Erdogan: Washington Continues to Support Kurdish Protection Units

ANKARA (Sputnik) - The United States continues to deliver assistance to the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which are considered by Ankara to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a designated terrorist group in Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday at a joint press conference with Emmanuel Macron.

"Unfortunately, our friend from NATO, the United States, continues to deliver trucks and arms to the terrorists [YPG]. This is our source of concern… We will not allow to build a terrorist corridor in northern Syria that leads to the Mediterranean Sea. We will take all the necessary measures if there is such a threat," Erdogan said during the televised conference.

In late November, US President Donald Trump said in a telephone conversation with Erdogan that all US deliveries of weapons to the YPG would be halted.

Relations between Ankara and Washington have deteriorated sharply over the past few months against the backdrop of several issues, in particular, the tensions related to US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose movement Ankara considers to be a terrorist organization and accuses of masterminding the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey, the diplomatic row between Ankara and Washington and the existing disagreements between the two states on the situation in Syria.