SYRIA – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday angrily lashed outat NATO, accusing the Western military alliance of failing to back Turkey scampaign against Kurdish militia in Syria.
Erdogan s latest comments were among the toughest he has directed in recenttimes against NATO, which Turkey joined in 1952 as the US sought to makesure it did not fall under Soviet sway after World War II.
Turkey launched its operation on January 20 seeking to oust the KurdishPeople s Protection Units (YPG) from the Afrin region of northern Syriawith its forces now just a few kilometres away from Afrin town.
But the YPG has been a key American ally in the fight against jihadists inSyria and the operation has raised tensions with Washington and EuropeanNATO powers, notably France.
“Hey NATO! With what has been going on in Syria, when are you going to comeand be alongside us?” Erdogan said in remarks to supporters in Bolu, a cityeast of Istanbul.
“We are constantly harassed by terror groups on our borders,” he said.“Unfortunately until now, there has not been a positive word or voice.”
After the start of the campaign, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenbergsaid Turkey had a right to defend itself but emphasised it must be done “ina proportionate and measured way.”
Erdogan slammed Washington for arming the YPG, saying the group hadreceived 5,000 trucks and 2,000 cargo planes of weapons.
“Is this friendship? Is this NATO unity?” he asked in a later speech,noting how Turkey had backed the alliance by participating in itsoperations in Afghanistan and elsewhere. “Are we not a NATO member?”
He also said Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels were now just four tofive kilometres (about three miles) from Afrin which they were poised totake.
Turkey regards the YPG as a terror group and a branch of militants inTurkey who have waged an insurgency for decades.
Speaking on Saturday, Erdogan said after taking Afrin, Turkey s offensivewould expand to key border towns controlled by the YPG right up to theIraqi frontier. – APP /AFP