VIDEO: Turkey Rejects United States Claims of Ceasefire with Syrian Kurds

Wed Aug 31, 2016 13:33:26

Turkey cannot be equated to a terrorist organization like the PYD/YPG, Turkey EU Minister Omer Celik said on Wednesday, in response to claims about a ceasefire between the country and the Kurdish groups in Syria.

"The Republic of Turkey is an independent, lawful state," Çelik said and added: "It cannot be evaluated as if they Turkey and PKK/PYD were equal and there was an agreement between them."

Çelik also noted that the PYD's activities in northern Syria benefit terrorists rather than Kurdish people, Daily Sabah reports.

He said that some of PYD fighters have crossed east of Euphrates but some remain to the west, which he said is unacceptable.

Last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry has informed Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that the PKK organization's Syrian offshoot, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), is retreating east of the Euphrates River in Northern Syria, as had been promised by the U.S.

Several media reports on Tuesday, citing U.S. officials, had said that a cease-fire had been agreed to between Turkey-backed Syrian rebels and PYD/YPG forces.

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