Rojava conflict

The clashes that have recently erupted between the U.S.-backed PKK/YPG forces and Arab tribes in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour are foreseeable consequences of "some countries" supporting a terrorist organization to fight against the ISIL, the Turkish Defense Ministry has stated.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned France's ambassador to Türkiye Herve Magro on March 27 and "strongly condemned" the French Senate for hosting the YPG and its female affiliate YPJ, diplomatic sources have said.

Ankara "does not accept" the hosting and awarding of the members of the YPG and YPJ with "medals of honor" by the French Senate, the Turkish officials told the envoy.

The PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, who have occupied the oil and natural gas fields in Syria, are trying to generate income by oil drilling and selling it to the black market through the companies they established, local media has reported.

The National Intelligence Organization (MİT) has brought Burhan Piçak, who was leading PKK/KCK's "assassination unit," to Türkiye in the operation carried out in northern Iraq.

Piçak, code-named Canşer/Laşer, was determined to cross into Syria from the southeastern province of Diyarbakır's Lice district in 2015 and join the PKK.

U.S. soldiers have taken part in a joint military exercise with PKK/YPG terrorists in the countryside in Syria's northeast.

Photos from the exercise conducted by the U.S.-led Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve coalition and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the ISIL were shared on the coalition's Twitter account, saying, "stronger together."

Turkey is firm in the fight against ISIL and its perverse mindset, the Foreign Ministry said in a written statement regarding the killing of ISIL ringleader Abu Ibrahim Al Hashimi Al Qurayshi by the United States.

Turkey's defense minister has criticized the United States for continuing its support to the YPG in northern Syria, recalling no success can be attained in the Middle East by ignoring Turkey's role and place.

Turkey condemned the meeting of French President Emmanuel Macron with members of "the so-called 'Syrian Democratic Council,' which is under the control of the PYD/YPG, the Syrian extension of the terrorist organization PKK," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said in a written statement on July 20.

Ties between Turkey and the United States will hardly improve if the latter does not halt its cooperation with the YPG in Syria, the Turkish defense minister has said, adding that Washington's claims that the PKK and the YPG are two different organizations have nothing to do with the reality.

Tod Wolters, commander of the U.S. European Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander-Europe, visited Ankara on Jan. 30 for talks which primarily focused on Syria, diplomatic sources have told Hürriyet Daily News.