Turkey faces a threat from its military allies, President Erdogan criticises US & NATO

Ankara: Turkey has targeted the United States and NATO member countries once again over the issue of providing support to the Kurdish rebel groups in Syria. Turkish President Recep Erdogan has strongly accused the United States and its allies of supplying free arms and ammunition to the terrorists, while Turkey as a country was not in a position to buy arms from the United States.

Turkish President Erdogan had threatened to attack the United States soldiers without hesitation stationed at Manbij in Syria if the United States did not stop supporting the Kurdish rebels. Following this, Turkey had reprimanded France in strong words as it had invited the Kurdish rebel leaders for discussions. Kurdish rebels are considered as terrorists by Turkey. ‘Whosoever supports these terrorists will automatically become a target for us’, threatened Turkey.

The new threat from President Erdogan attracts attention against this background. ‘Turkey cannot buy arms from the United States. However, the United States and its allies supply these arms to the terrorists for free. In this situation, who is the actual threat to Turkey? Obviously, there is perceived threat to it from its own military allies’, criticised Erdogan.

The Turkish President claimed that the United States supplied 5000 truckloads of arms to the Kurdish organisations based in Northern Syria. Also, the Turkish army had started an aggressive campaign against the Kurdish rebels in the month of January. There was a major tension created between the United States and Turkey over this issue.