it would lead to a breakdown of the Government’s long-running talks with Kurdish factions for a political resolution:

It is very hard to understand why the government decided to attack the PKK. President Erdoğan is focused on increasing his votes, not to solve the Kurdish problem. I believe that the peace process may soon collapse and this would drive the country into chaos.

The airstrikes followed an escalation of tension spurred by the Islamic State’s offensive on Kobane, a Kurdish center in northern Syria near the Turkish border. At least 37 people were killed in protests demanding Ankara’s intervention to save the town from the jihadists.

AKP official İbrahim Yildirim defended the airstrikes in his interview with the BBC, saying they followed assaults on military outposts: “The PKK is still a terrorist organization. Thanks God none of our soldiers were killed, but they were targeted in terrorist attacks.”


Erdogan: We Will Not Accept US Arms Supply to Kurdish PYD in Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said Ankara will not support any shipment of arms to the Syrian Kurdish party PYD, despite the threat to the town of Kobane from the Islamic State.

Erdoğan, speaking to reporters just before he had a phone conversation with President Obama, said the PYD was the same as the Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), formally considered a terrorist group by Ankara:

At the moment, the PYD is equal with the PKK for us. It is also a terrorist organization.

It would be very wrong for America — with whom we are and allies and who we are together with in NATO — to expect us to say “yes” after openly announcing such support for a terrorist organization. It cannot expect such a thing from us and we cannot say “yes” to such a thing either.

The President said the US request to use İncirlik Air Base in southern Turkey for operations in Syria is not yet clear, but he did not rule out giving Washington permission.

If there is something we deem appropriate, we would discuss it with our security forces and we would say “yes”. But if it is not appropriate, then saying “yes” is not possible for us either.

The State Department confirmed last week that US officials met PYD representatives for the first time, in a meeting in Paris in early October.

(Cross-posted from Syria Daily)