Obama calls Erdogan to discuss Ankara attack, Syria

After the war in Syria started, the YPG largely concentrated its efforts on fighting the Islamic State group, leading to charges from Turkey that it is allied with Syrian government.

In a statement on their website, the TAK said the attack was a response to policies of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the military operations taking place in the country’s mainly Kurdish southeast regions.

However, TAK has also been described as a PKK splinter group led by commanders who have split because of dissatisfaction with its tactics, Ekurd Daily reports.

At least five people were killed in the administrative heart of Turkey’s capital Ankara on Wednesday when a vehicle laden with explosives detonated as military buses passed near the armed forces’ headquarters, parliament and government buildings.

“We have conducted no military attack and the ones who know it the best are the Turkish army and AKP government”.

We, the undersigned parliamentarians, call the Council of the European Union to revise the list and to remove the PKK from the proscribed list of terrorist organisations.

Washington’s support of the YPG in the fight against Islamic State in Syria has enraged Ankara, which fears advances by the Kurdish militia in northern Syria would stoke separatism among its own Kurdish minority.

Turkey was quick to classify the blast as a terrorist attack and placed the blame on a member of YPG, the Kurdish fighting force in Syria, and PKK members operating in Turkey.

“The YPG is a tool of the Syrian regime and the regime is directly responsible for the attack”, the prime minister said Thursday.

The Turkish leader appeared to refer to a U.S. air drop of military supplies in late 2014 meant for Iraqi Kurdish forces during the battle for the town of Kobane, Reuters reported.

The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) has directly linked the TAK to the PKK, calling it the “urban terrorist wing” of the cult-like Marxist-inspired group, which has been officially designated a terrorist group by the United States and some of its allies.

“The attack was carried out under the pretext of the fight against the positions of the Kurdish PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party)”, Patriarchate Louis Sako of Babylon of the Chaldeans said, calling the bombings “totally unjustified”.

“The YPG groups that we’re supporting, there are various parts of the YPG on the ground in Syria”.

Turkey has been hit by another attack targeting military personnel. About 2 million Syrian refugees are in Turkey.

According to the Turkish presidency’s statement, Obama condemned the bomb attack in the Turkish capital Ankara Wednesday that left 28 people dead and 81 others injured.