The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned the US Ambassador David Sutherfield for explanations, expressing Ankara's strong reaction to the US State Department's statement on the "conditional sentence" following the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers and police officers, as well as MIT agents from the PKK forces in northern Iraq, according to the Hürriyet newspaper.
Turkish officials announced Sunday that 13 Turks had been executed by the illegal group in the midst of a Turkish military operation targeting PKK positions in the Gara region of northern Iraq.
Last week, fighters warned that hostage lives were being threatened by Turkish military bombardment of the area.
The US State Department conviction for the killings on Sunday disputed whether the PKK was behind the killings, citing Ned Price's spokesman:
"If the reports of the death of Turkish citizens at the hands of the PKK terrorist organization are confirmed, we condemn this action on the strongest terms".
Earlier Monday, Erdogan said it was time for the United States to stop supporting terrorist groups during a televised speech in Rize's hometown of northeastern Turkey.
"The United States has given them weapons and they have fought against us," Erdogan said. "If we are going to be together in NATO, you will be by our side, not by the terrorists." And went on to say “You are definitely on their side and behind them. "
Turkey considers the Syrian People's Protection Units (YPG) a terrorist organization because of alleged links to the PKK, an armed group that has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey since the 1980s.
The YPG, which operated as the Kurdish armed forces under the leadership of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), was a key element in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) under the US-led international coalition.
Assessment
It is clear that Erdogan is trying to raise the nationalist sentiment of the Turkish people against the PKK Kurds, identifying them with the YPG Kurds, and ultimately outlawing the Kurdish HDP party in the face of political developments in Turkey.
The Turks are also informed that the US, on the one hand, is strengthening its position and creating a new large military base in the Iraq-Syria-Turkey tri-national, and on the other hand, is equipping the Syrian YPG Kurds, whom they do not intend to abandon to post-war Syria.
Erdogan therefore realizes that the United States is very likely, if not certain, to create a semi-autonomous independent state in northern Syria, which will be a precondition for the autonomy of the 7 provinces of SE Turkey, where the vast majority of ethnic citizens are Kurds.
All the data point to a full-blown US-Turkish conflict in a short time.
Greece and Cyprus are expected to join the equation, as Erdogan is expected to react to US pressure very soon and to intensify his aggressive behavior against us again.
A new Greek-Turkish crisis is slowly becoming more visible, as the period of Erdogan's copper-plated friendship attack seems to be coming to an end.
Very soon the exploratory contacts between Greece and Turkey are expected to end through the fault of Turkey, while in the five-party conference on the Cyprus issue we expect a very tough stance on the part of Turkey and Turkish Cypriots, with a possible end to the wreckage of the negotiations.
Perhaps in this context is the current communication of the American with the Greek Foreign Minister, since I consider it very probable, as I mentioned above, that Erdogan will try to lead us to a crisis.
