Erdogan slams US for selling arms to ‘terrorists’
Turkish President Recep Erdogan on Monday slammed the United States for its continued support of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, calling on Washington to stand by promises it made to NATO ally Turkey, Daily Sabah reported.
Turkey regards the People's Protection Units (YPG) as a terrorist group. affiliated with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for three decades. The YPG denies any direct organizational links to the PKK.
"What kind of NATO alliance is this? You give terrorists around 23,000 truckloads of weapons and tools through Iraq but when we asked, you won't even sell them to us," Erdogan said during an election campaign rally in southwestern Turkey.
Erdogan said Turkey expects Syria's Manbij to be cleared of YPG terrorists and to be left to local people as soon as possible, as promised.
The Turkish leader also criticized countries "thousands of kilometers away" planning to conduct operations in Syria, while Turkey is constantly "under threat" with its 911-kilometer border with Syria.