Turkish FM pleased US convinced of 'PYD's unreliability'

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu has expressed his elation after his U.S. counterpart apparently agreed that Syria's Kurds are "unreliable," while calling on Washington to display maturity by correcting its "mistake" about their relationship with groups that are defined as "terrorists" by Ankara.

But Çavu?o?lu also accused Washington on Feb. 19 of making conflicting statements about the People's Protection Units (YPG) in the wake of a Feb. 17 bombing in Ankara that authorities have accused Syrian Kurds of committing.

Radiating with pleasure, however, Çavu?o?lu said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had told him Syrian Kurds could not be trusted. "My friend Kerry said the YPG cannot be trusted," Çavu?o?lu said, referring to a telephone conversation with Kerry that took place on Feb. 18. "When you look at some statements coming from America, conflicting and confused statements are still coming.... We were glad at least to hear from John Kerry yesterday that his views on the YPG have partly changed," he said.

His statement came as part of a whirlwind chain of statements delivered by Turkish officials addressing Washington since a Feb. 17 car bombing targeting a military convoy in Ankara that killed 28 people. The Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an have worked overtime to convince the world that the attack was committed by the YPG, which is battling jihadists and other groups backed by Turkey in Syria.

"Resorting to terrorist groups like the YPG in the fight against Daesh in Syria is above all a sign of weakness," Çavu?o?lu said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamist group. "Everyone must stop this mistake. In particular our ally the United States must stop this mistake immediately. Accepting a mistake...