Turkey’s prime minister is condemning Hillary Clinton’s comments about arming Kurdish soldiers, based on statements she made during Sunday night’s debate with Donald Trump.
“Clinton has said she would support Kurds in the region, terrorist organizations, with arms if she is elected. What does that mean? Is the U.S. not our ally? What does it mean to support them with arms?” Binali Yildirim said at a parliament hearing Tuesday, according to Hurriyet Daily News. “They supposedly fight against Daesh [Islamic State] by arming the YPG, which is an offshoot of the PKK.”
At the debate, Clinton said she “would also consider arming the Kurds.”
“The Kurds have been our best partners in Syria, as well as Iraq,” she said. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned that the U.S. risked becoming a “terror-supporting country” if the country pursued such a policy.
Yildirim argued that arming one terrorist organization to fight against another is “unacceptable” and said Turkey is ready to commit “whatever is necessary on the east of Euphrates [River] if terrorist acts continue there, too.”
He also claimed Turkey has secured the approximately 500-mile border with Syria and prevented suicide bombings “on a vast scale” as part of the country’s participation in the “Euphrates Shield” operation.
The prime minister said Ankara has played a key role in combating the Islamic State’s attempts to make headway in the north after the terrorist group has failed to expand in Syria and Iraq, further crediting Turkey’s involvement for that development.
The capital city asserts the YPG is a Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and Turkey has demanded the forces retreat eastward of the Euphrates River.
