Turkey’s Erdogan Denounces U.S. Support For Syrian Kurdish Group

He added that Washington’s inability to grasp Ankara’s view of the PYD has created a domestic security issue for Turkey.

The U.S. wants the YPG to focus on its fight against Daesh and “not involve themselves in other fighting in Syria”, said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

But with Syrian troops backed by Russian warplanes waging a major offensive between the northern city of Aleppo and the Turkish border, the Kurds appeared to be exploiting the chaos to expand their nearby enclave, known as Afrin.

“Shame on you! Shame on you!” said Erdoğan, adding that instead, the United Nations could pressure its members to take in more refugees.

According to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a group that uses a network of sources on the ground to monitor the Syrian conflict, McGurk “promised” the PYD officials he met with that a new Syrian constitution would recognize the Kurdish “right” to self-govern territory in the northern part of the country. Turkey, already home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees, is also providing assistance to the new refugees on the Syrian side of the border.

Kurdish fighters backed by Russian bombing raids have driven Syrian rebels from a former military air base near the border with Turkey, a group that monitors the war said on Thursday.

It said several hospitals and smaller health facilities in Azaz and around the city of Aleppo have been hit by airstrikes in the last two weeks, including at least three MSF-supported hospitals.

Peace talks are supposed to resume by 25 February. But it has not let them in, prompting UNHCR on Tuesday to call on Turkey to admit them.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that unless the European Union loosens its purse strings and fulfils its commitment for financial aid to tackle the refugee crisis, Ankara could open the borders for those seeking asylum in Europe.

A Kurdish man waves a large flag of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) political wing, …

While it is unclear how far Russian Federation is willing to back the Kurdish goal of independence, or at minimum autonomous status within Syria, delegates at Tuesday’s ceremony said they were grateful for tacit Kremlin support thus far.

The Turkish security forces said on Wednesday they had seized explosives and four suicide vests in the baggage of a group of suspects stopped at the border in the southeastern town of Karkamis.

The Obama administration has been trying for months to clinch a ceasefire and pave the way for a transition government in Syria that would allow parties to the conflict to concentrate on defeating the threat posed by the Islamic State and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

In a separate incident, a police officer was killed and another wounded when PKK rebels fired rockets at an armoured vehicle in the town of Sirnak, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

A SARQ official said on Wednesday that the convoy, which included vehicles from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, was evacuating sick people from Madaya when it came under fire by unknown gunmen.

The U.S. officials weren’t authorized to speak publicly about private diplomatic discussions in the run-up to the Munich conference and demanded anonymity.

Madaya, which has been besieged by government and allied militiamen for months, gained worldwide attention after harrowing pictures emerged showing emaciated children and starving residents.