US Rejects Turkish Demand to Cut Ties With Kurds

State Dept: It's Not About Choosing Sides

After repeatedly demanding the US choose between them and the Kurdish YPG, Turkey is once again picking up demands for the US to sever all ties with the YPG, after accusing them of being behind this week’s Ankara bombing, which they deny.

The US rejected the demand, with the State Department saying this is “not about choosing sides,” and that the US has no intention of ending its contacts with the YPG. The White House did, however, say they’d warned the Kurds to stop seizing territory along the Syrian border.

The US has struggled with its ties with the YPG, as they’ve been the main faction fighting against ISIS, but have also tried tyo limit that support to the country’s east, because Turkey gets so angry when they gain territory around the Euphrates River.

This has meant the YPG depends on US air support in the east, but Russian air support around Aleppo Province, and has Turkey’s President Erdogan accusing the YPG of being in league with Russia at times, and in league with the US at other times.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.