Erdogan says Turkey may hit U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds to block advance

ISTANBUL (Reuters – Turkey will “do what is necessary” to prevent U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish rebels from declaring autonomy in the town of Tel Abyad near the Turkish border, including conducting further military operations, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

NATO member Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Syria, but it sees advances by autonomy-seeking Kurds, led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as a threat to its own national security, fearing they could stoke separatism among Turkish Kurds.

Turkish jets recently hit the Syrian Kurds’ armed People’s Protection Units (YPG) targets twice after they defied Ankara and crossed west of the Euphrates River.

“This was a warning. ‘Pull yourself together. If you try to do this elsewhere – Turkey doesn’t need permission from anyone – we will do what is necessary,'” Erdogan said, signalling he could defy Washington’s demand that Ankara avoid hitting Syrian Kurds and focus its military might on Islamic State targets.

Erdogan, in remarks broadcast live on the Kanal 24 television station, also accused the PYD of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in the area and said Western support for the Syrian Kurdish militias amounted to aiding terrorism.

Backed by U.S.-led air strikes, YPD fighters captured Tel Abyad in June from Islamic State, and this month a local leadership council declared the town part of the system of autonomous self-governing “cantons” run by the Kurds.

“The PYD is committing ethnic cleansing here (of) Arabs and Turkmen,” Erdogan said. “If the Kurds withdraw and don’t form a canton, there’s no problem. But if the mindset continues, then what is necessary will be done or we face serious problems.

“We are determined to (combat) anything that threatens us along the Syrian border, inside or out.”