A well-intentioned Wednesday tweet by U.S. Central Command and Turkey’s subsequent anger reflects an ongoing break between two important allies in the fight against the Islamic State.
Turkey has long accused the U.S. of being in bed with Kurdish terrorist group the PKK, which maintains deep ties to some Syrian rebels heavily backed by U.S. forces. The U.S. relies on an assembled group of Syrian rebels, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, to combat ISIS within Syria. Turkey regards the PKK as an existential threat to its existence, in the same league as ISIS.
CENTCOM sought to reassure Turkey Wednesday by tweeting out a statement from the general command of the SDF that declared they had no affiliation with the PKK.
SDF confirms that it has no affiliation or ties to PKK pic.twitter.com/mvENTcBpoQ
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 11, 2017
The tweet prompted an angry reply from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Press Secretary:
Is this a joke or @CENTCOM has lost its senses? Do you believe anyone will buy this? The US must stop trying to legitimize a terrorist group
— Ibrahim Kalin (@ikalin1) January 12, 2017
Erdogan also responded directly to the tweet, saying, “Those who were shedding blood under the Islamic State flag until yesterday have now emerged with a PYD, YPG identity. Nobody has the right to claim they have nothing to do with the PKK.”
Turkey is increasingly drifting away from Washington in determining its Syria policy over the Kurdish issue. Erdogan signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia over aerial operations Thursday, and entered into a Russian brokered ceasefire in late December.
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