Turkish authorities are fighting not against the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), but against the US, which intends to create a terrorist state on the border with the country, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.
"We prosecute everyone. We prosecute organizations such as FETO (Fethullahist terrorist organization - TASS), PKK, DHKP-C (Revolutionary People's Liberation Party - Front - TASS), IS (Islamic State terrorist group, banned in Russia - TASS). We are not fighting the PKK, we are fighting the United States," Turkish TV channel Ulusal quoted the minister as saying on Wednesday.
"Are we naive enough to understand this? We know this. The US wants to create a terrorist state there," Soylu continued.
On April 22, Soylu accused the US of intending to create a terrorist state near Turkey's borders. He noted that the authorities are taking precautionary measures, including conducting four major operations in Syria and Iraq.
Previously, Ankara had repeatedly criticized Washington's cooperation with the Kurdish units of the People's Self-Defense Forces (SNF, a Kurdish organization in Syria recognized as terrorist in the Republic of Turkey) because they are considered a Syrian offshoot of the PKK. Although the US recognizes it as a terrorist organization, it insists that joint work with the SNF has made it possible to fight the IS successfully.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
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Based on materials from TASS