Erdogan lashes out at US over support for Syrian Kurdish fighters
The president renewed his criticism of Turkey’s NATO partner after a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia said it would deploy troops to Afrin province to battle the Turkish army.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the United States of failing to deliver on promises to rein in Kurdish militants in Syria, breaking a brief rhetorical truce that followed a visit by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last month to ease strained ties between the NATO allies.
Erdogan’s anger may have been reignited by reports this week that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is sending 1,700 fighters to the province of Afrin to fight the Turkish military, which invaded the border region in January to thwart Kurdish territorial gains along its border.
“The terrorist corridor that is being set up all along our border has but one target, and that is Turkey’s territorial integrity,” Erdogan told his party in parliament March 6.
“You were supposed to be our friends. What kind of friendship is this? You were supposed to be our allies, we’re supposed to be together in NATO. They are like ostriches” sticking their heads in the sand, he said, without explicitly naming the United States.
