Baladi News - Agencies
Turkey’s foreign minister said in a letter to New York Times editors published on Thursday that the Kurdish YPG militia may aid the Syrian regime in an attack against Idlib, the last major rebel-held area in Syria.
Both the United States and Turkey, which are opposed to Bashar al-Assad’s regime, have warned that an attack on Idlib by the Syrian government, backed by Russia and Iran, could further destabilize the region and harm civilians.
However, Turkey and the United States have differing views about the YPG.
The militia has been a strong ally of the United States in the fight against Islamic State. Turkey, on the other hand, considers the YPG a terrorist organization and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has led an insurgency against the Turkish state since the 1980s.
In the letter to Times editors, which was in response to an op-ed the newspaper published last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned that Washington should “asses who its real allies in the region are.”
“New reports suggest that the Y.P.G., a terrorist group operating from Syria that has received arms and aid paid for by American taxpayers, has forged an alliance with Bashar Al-Assad and is sending troops as part of a deal brokered in July to help him recapture Idlib from the rebels,” he wrote.
Source: Reuters