ANKARA – Turkey on Monday vowed it would not be intimidated by US PresidentDonald Trump’s threats of economic devastation if Ankara attacks Kurdishforces as American troops withdraw.
Trump’s threat came after Ankara repeatedly threatened a new cross-borderoperation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which havebeen working closely with the United States in the war on Islamic State(IS) extremists.
US support to the YPG has been a major source of tension between the NATOallies.
“We have said repeatedly we are not scared of and will not be intimidatedby any threats,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, adding:”Economic threats against Turkey will get nowhere.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin earliersaid Ankara would “continue to fight against them all”, referring to IS andthe YPG.
Trump on Sunday warned the US would “devastate Turkey economically if theyhit Kurds”.
While there have been tensions over American training of the YPG under theKurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, there appeared to besome improvement on the issue after Trump said last month 2,000 Americantroops would withdraw from Syria.
Ankara welcomed the pullout decision after Erdogan told Trump in a phonecall that Turkey could finish off the last remnants of IS.
Trump had also pushed for the creation of a 30-kilometre (20-mile) “safezone” in his tweet but offered no details.
Cavusoglu added that Turkey was “not against” a “security zone” in Syria,during a press conference in Ankara with his Luxembourg counterpart JeanAsselborn.
– Renewed tensions –
Turkey views the YPG as a “terrorist offshoot” of the outlawed KurdistanWorkers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against theTurkish state since 1984.
The PKK is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the UnitedStates and the European Union.
Spokesman Kalin added it was “a fatal mistake to equate Syrian Kurds withthe PKK”.
There has been growing friction between Turkey and the US over the fate ofthe YPG, especially after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this month saidWashington would ensure Turkey would not “slaughter” Kurds.
And before a visit to Ankara last week, White House National Securityadviser John Bolton said the US retreat was conditional on the safety ofthe Kurdish fighters, provoking angry retorts from Turkish officials. -APP/AFP