Turkish Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalın.
Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın said on Tuesday that Turkey’s National Security Council (NSC) will discuss the Pentagon’s statement regarding the continuing U.S. support of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The NSC will meet on Tuesday to conduct its final extraordinary meeting for 2017. It will be held at the Presidential Palace Complex in the capital, and will be headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“The NSC meeting will evaluate the Pentagon’s YPG announcement, Turkey’s fight against terror, and the terror threat in north Iraq and developments in Iraq following measures against Barzani’s referendum. The final phase of the fight against the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), ongoing work and strategic operations being carried out to bring terrorist elements from abroad to Turkey are also among the topics to be discussed. The meeting will also focus on efforts to identify and meet the security forces' needs,” said Kalın.
Despite a pledge by U.S. President Donald Trump to his Turkish counterpart President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a phone call on Friday to stop providing weapons to the People’s Protection Units (YPG), Pentagon spokesman Col. Robert Manning told reporters on Monday that Washington would continue to support and arm the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).The YPG is the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD), and dominates the SDF.Col. Manning said that the U.S. Defense Department was “reviewing pending adjustments to the military support provided” to the PKK/YPG.The pentagon spokesman stated that the measure of halting military support to the group was not implemented.US must collect weapons distributed to PKK/YPG: Deputy PM“Weapons provided to the Syrian Democratic Forces, which include Kurdish elements of the SDF, would be limited, mission specific, and provided incrementally to achieve our objectives,” Col. Manning said.In a Friday phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump “clearly stated that weapons will not be given to the YPG anymore and said that essentially this nonsense should have been ended before," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Friday.While recognizing the PKK as a terrorist group, the U.S. has treated the PKK/PYD/YPG as an ally using Daesh as a pretext, despite its PKK ties as documented by Turkey.Since the PKK launched its terror campaign in Turkey in 1984, tens of thousands of people have been killed.Turkish PM: Trump says wrong to provide arms to YPG'US needs Turkey's backing for presence in Syria'
Pentagon says will continue arming PKK/YPG
The YPG is the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD), and dominates the SDF. While recognizing the PKK as a terrorist group, the U.S. has treated the PKK/PYD/YPG as an ally using Daesh as a pretext, despite its PKK ties as documented by Turkey.
In a Friday phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump “clearly stated that weapons will not be given to the YPG anymore and said that essentially this nonsense should have been ended before," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Friday.
However, on Monday a Pentagon spokesman stated that arms support would continue.
U.S. President Donald Trump recently told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in clear terms that it was "wrong" to supply weapons to the PKK/YPG, the Turkish prime minister has confirmed.Binali Yıldırım's comments came during an interview with BBC World."Mr. Trump understood what is important for Turkey," Yıldırım said, in reference to Trump's pledge to Erdoğan in a Friday phone call on ending the supply of arms to the terrorist PKK/PYD and PKK/YPG in Syria."They [the U.S.] said this [cooperation with YPG or PYD] is not a choice. This is a necessity… Ok. We understand, although we do not accept. It is a temporary relation. Now, it is time to finish because Daesh is already defeated," the premier said."So, President Trump said it is wrong to provide weapons. This is clearly mentioned."Stating that Turkish policy on fighting against Daesh had been quite "clear" since the beginning, Yıldırım said it was important to "choose the right partner" to fight Daesh."You are not able to fight a terror organization using another terror organization," he added.The U.S. later said it is "reviewing pending adjustments to the military support provided to our Kurdish partners in as much as the military requirements of our defeat-ISIS and stabilization efforts will allow to prevent ISIS from returning," referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, another name for Daesh."We have always been clear with Turkey that the weapons provided to the SDF, to include its Kurdish elements, would be limited, mission-specific and provided incrementally to achieve military objectives," Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told Anadolu Agency. He said the U.S. would "continue our partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces to complete the military defeat of ISIS".Pentagon says will continue arming PKK/YPGAt the White House, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said even though a complete defeat of Daesh is in sight, "that doesn’t mean stopping all support of those individual groups"."Once we started winning the campaign against ISIS, the plan and part of the process is to always wind down support for certain groups," she said. "Now that we're continuing to crush the physical caliphate, we're in a position to stop providing military equipment to certain groups."No doubt about Gulen's links to coup bidIn response to a question whether Turkey had submitted evidence to Washington showing Fetullah Gülen, the U.S-based leader of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), had links to last year's defeated coup attempt, Yıldırım said the necessary documents had been submitted."For us, it is obvious. We have no hesitation. We have no doubt about it," he said, referring to Gulen's role in the defeated coup bid.FETÖ and Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which martyred 250 people and injured nearly 2,200 others.FETÖ is also behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.Yıldırım also answered a question on accusations about the detentions since the defeated coup attempt."This kind of accusation is there. I accept. But those who are accusing us should think about what happened on July 15," he said."Our parliament building [was] bombed. And their bombs killed 250 innocent people and [left] 2,194 heavily injured. What can we do then? We have to find [those] who committed crime. This is the situation in Turkey," Yıldırım said."We don’t detain people without evidence. This is for sure," he said, adding the rule of law prevailed in Turkey.The Turkish premier called on Turkey's critics to show "empathy" instead."Did you face this kind of thing? If you face this kind of thing, then we will see what you are going to do," he said.Yıldırım also dismissed accusations that Erdoğan had been becoming an "authoritarian" leader."Erdoğan is not deciding who is going to jail or who is going to [be] freed. The court is deciding," he said, adding there was freedom of the press in Turkey."We have a free press," he said. "Even the pro-PKK paper is published."Video: Turkish PM meets with British foreign secretary
Turkish PM: Trump says wrong to provide arms to YPG
“Weapons provided to the Syrian Democratic Forces, which include Kurdish elements of the SDF, would be limited, mission specific, and provided incrementally to achieve our objectives,” Col. Manning said.
The NSC, under the chairmanship of the president, is composed of the prime minister, the commander of the Turkish Armed Forces, deputy prime ministers, the ministers of Justice, national defense, the interior and foreign affairs, the commanders of the Land, Naval and Air Forces and the general commander of the Gendarmerie.