Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
It is necessary to understand why Turkey, being a member of the US-led coalition, is bombing Kurds in Syrian Kurdistan, while the US sees them (Kurds) as potential allies, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Italian journalists in an interview
The diplomat reminded, that the Kurdish militia is one of the main forces fighting against Islamic State (IS) terrorists on the ground in Syria.
“At the same time, Turkey is considering these Kurdish militias as enemies. So we need to understand how Turkey as a member of the US-led coalition is fulfilling its duties. Why is Turkey not bombing terrorists — if it is bombing them at all — but also the Kurds, who are considered to be potential US Allies,” Lavrov said.
Ankara has been carrying out its own air strikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkish Kurdistan in south-east Turkey and Iraq’s Kurdistan region as well as People’s Defence Units (YPG) in Syrian Kurdistan.
The powerful Kurdish YPG force in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), which the US considers an ally in the fight with IS, remains unacceptable to Turkey. That is because the force is affiliated to the PKK. The YPG militia has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State with the help of U.S.-led strikes.
Syrian Kurds declared their own autonomous Kurdish region (Western Kurdistan) in November 2013.
Turkey’s National Security Council in October denounced a new self-proclaimed Kurdish enclave in Syrian Kurdistan – Gire Spi (Tel Abyad) and called on the international community to condemn the YPG as terrorists.
The Turkish government has been deeply troubled by the activity of armed Kurdish militias in Syrian Kurdistan, fearing they will try and carve out an autonomous Kurdish region that could try and unite with Turkey’s own Kurdish minority.
Turkey has warned the United States and Russia it will not tolerate any Kurdish region to be held by the PKK.
Germany said earlier this month to ‘not share’ intelligence on Kurds with its Nato ally Turkey as it prepares to support international air strikes against Islamic State group (IS). German commanders are concerned Turkey may use surveillance information from the flights to direct attacks against Kurdish forces allied to the West.
Russia President Vladimir Putin said last September no one but Assad’s forces and Kurds are fighting Islamic State.
In October 2015, Russia said does not consider the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK and its affiliate in Syrian Kurdistan, the People’s Defence Units YPG, the military wing of PYD, as terrorist groups. Moscow’s ambassador to Ankara said, amid reports that alliances between western powers and Kurdish fighters in the region are growing.
The United State reconfirm last November its support to the Kurdish forces in Syrian Kurdistan.
50 U.S. special operations forces have arrived to Kobani in Syrian Kurdistan in November 2015. to assist and train Kurdish forces to battle the Islamic state (IS) jihadists.
Speaking of the Syrian Kurds, U.S. policy advisor, and former United States diplomat Peter Galbraith notes that in his trip to that region in December 2014, he noticed that “they have gone from being rebels in charge of an area to having many more attributes of a government.”
Sergey Lavrov said earlier this month, Kurds and U.S. special forces should be used to seal Turkish-Syrian border. With Kurdish militia and US Special Forces on the ground, there is a realistic way to shut off the illegal flow of oil from Syria into Turkey.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes that countries demanding Syrian President Bashar Assad’s resignation as a condition in the fight against terror are indirectly strengthening the Islamic State terrorist organization, known as Daesh in the Arab world and prohibited in a range of countries including the United States and Russia.
“If the issue of Assad continues to be artificially clung onto as an obstacle to creating an actual universal anti-terrorist coalition, then those who are insisting on this, and I cannot assess this any differently, will indirectly maintain the conditions that [allow] the Islamic State to continue expanding,” Lavrov said during an interview with Italian news agencies.
Syrian authorities would likely cooperate with the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State if requested, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.
“I wish to say that a really broad, united front against terrorism is possible only on the basis of international law,” Lavrov said.
“There is an agreement with Iraq, this sovereign state agreed and even asked the coalition to help destroy terrorists on its territory. I am convinced that the same thing should have been done in Syria. We have all reason to believe that the Syrian leadership would have cooperated with such foreign partners,” he added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday he hopes the actions of the US-led coalition in Syria and Iraq would not become an imitation of fighting terrorism as NATO’s presence in Afghanistan has been.
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