YPG threatening Turkey’s national security: Presidential spokesperson

ISTANBUL

The United States is supporting the YPG in Syria but the group’s presence in the war-torn country is becoming a threat to Turkey’s national security, presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has said.

“The U.S.’s military presence in Syria is no longer about Daesh [another acronym for ISIL], because they have already said Daesh was defeated on a large scale. Later, they started supporting the YPG. This has started threatening our national security,” Kalın said, speaking at the TRT World Forum on Oct. 4. 

He said the policies of the U.S., Europe and Gulf countries regarding Syria “shifted,” causing “not only confusion but also chaos.”

The U.S. argues its aim in its presence in Syria is ISIL, but the real reason is to build up a military presence against Iran and Syria, Kalın said.

Ankara has long been outraged by the U.S. support for the YPG in the fight against ISIL in Syria. Ankara says the YPG is the Syrian branch of the illegal PKK.

Turkey and the U.S. had announced a road map after a June 4 meeting in Washington between Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his American counterpart Mike Pompeo. The deal focused on the withdrawal of the YPG from Manbij and on stability in the region.

The YPG forms the backbone of the SDF, the Kurdish-Arab alliance that has ousted ISIL from swathes of Syria with help from the U.S.-led coalition.