US Ambassador to Turkey John Bass has asked Turkish officials not to publicly bring up the differences between Ankara and Washington over the Kurdish issue. However President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ignored the request, Today’s Zaman reported.
"Turkey's faulty foreign policy choices in Syria since the beginning of the conflict, including supporting Sunnis in the sectarian strife, working for the removal of the Syrian regime from power, undermining the Syrian Kurds and downing a Russian jet, have dragged the country to such a point that today, it is at odds with not only Russia but its close ally the US as well," the article read.
This was the first visit by a US official to Syria since 2012 when the US embassy in Damascus shut down.
In ultimate form, Erdogan demanded that the US make a choice.
"How can we trust you? Is it me that is your partner or is it the terrorists in Kobani?" Erdogan said.
Bass also noted that the US will not change its stance toward Syrian Kurds. Washington considers them one of the most effective forces against Daesh.
"Ignoring the remarks of Ambassador Bass, Erdogan has challenged the US position on the PYD, and following Erdogan's remarks US officials in Washington have expressed their position in a stronger tone, underscoring that their support for the PYD will continue," the article read.
Moscow shares Washington’s position toward the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). Earlier this month, its representatives opened in Moscow its first official mission abroad. Russia has also called for Kurds’ involvement in the talks on the Syrian crisis.
On Sunday, PYD officials rejected Turkey’s demand that its militants leave their positions near the Syrian-Turkish border, which earlier were shelled by the Turkish military.
Saleh Muslim, the co-chair of the PYD, told Reuters Turkey had no right to intervene in Syria's internal affairs.
He added that if Turkey intervened in Syria they would find "the entire Syrian people confronting them". "Do they want the Nusra Front to stay there, or for the regime to come and occupy it?" Muslim said.
On Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanded the PYD to withdraw from its positions north of Aleppo. Asked if he rejected that demand, Muslim said: "Of course".
The PYD is believed to have ties with the members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), with whom the Turkish government is currently fighting in southeastern Turkey.
Tensions in Turkey escalated in July 2015, after 33 Kurdish activists were killed in a suicide blast in the city of Suruc and two Turkish policemen were later murdered by the PKK, which led to Ankara's military campaign against the group.
The Kurds, Turkey's largest ethnic minority, are striving to create their own independent state. The PKK was founded in the late 1970s to promote self-determination for the Kurdish community.
