U.S. Policy To Arm Kurds May Split NATO, Turkish MP Warns

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

U.S. Policy To Arm Kurds May Split NATO, Turkish MP Warns

Jan. 17, 2018 (EIRNS)—Berat Conkar, a Turkish parliamentarian and leader of the Turkish Group in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, told Sputnik in an interview that the U.S. plan for Syria threatens to split NATO.

"Earlier, U.S. officials responded to Turkish criticism of their interaction with Kurdish elements with the assurance that this interaction was temporary, and connected with the need to fight Daesh,"

Conkar said.

"But the current U.S. action shows us that the Americans intend to create and maintain long-term contracts with the terrorist elements of the YPG, whose activities pose a direct threat to Turkey’s security,"

he added.

"Such behavior by the U.S. is absolutely unacceptable for us, and contradicts the allied principles on which our relations with the U.S. should be built,"

Conkar stressed. If the U.S. moves forward with the Syrian Kurdish border force, it will contradict all of NATO’s principles, and all bilateral agreements, he said.

At the same time, Conkar endorsed Russia’s position on the U.S. plan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that U.S. actions "demonstrate that the United States does not want to keep territorially integrated Syria." Conkar said, "The words of the Russian Foreign Minister demonstrate Russia’s realistic and constructive approach."