Turkey slams U.S. for “making conflicting statements” about YPG

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's Foreign Minister accused the United States on Friday, February 19 of making conflicting statements about the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, and said the use of such groups in the fight against Islamic State was a sign of weakness, Reuters reports.

The United States has not yet identified who was behind a car bomb attack in Turkey that killed 28 people, but it has been careful to press Syrian Kurds fighting against Islamic State militants not to target Turkey, the White House said on Thursday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was speaking in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi while on an official visit and whose comments were carried live on Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber, said Washington should break ties with Kurdish insurgents.

"Resorting to terrorist groups like the YPG in the fight against Deash in Syria is above all a sign of weakness," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamist group. "Everyone must stop this mistake. In particular our ally the United States must stop this mistake immediately."

Turkey has said the YPG, working with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was behind a car bombing in Ankara this week that killed 28 people.

The YPG's political wing has denied responsibility.