ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — In the defense chiefs’ first meeting at a summit at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Turkish Minister Fikri Isik warned the new US Secretary of Defense James Mattis of the dangers of supporting fighters associated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in northern Syria.
“Anti-terror operations cannot succeed in this way," multiple Turkish news agencies including Hurriyet reported an official close to Isik as saying. "A terrorist organization cannot be preferred to another one."
The PYD is the political arm of the People’s Protection Unit (YPG). Turkey considers the groups to be terrorists and linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the United States, the European Union and Turkey also list as a terror organization.
However, in the battle against ISIS the United States has provided weapons, supplies, vehicles, and air support to Arab elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is comprised of primarily YPG fighters.
US support for the SDF and Turkey’s objections are coming to a head as the liberation of ISIS-held Raqqa looms.
SDF Commander Ahmad al-Jarba indicated Kurdish members of the SDF may be sidelined for Raqqa in favor of Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC) fighters.
“The Elite Force and the Arab forces of the Syrian Democratic Force are the ones who will enter Raqqa in the case of its liberation, God willing, to clear the excuses that say ‘the Kurds are entering Arab cities and towns,’” Jarba told the Arabic Al-Hayat newspaper earlier this month.
The topic of SDF support was not mentioned in any of Mattis’ readouts from Brussels on the US Department of Defense website.
Regarding ISIS in Syria, Mattis called on other NATO allies to increase their contributions in the fight against ISIS.
“The year 2014 awakened us to a new reality: Russia used force to alter the borders of one of its sovereign neighbors, and on Turkey's border ISIS emerged and introduced a ruthless breed of terror, intent on seizing territory and establishing a caliphate," he said.
"Our community of nations is under threat on multiple fronts as the arc of insecurity builds on NATO's periphery and beyond. We must act in the interests of our 'democratic islands of stability' if we are to live up to our responsibilities as guardians for our nations and sentinels watching for threats."
Mattis will attend the Munich Security Conference next week with hundreds of other world leaders and defense experts.
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