Turkish Official: US to Deceive World Unless They Stop Arms Supplies to YPG

ANKARA (Sputnik) — Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told Kanal 24 TV that "if the United States does not keep its promise to cease military assistance to the YPG, then [the United States] would be deceiving the whole world."

During Friday's phone call between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Donald Trump, the US President assured his Turkish counterpart that all US deliveries of weapons to the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) would be curbed. The YPG are considered by Ankara to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a designated terrorist group in Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

READ MORE: Erdogan Conveys Concern Over US Supporting Kurdish YPG to Mattis

Relations between Ankara and Washington have deteriorated sharply over the past few months against the backdrop of several issues: the tensions related to US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of masterminding the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey; the arrest of Metin Topuz, an employee at the US Consulate General in Istanbul; regarding the Syrian crisis — Turkey is one of the three Syrian ceasefire regime guarantors urged to continue de-escalation efforts in Syria in the framework of the Astana process. However, the US has provided support for the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the YPG, as well as the Syrian Democratic Forces, aimed at fighting Daesh (ISIS).