As Syria Devolves Further, Allies Criticize American Policy

[MikeWB]

ISTANBUL — Allies of the United States sharply criticized the Obama administration's Syria policy on Wednesday, when the outgoing foreign minister of France called it "ambiguous" and the president of Turkey said American inaction had allowed the region to descend into a blood bath.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey called into question the American commitment to fighting terrorist groups in Syria and cited the Washington's failure to recognize a Syrian Kurdish rebel group as a terrorist organization.

"Are you on our side or the side of the terrorist P.Y.D. and P.K.K. organizations?" Mr. Erdogan said in an address to provincial officials in the Turkish capital, Ankara, referring to American support for members of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or P.Y.D., in their fight against the Islamic State in Syria.

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Tensions between Turkey and the United States, NATO allies, have been escalating over their differing positions on the Kurds. Turkey considers the Kurdish Democratic Union Party to be a terrorist organization through its affiliation with the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or P.K.K., which has carried out a three-decade-long insurgency against Turkey.

"Hey, America. Because you never recognized them as a terrorist group, the region has turned into a sea of blood," Mr. Erdogan said.

The harsh words came a day after the State Department spokesman, John Kirby, reiterated American support for Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. "Even the best of friends aren't going to agree on everything," Mr. Kirby said. "Kurdish fighters have been some of the most successful in going after Daesh inside Syria."

The Turkish government summoned the United States ambassador, John R. Bass, late Tuesday to express its unease over the "supportive" remarks for the Kurdish group in Syria, according to Turkish officials.

In his speech Thursday, Mr. Erdogan said there was no difference between the Kurdish groups fighting in Syria and the insurgents battling the Turkish government.

"We have written proof!" he said. "We tell the Americans, 'It's a terror group.' But the Americans stand up and say, 'No, we don't see them as terror groups.' "

Criticism of American policy in Syria continued Wednesday in Paris, where Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister reiterated his longstanding disapproval.

While announcing his decision to step down after nearly four years as foreign minister, Mr. Fabius said the American plan for Syria was "ambiguous" and denounced an absence of "very strong commitment," according to Reuters.

The Obama administration has said for months that its plan for confronting the chaos inside Syria was to try to forge a political transition away from President Bashar al-Assad through talks mediated by the United Nations. But as those negotiations collapsed last week amid heavy bombings by the Syrian government backed by Russian forces.

The bombing campaign has worsened the already dire situation in Syria in recent weeks, with at least 60,000 more people fleeing to the Turkish border this week.

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The Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said on Wednesday that the relentless bombing around the city of Aleppo, in northern Syria, by government and Russian forces amounted to a campaign of "ethnic cleansing."

"One of the aims of the latest attacks is to conduct ethnic cleansing," Mr. Davutoglu said at a news conference in The Hague, Netherlands. "Ethnic cleansing in Syria and Aleppo aimed at only leaving regime supporters behind is being conducted by the Syrian regime and Russia in a very deliberate way."

"Every refugee that we accept helps their ethnic cleansing policy, but we will continue to accept refugees," he said.

Mr. Davutoglu added that the United Nations Security Council and the international community were being "two-faced" for demanding that Turkey open its borders, but not moving "a finger to solve the Syrian crisis" or to stop the Russian bombings, according to The Associated Press.

He also accused the P.Y.D., the Kurdish militia in Syria, of collaborating with Russian forces and attacking civilians.

Turkey fears that support from Russia and the United States for the P.Y.D. could create an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria that would spur the separatist ambitions of Kurdish militants in Turkey.

The Turkish military started a major counterinsurgency campaign against Kurdish militants in the predominately Kurdish southeast region last year, imposing round-the-clock curfews in many towns and cities. Hundreds of militants and civilians have died in the operations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/world/europe/recep-tayyip-erdogan-syria-kurds.html?ref=world&_r=0