By: IBRAHIM Jaafar
The US has been aiding Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-affiliated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for years by supplying military equipment and training to the organization, despite designating the PKK a terrorist group and NATO ally Ankara's objections.
The SDF largely consists of the PKK fighter group's Syrian offshoots, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing the People's Protection Units (YPG)- its Syrian branch.
Turkey shares a 711-kilometer (442-mile) border with Syria and considers the presence of the YPG on its southern border a grave threat to its national security.
Even though the CIA and U.S. Secretary of Defense officially recognized the links between PYD/YPG and PKK, Washington continues to ignore Turkey's repeated calls to sever ties with the terrorist organization and instead bolster its cooperation with Ankara.
In January, CIA officially confirmed that its sees the PYD as the Syrian wing of the terror group PKK. Under its "The World Factbook" section and Syria subcategory, the agency listed the PYD as a PKK branch under foreign-based terrorist groups.
Similarly, the link between YPG/PYD and the PKK was confirmed by the former Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter while testifying before a Senate panel at the U.S. Congress in April 2016.
Carter confirmed there were "an actual, true and veritable ties" between YPG and the PKK. He also acknowledged that the PKK is a designated terror group by the U.S., Turkey and the EU.
The PKK has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women and children in its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey. Washington says it backs the group in its fight against Daesh. However, with Daesh almost completely defeated, even with U.S. President Donald Trump admitting on Tuesday that "very few" of Daesh fighters left in the area the U.S. continues to train more than 30,000 SDF troops and supply truckloads of weaponry to the organization.
The U.S. said it won't supply heavy weaponry to the group and once Daesh threat is eliminated, all the current arms would be collected — a statement Ankara doubts as the U.S. has been ramping up its support for the group instead of decreasing it.
Although the U.S. claims to be allies with Turkey through NATO, the reality is that the U.S. will only pursue its own political agenda to continue its influence and dominance in the Muslim world. The U.S. never was and never will be allies of Muslims and Erdogan must realise this.