Turkey's ruling party warns against creation of second Afghanistan in Mediterranean

ANKARA

Policies that will lead to a second Afghanistan in the Mediterranean should be avoided, said the spokesman of Turkey’s ruling party on Syrian crisis on Jan. 21.

Speaking at a news conference at the Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters in Ankara, Ömer Çelik said some countries used terrorist groups as proxies in Afghanistan and now it has become impossible to control them.

He stated that the same thing could happen in Syria if the support to terrorist groups is not cut off, according to Anadolu Agency.

Çelik said the victims of these “irrational policies which were proven to be wrong many times” hurt Afghans, Syrians, and those who want democracy and human rights.

“Policies which will form a second Afghanistan in the Mediterranean should be avoided as the world is paying such a high price to maintain stability in Afghanistan,” Çelik said.

“However,” Çelik said, “if you send truckloads of weapons to YPG/PYD/PKK terror group, if you embrace them like a legitimate power on the pretext of fight against Daesh [ISIL] and moreover if you say about this terror group that ‘It is our ally which we work within the field’ to Turkish Republic, your NATO ally... then you create another Afghanistan in the world with your own hand and money.”

Turkey strongly condemns the U.S. of backing YPG in Syria by pitting it against ISIL. YPG is deemed by Turkey as an offshoot of the illegal PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.