Erdo?an's PYD move and 'Syria Thursday'

Distress in Ankara is growing as more support is declared by Turkey's major ally, the United States, for the Syrian Kurdish group the Democratic Union Party (PYD). The Turkish government considers the PYD to be an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is officially designated a terrorist group by both the U.S. and the EU.

When asked about a call by Turkish President Tayyip Erdo?an over the weekend for U.S. President Barack Obama to decide between Turkey and "the terrorists" (implying the PYD) as partners in Syria, State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Feb. 8 that Washington does not consider the PYD to be a terrorist organization. Erdo?an also criticized the recent meeting between Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), and uniformed PYD members in Kobane, a Syrian town under PYD control, saying the PYD member who McGurk met is a PKK militant for whom Turkey has an arrest warrant. In response, Kirby simply said the PYD is a "point of disagreement" between the U.S. and its "ally and friend Turkey." 

In fact, it is not only the U.S.; Russia is also giving credit to the PYD in the Syria theater. PYD head Salih Muslim was recently welcomed for a warm reception by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

But was it necessary for Erdo?an to compare Turkey to what he deems a terrorist group? Doesn't asking the U.S. to choose between Turkey and the PYD weaken Turkey's political credibility in the entire Syria crisis, when that crisis is about to enter a new diplomatic phase? Or was Erdo?an's ultimatum a move to emphasize that the PYD, (which for Ankara means the PKK, which is fighting to carve Kurdish autonomy or independence out of Turkey's southeast), must not be an...