ANKARA (Sputnik) — According to Yildirim, the US-backed operation in coordination with Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the military branch of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), started on June 2 and Turkey had been informed about the operation before it started.
"They [the United States] told us that it was not an option but an obligation [to cooperate with PYD and YPG in the Raqqa operation] and that the tactical cooperation with them would not be maintained for long after the [Raqqa] operation," Yildirim told reporters in Ankara, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.
On Friday, he YPG said Kurdish forces would start advancing on Raqqa within days.
On May 9, the US Defense Department announced that President Donald Trump had approved a plan to arm Kurdish YPG in order to better fight against terrorism in Syria despite objections from Turkey.
In May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Washington and held talks with Trump, during which the two sides discussed the Kurdish issue among other topics.
