White House refutes Turkish President and FM’s remarks over PYD
Visiting Budapest on Tuesday, Turkish FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said: “The US needs to make a decision. Is it picking us as a partner or terrorist organizations? We gave number of documents to the Americans, our friends, [US Vice President Joe] Biden as evidence of the close relationship between the PKK and the PYD.’’
Cavuşoğlu, on January 27th, speaking to Vatan Newspaper, went even further and said ‘’We told Biden things about PYD. Their type of their management chart which shows PKKs in it, we gave documents to (them)’’
President Erdoğan also, speaking to Turkish provincial heads meetings Wednesday morning, said Turkey ‘’has documents’’ about PYD and PKK links, but stopped short saying that Turkey given any documents to Biden.
White House official refuted these claims in a email when asked about those notes and documents Cavusoğlu talked.
White House said: ‘’Turkish delegation communicated concerns over cross-border weapons and ammunition transfers. But they did not provide any information to indicate any resources the United States has provided to groups fighting ISIL in Syria have made their way into Turkey.’’
Comments continued: ‘’The VP and his team have made it very clear to the Turks and with Kurdish groups, that our support for the Syrian Democratic Forces (which includes elements of the YPG as well as Arab forces) in no way entails coordination or endorsement of the PKK. On the contrary, as the Vice President made clear in Istanbul, the PKK is a terrorist organization, we condemn their attacks, we recognize the Turkish government’s right to self-defense, and we believe it is imperative for the PKK to cease violence as a first step back a negotiated settlement.’’
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