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| Erdogan: Syrian Kurds don't want peshmerga in Kobani | |
| 2014-10-27 | |
The main Kurdish party in Syria "does not want" Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq to come to help it fight ISIS trying to overrun the town of Kobani, Turkey's president has asserted according to reports Sunday.
He also called the PYD a "terror" organisation, highlighting Turkey's wary stance towards Kurdish groups demanding an autonomous Kurdish state straddling the border with Turkey. "The PYD does not want the peshmerga to come," Erdogan said in comments published by newspapers including the Milliyet and Hurriyet dailies. "They don't want that the peshmerga to come to Kobani and dominate it," he added. "The PYD thinks its game will be spoilt if the peshmerga come. Their set-up will be ruined," he said. Turkey last week unexpectedly announced that it will allow peshmerga fighters from the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq to cross its territory to join the fight for Kobani. However the deployment has yet to take place. Some reports said it has been put back to next week. What relationship the peshmerga will have with the PYD on the ground remains to be seen. Ankara has long accused the PYD of failing to distance itself from Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and being the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey. "The PYD is a terror group just the same as the PKK," said Erdogan. "The PYD can accept this or not, but we know and see the practices of the PYD," he said. In contrast to its acrimonious ties with the PYD, Ankara has in the last years built up a close relationship with the regional authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan, who control the peshmerga. Erdogan said last week that the peshmerga would be joined in the defence of Kobani by 1,300 fighters from the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army (FSA). | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #7 Time to treat Turkey under Erdogan as what it is: hostile. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2014-10-27 11:37 |
| #6 This is from a week ago. ISIS: Turkish Army Helps Injured Jihadists Reach Hospitals by 'Lighting up Sky with Flares' |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-10-27 10:12 |
| #5 Does Erdie see himself as the next Ottoman? Yes. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2014-10-27 10:02 |
| #4 Turkey allows two ISIS terrorists to cross over to fight at Kobane. |
| Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 2014-10-27 09:52 |
| #3 Erdogan will work as hard as he can to make sure there's a wedge between the Kurds. Can't let them unify, because that would really screw his endgame. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-10-27 07:39 |
| #2 Reminds me of Zero & Cameron et al; speaking for people of which you are not one, on issues that don't concern you. "Islam is not Islamic"; Kurds don't want Kurds to help them. Does Erdie see himself as the next Ottoman? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2014-10-27 07:18 |
| #1 "ISIS is not a terrorist organization. It's a group of people bound together with discontent and anger." Ahmet Davotuglu, Prime Minister of Turkey |
| Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 2014-10-27 01:54 |