Turkey summons U.S. envoy over remarks on Syrian Kurds

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey summoned the U.S. ambassador to express its displeasure on Tuesday, February 9 after a State Department spokesman said Washington did not regard Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as a terrorist organization, a Turkish foreign ministry official said, according to Reuters.

Tensions between the two NATO allies have flared over the PYD, which Washington supports in its struggle against Islamic State militants in Syria.

Ankara sees it as a sister of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), with which it has been embroiled in fierce fighting in southeast Turkey since their decades-old conflict reignited last July.

Asked about the difference in opinion with Turkey on Monday, State Department Spokesman John Kirby said: "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."

Turkey fears advances by Kurdish YPG militia, backed by the PYD, on the Syrian side of the two countries' 900 km border will fuel separatist ambitions among its own Kurds, Reuters says.

President Tayyip Erdogan has previously hinted that Turkey may conduct military operations in Syria to halt the YPG's advance.