Ankara is “shocked” by the United States stance on Syrian Kurdish troops that have been battling Takfiri terrorists of Daesh.
Last week, US State Department spokesman John Kirby dismissed the idea that Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) is a terrorist group, which made the Turkish government summon the US envoy in Ankara.
“To tell you the truth, we are shocked by Kirby’s statements putting Turkey and the terrorist organization in the same basket,” Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said at a weekly briefing in the capital on Monday.
Ankara considers the group as an ally of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which it has been battling for months, but to the US, PYD is seen as part of the fight against the Daesh terrorists.
Responding to a question regarding the difference between the two states, Kirby said last Monday that “This is not a new concern, as I said, that the Turks have proffered. And we don’t, as you know, recognize the PYD as a terrorist organization.”