Turkey is fighting against terrorism backed by the Western countries, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Wednesday.
During a live interview on 24 news channel, Erdoğan said Turkey saw all terrorist groups as the same and will fight against them without trying to determine whether they are good or bad terrorists.
Erdoğan said that Turkey is against all terrorist organizations, be they the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front (DHKP-C) or others.
“There are no good or bad terrorists; all terrorists are the same for Turkey. The matter is not only PKK, DHKP-C or ISIL. All the terrorist organizations in the region are working collectively,” Turkish President said.
Slamming the West for their double standard towards ISIL and PKK terrorist organizations, Erdoğan said, “We don't make any distinction between good terrorists or bad terrorists,” adding that Turkey is fighting against such terrorist organizations as are supported by the West.
"They don't even accept the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as a terrorist organization. What kind of nonsense is this?" he said. "The West still has the mentality of 'My terrorist is good, yours is bad.'" Saying that the Turkish military recently hit the PYD targets twice after they attempted to cross the Euphrates River, Erdoğan stated that Turkey will take necessary steps to prevent PYD terror in northern Syria.
“The PYD attempted to cross the Euphrates and our soldiers 'sent them packing' immediately,” Erdoğan said and added, "This was a warning. Pull yourself together. If you try to do this elsewhere - Turkey doesn't need permission from anyone - we will do what is necessary."
He said the PYD was committing ethnic cleansing there, killing Arabs and Turkmen. "If the Kurds withdraw and don't form a canton, there's no problem. But if the mindset continues, then what is necessary will be done or we face serious problems.”
PYD's US-backed armed wing, People's Protection Units (YPG) has drawn ire and harsh criticism before for forcing non-Kurds to leave towns under PYD control. Amnesty International released a report on October 12, showing human rights violations including forced displacement and demolishing of houses by the YPG.
The crimes committed by the YPG amount to war crimes and that non-Kurdish, mostly Turkmen and Arab, inhabitants of villages in the so-called de-facto autonomous Kurdish administration were forced out of their homes, according to the Amnesty report.
Turkey sees PYD as a Syrian affiliate of the outlawed PKK, which has been fighting against the Turkish state since 31 years and caused almost 40,000 deaths.
"Turkey does not need to obtain permission from anyone to interfere in the region to secure its borders,” Erdoğan said. He stated that Turkey does not want an autonomous region across the border inside Syria.
“We don't want the same incidents in northern Syria as happened in northern Iraq,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan said the upcoming election results would not affect the Turkish ongoing campaign against terrorism. “Our fight against terrorism is not limited to a short period of time.”
“We will stand strong against terrorist organizations which collaborate against our country, regardless of the outcome of the November 1 elections. Our fight to secure safety and peace for our citizens will continue after the election,” he added.
