Turkey-US Ties On Downward Spiral After Erdogan Accuses Washington Of Backing Kurdish Rebels

Turkish relations with the US are on a downward spiral after Ankara accused Washington of supporting Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan claimed that the US supplied a huge cache of weapons to the fighters whom Ankara calls terrorists.

His comments are likely to add to tensions between the two countries over US support for Kurdish Yekîneyên Parastina Gel (YPG) forces involved in operations against Islamic State (IS) militants.

“If you think you can finish off Daesh (IS) with the YPG and PYD, you cannot, because they are terrorist groups too,” Erdogan said.

Turkey, which is part of the US coalition against IS, views YPG and its political wing PYD as an extension of Kurdish militants, who have waged a long insurgency on its own soil.

Turkey’s relationship with the US has been deteriorating over the last decade under Erdogan, over perceived slights, insults, divergences, misalignments, Israel policy and an underlying level of growing mutual suspicion.

However, in the larger interest of Syria, it is important for Turkey, the Kurdish YPG group and the US-led coalition to drop their individual interests and work to defeat the common enemy, the IS.

The US, which sees the YPG as a major strategic partner, air-dropped weapons for the group, half of which was seized by IS militants, Erdogan claimed.

Furious over the US action, Erdogan ruled out the possibility of Turkey joining an operation by coalition forces against IS militants in Raqqa if the YPG takes the Kurdish fighters along with it.