11 January 2018 - 00:10

Turkey summons US envoy over military training to Kurdish YPG

<p style="text-align: left;">Turkey summoned Jan. 10 the charge d'affairs of the United States Embassy, Philip Kosnett, in Ankara over reports that U.S. troops started training the pro-Kurdish Syrian People's Protection Units (YPG), a development that can further strain ties between the two allies.

The move came a day after news broke that U.S. troops begun to provide military training to some 400 YPG members in a move to create a new force to guard the border between Turkey and Syria, Turkish diplomatic sources told the Hurriyet Daily News.

Turkey accuses Washington of continuing to provide heavy weapons to the YPG although the war on terror comes almost to an end and calls it to end the deployment and to start to take back weapons already given to the group.

Despite blames by Turkey, there are reports that the partnership between the U.S. and the YPG continues and that the former assists the latter to form a new force to control the Turkish-Syrian border.

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