12:16 AM
Lawmaker: Erdogan Using al-Qaeda, Nusra Front to Encircle Kurds
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is
encouraging terrorists to encircle and isolate the 20 million Kurds who
live in the eastern half of the country, Turkish parliament member and
Kurdish activist Osman Baydemir told reporters, Ria Novosti reported.
"Turkey wants to bring to power [in Syria] a
regime [with ties to] al-Qaeda and al-Nusra to isolate the Kurds,"
Baydemir stated on Wednesday during his visit to Washington, DC to meet
with State Department officials and members of the US Congress.
The Kurdish parliamentarian, who was previously
the mayor of the city of Diyarbakir, accused Erdogan of welcoming ties
with the extreme Islamist groups.
"[Erdogan] doesn’t want Kurds as neighbors, but he would like to see al-Nusra or al-Qaeda as neighbors," Baydemir said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Erdogan cast doubt on the
United States' loyalty as a Turkish partner, condemning US support
for the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Ankara
insists is a terrorist organization, but which Washington supports
in the fight against the Islamic State terror group.
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