US to pay price for supporting Syrian Kurds: Turkey
"The US has made a strategic mistake. We are paying the price. The US too will pay the price."
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Turkey's Defense Minister Fikri Isik claimed on Friday that the United States was going to pay the price for supporting Syrian Kurdish groups fighting the Islamic State (IS).
"The US chose the PYD as the partner in the name of fighting Daesh [IS]. Cooperating with a terrorist organization is taking a snake for a bedfellow," said the Turkish Minister.
Isik said the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) was a branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has been deadlocked with Turkish troops in a decades-long guerrilla warfare over state repression and denial of Kurdish rights.
"The US has made a strategic mistake. We are paying the price. The US too will pay the price. All terror groups have made those who support them pay it," added Isik without elaborating further.
The Turkish Minister was talking to the privately-owned Haberturk TV.
PYD is the ruling political party in Syrian Kurdistan where a PYD-led governing council last month adopted the name "Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria."
When speaking about the PYD, Turkey's leaders interchangeably refer to the party's armed wing the People's Protection Units (YPG), the main secular US ally in fighting the IS.
US officials have insistently voiced disagreement with Turkey over defining the PYD or YPG as terror groups since the former has proven to be the most efficient and reliable in fighting IS.
On the other hand, the US designates PKK as a foreign terrorist organization in compliance with its NATO ally Turkey.
The YPG and its multi-ethnic surrogate Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are the primary recipients of US-led Coalition air support and arms shipments.
Mostly from its special operations forces, the US has embedded about 300 soldiers in Syria with the YPG and SDF.
Kurdish territorial gains over the past two years have alarmed Turkey, fearful of the prospects of a similar scenario in dozens of Kurdish provinces within its own borders.
Despite Turkey's paranoia, Syrian Kurds have repeatedly asked for "stateless" democracy and federalism, not independence.
Editing by Ava Homa