The leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) Salih Muslim said his party embraces "the ideals of the esteemed [Abdullah] Ocalan", the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who has been in jail in Turkey since 1999. "Not only us. The Arabs also embrace [Ocalan's ideas, others too," Salih said in an interview he gave to Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper which was released on Sunday. However he stressed to emphasize that there existed no direct link between the PKK and his party but merely a link which existed "on an intellectual level." Turkey accuses the PYD and the YPG of being inextricably linked to the PKK and have sought to crush it accordingly. However the US values the PYD-YPG as a valuable ally on the ground against Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria. He also denied that the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) was the military wing of the PYD pointing out that it "has its own administration, its own commanders," and that his party couldn't control it adding that they had even criticized it in the past for recruiting underage soldiers into their ranks.
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