President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced the US’s support for Syria’s main Kurdish group. He said the US fails to recognize the Democratic Union Party (PYD) as a terrorist group which was creating “a sea of blood.”
Turkey says the US depends on the PYD to combat ISIS in Syria but that the PYD is an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK).
Mr. Erdogan’s comments come as Turkey faces immense pressure to allow 30,000 Syrian refugees on its border. These refugees are fleeing from an offensive by the Syrian government forces and Iranian-supported militias, supported by Russian airstrikes on rebel-held areas around the city of Aleppo.