Turkey firm in fight against ISIL, its ‘perverse’ mindset: Foreign Ministry

ANKARA

Turkey is firm in the fight against ISIL and its perverse mindset, the Foreign Ministry said in a written statement regarding the killing of ISIL ringleader Abu Ibrahim Al Hashimi Al Qurayshi by the United States.

“Türkiye’s firm attitude in the fight against the DEASH terrorist organization and its contributions to the efforts of the international community in this area are well known. As we have already stated on the occasion of the killing of the previous ringleader of DEASH, our country, as an effective member of the Global Coalition against DEASH, plays an active role in the fight against DEASH and the perverse mindset that it represents,” the spokesman of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Tanju Bilgiç, said in a response to a question on the killing of Al Qurayshi.

Bilgiç also recalled that Turkey emphasized that “the fight against all terrorist organizations including DEASH, PKK/PYD/YPG, and FETÖ must be carried out without any differentiation among them, and partnership with a terrorist organization to fight against another terrorist organization cannot be accepted.”

Turkey has long been criticizing the U.S. for partnering with the YPG in the fight against ISIL in northern Syria, urging that the YPG is the PKK’s offshoot in this country and therefore a terrorist organization. Its calls for cutting the ties and support to the YPG have not been responded by Washington, which hails the YPG’s fight against ISIL.