North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Gives Full Backing To Turkey

“It’s a very, very delicate and complex balancing act that the U.S. will need to undertake to keep Turkey on side in the fight against the Islamic State while continuing military cooperation and coordination with the YPG in northern Syria“, Hakura said.

Although the global coalition welcomes Turkey’s response, the whole thing is quite confusing. The US maintains that it works with the peshmerga and the YPG, but insists it has nothing to do with the PKK.

Erdoğan uses any opportunity to declare that the Peoples’ Democratic Party is linked to the PKK, which has been recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey. It’s a different story that the groups that the US does coordinate with coordinate directly with the PKK. “This is a process and it will continue with the same determination”, Erdogan said, after phone calls overnight with French President Francois Hollande, the king of Saudi Arabia and the emir of Qatar. Many Kurds also are venting frustration against the United States, accusing Washington of turning a blind eye to Turkish attacks on the Kurds in exchange for logistical support on IS.

The strikes were initially aimed at ISIL extremists but the focus rapidly expanded to include the bombing of PKK camps at their stronghold in the mountains of northern Iraq.

“Syria has said for years that terrorism has no nation, religion or borders and warned terrorism’s supporters that it would come back to them”, the letter read.

“It’s important to be separating these two groups and these two sets of incidents”, she stressed. “The strikes against IS are probably what Turkey has to pay the Americans to have a free rein in hunting down the Kurds”, he said.

“We want worldwide protection for areas that are inhabited, for the cities. We are telling the Turkish army to stop shooting at our fighters and their positions”.

The F-16 jets hit six targets in Iraq and were scrambled from an air base in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakir, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity becausfe of the sensitivity of the operations.

Kurdish militants responded by killing Turkish police and instigating civil unrest throughout Turkey’s mostly Kurdish southeast. “This attacks are still continuing”.

A missile-loaded Turkish Air Force warplane takes off from the Incirlik Air Base, in the outskirts A … In some form, Ankara will have oversight over US targets: strikes that help the YPG link its territories along Syria’s border with Turkey will be vetoed.

With the help of U.S. airstrikes, the Kurds have proven to be among the most effective ground forces against the IS group. And that the military attack followed “provocations” that failed to draw a violent reaction from the Kurds. “Attacking IS is more a concession given to the United States”.

But in a series of cross-border strikes, Turkey has also targeted Kurdish fighters affiliated with forces battling IS in Syria and Iraq. The statement maintains, “the AKP government has supported ISIS militants in Syria to prevent the Kurdish efforts towards democracy and revolution in Rojava”. They are centered mostly in the impoverished northeastern province of Hassakeh, between the borders of Turkey and Iraq. Critics have accused Turkey of using the Isis threat as a pretext to weaken the Kurdish opposition.

However, reports of Turkish raids against ISIL have been less frequent than the repeated bombing of PKK targets.

Massud Barzani, the president of northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, has expressed disquiet to Ankara over the air raids. The Turkish government has cast the simultaneous moves against IS and the PKK, as well as the arrest of members of a leftist group, as decisive steps to protect the public and Turkish democracy.

Turkey has conducted airstrikes in Syria against IS since early Friday, after Ankara claimed a Turkish soldier was killed in cross-border fire by the militants in northwest Aleppo.