Turkey on Monday rejected the US government’s message of condolence after six people were killed in an attack in central Istanbul that Ankara blames on Kurdish groups.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said, “We do not accept the condolence message from the US embassy. We reject it. Our alliance with a state that supports Kobani and terrorist centers (…) must be discussed.”
The minister blamed the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and some US-backed allied groups for the attack in Istanbul.
Turkish police announced that the young woman who was arrested and accused of planting a bomb on Istiklal Street in Istanbul is a Syrian national.
Again, according to the police, the woman admitted that she had acted on the orders of the PKK and that she had received instructions in Kobani, a town in northern Syria.
Turkey has often accused the US government of supplying Kurdish fighters with weapons from the PKK and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers “terrorist” groups.
The city of Kobane gained notoriety for its 2015 war, which allowed Kurdish forces backed by the Western coalition to overthrow the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
source: Noticias
