Deputy Prime Minister Bozdağ slams US, tells US to stop convincing Turkey

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

American officials should stop trying to convince Turkey and should instead focus on collecting weapons from terrorist organizations, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said on Feb. 11.

Bozdağ slammed some U.S. soldiers for having pictures taken with People’s Protection Units (YPG) militants.

“You should stop testing and trying us. Don’t come to Turkey. Instead, you should deal with the terrorist organizations to which you provided guns and logistic help. You should collect those guns from them,” Bozdağ said.

“Some U.S. soldiers took pictures with members of the PYD [Democratic Union Party], and shared them. This is simply using an iron hand in a velvet glove and Turkey won’t allow this,” Bozdağ added.

Bozdağ also accused the U.S. of not fulfilling the promises it made.

“You should fulfill the promises you made before. You were not going to be in Manbij and not going to give the terrorist organization guns. Instead, you protected the terrorist organization. The United States is our NATO ally; it should not continue to provide guns to the group and should stop taking pictures with terrorists,” Bozdağ said.

On Jan. 20, Turkey launched “Operation Olive Branch” to clear YPG militants from Afrin in northwestern Syria.