Erdogan suggests US to "pay price" for supporting Syrian Kurds

"We will make sure the real owners of those weapons pay the price for every drop of blood they shed."

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday inferred the United States would "pay a price" for supporting the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) currently fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.

"Unfortunately countries we call allies do not find any problem in cooperating with terrorist groups that have set eyes on the wholeness of Turkey," said Erdogan in a meeting with members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul.

"Those [the US] who think they have deceived Turkey by telling that they will take back weapons they gave to the terror group will eventually understand they made a fatal mistake. But it will be too late," Erdogan continued, according to Kurdistan24's Istanbul bureau.

Last week Turkish media reported that the US Secretary of Defense promised his Turkish counterpart, Fikri Isik, that the weapons supplied to the YPG would be recovered.

Kurdish YPG heads a convoy of US military vehicles in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syrian Kurdistan, April 28, 2017. (Photo: Reuters)
Kurdish YPG heads a convoy of US military vehicles in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syrian Kurdistan, April 28, 2017. (Photo: Reuters)

Turkey considers the YPG a "terror" group due to its controversial ties with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has been waging a decade-long guerrilla warfare against Turkish troops for greater Kurdish rights.

"We will make sure the real owners of those weapons pay the price for every drop of blood they shed," Erdogan said in his latest remarks regarding the deepening of US-YPG ties which began at the end of 2014.

US President Donald Trump approved a Pentagon plan to ship a large package of advanced weaponry and armored vehicles to the YPG, much to Erdogan's strongly-voiced objection, before the two met in the White House in May.

Erdogan reiterated his government's policy that Turkey would never allow the formation of what he termed "a terrorist state" in northern Syria, where the Kurdish groups have set up a self-declared autonomous administration.

"Those who support them [Syrian Kurds] will see the reality. We told them [the US]. There can be no concessions because Turkey is not a banana republic," he added.

Last month, a chief advisor to Erdogan threatened US forces embedded with the Syrian Kurds, saying they as well could be the target of Turkish rockets.

 

Editing by G.H. Renaud