PKK cannot fool Turkey by changing names: PM Yıldırım

ANKARA

The outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and its affiliates cannot “fool” Turkey by changing their names, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said, referring to the Syria’s Future Party (SFP) which announced its establishment in Raqqa on March 27.

The SFP is nothing but the Democratic Union Party (PYD) using another name, Yıldırım claimed on March 29, saying such groups frequently change their names and acronyms to avoid being affiliated with groups listed as terror organizations.

“They might fool some of our friends but they cannot fool the Republic of Turkey,” Yıldırım told reporters at a press conference before leaving for Sarajevo.

Turkey considers the PYD and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) as the Syrian extensions of the PKK and a threat to Turkey’s security.

“We have been saying for a long time that they keep changing their names. We come across these groups using different names in Syria, different names in Iraq; but when they take off their cloaks, they show their true selves. We know them very well,” Yıldırım said.

“Terrorist organizations change their names in order to survive,” he added.

On March 27, the SFP announced its establishment with the motto: “A democratic, pluralistic and decentralized Syria.”

The prime minister added that there are comments that the PYD changed its name to the SFP after being advised by the U.S., which has long been in partnership with the group’s armed wing, the YPG, in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Turkey had previously accused the U.S. of guiding the YPG to form the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in order to avoid receiving backlash from the Turkish government.

Speaking about Turkey’s continued fight against multiple terror organizations which was described as a project against Turkey at the National Security Council’s (MGK) latest meeting on March 28, Yıldırım said: “These organizations do not emerge at their own will. There are those who prepare these projects. These organizations are developed to serve the interests of some people and have been launched upon an order.”

“We see them in Syria. We see that they are not interested in the actual problems of Kurds, Turks or other ethnic groups. They are organizations that wear different clothes depending on who they receive money from,” he added.