"America, how many times have I asked you: are you with us or with the PYD? It's a strange partnership we have. Despite the fact that we have explained everything to them (the United States) many times, they still say that these are not terrorists. But these are clearly terrorists, you still have not understood this, but know this very well," Erdogan said while addressing the heads of village administrations in Ankara.
On Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador John Bass to protest Washington's latest refusal to consider the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) a terrorist organization.
Ankara considers the PYD to be an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an organization seeking Kurdish independence that has fought the Turkish state since 1984.
Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, bordering Iran, has seen renewed hostilities between the Turkish government and the PKK following July's breakdown of a two-year peace process.
