Turkey’s top diplomat draws attention to YPG acts at anti-ISIL meeting

ROME

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has drawn attention to what he called the terror acts of the PKK/YPG in northern Syria while repeating Turkey’s concerns over the United States’ continued partnership with the YPG in the ongoing fight against ISIL.

“At Meeting of Global Coalition to Defeat DAESH, [I] shared our views on an effective fight against DAESH. Underlined the mistake of using a terrorist organization in the fight against another terrorist organization and drew attention to the terrorist actions of PKK/YPG in the region,” Çavuşoğlu said on Twitter on June 28.

Çavuşoğlu attended the meeting of Global Coalition to Defeat ISIL held in Rome under the co-leadership of Italian and American foreign ministers Luigi di Maio and Antony Blinken respectively.

Turkey urges the U.S. to cease its partnership with the YPG under SDF and instead cooperate with Turkey against all forms of terrorism. The U.S. says its partnership is tactical and aims at eliminating ISIL in Syria.

In an interview with Il Messaggero, Çavuşoğlu informed that Turkey neutralized 4,500 ISIL terrorists in Iraq and Syria as one of the most active partners of the global coalition. “We are the only NATO member fighting ISIL in the field. DAESH is still a threat although it has pulled back,” he said.

PKK/YPG benefits from the presence of ISIL in Syria to be able to preserve its importance in the eyes of the global coalition, Çavuşoğlu stated, stressing that the group is freeing the members of ISIL from prisons in return for money. A genuine strategy against ISIL should take the real roots of the problems into account, he added.

Following the Global Coalition Meeting, the foreign ministers of the relevant countries attended the Focus of Syria meeting. Secretary of State Blinken said Focus of Syria will discuss how to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria.

Speaking at a news conference in Rome with Blinken, Di Maio said, “with the support of the United States and many other partners” he had proposed an international working group to identify and halt the terrorist threat connected with ISIL in the African continent.

Çavuşoğlu held bilateral meetings with the foreign ministers of Canada, Lithuania, Austria, Lebanon and the Netherlands on the sidelines of the global coalition meeting. The Turkish foreign minister will also attend the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Rome on June 29 and 30.