'US role in PKK/PYD deal with Daesh cannot be ignored'

By Aynur Ekiz and Zehra Aydin

ANKARA

Turkish experts say there is simply no way that the U.S. is unaware of the secret cooperation between the terrorist groups Daesh and the PKK/PYD in Syria.

Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon on Tuesday defended a PKK/PYD deal to allow hundreds of Daesh terrorists to escape Raqqah, calling this part of a “local solution to a local issue,” namely the siege of Daesh’s de facto capital in Syria.

Professor Mesut Hakki Casin from Istanbul's Istinye University described the latest development as "scandalous," adding:

"U.S. is cooperating with a terrorist group against another. That violates international law."

He said that in the those supporters of the deal will have to face law.

"The United States of America has been caught in this very act," Casin said, adding that Turkey has always wanted to trust the U.S. but it just cannot.

The PYD and its military YPG wing are Syrian branches of the PKK, which has waged war against Turkey for more than 30 years.

Since the PKK launched its terror campaign in Turkey in 1984, tens of thousands of people have been killed, including more than 1,200 since July 2015 alone.

The U.S. and the coalition have largely ignored the PYD/PYG links to the PKK, which the U.S., EU, and Turkey list as a terrorist group.

Most recently, the PKK/PYD, after declaring victory in Raqqah, released a video dedicating the triumph to Abdullah Ocalan, the convicted PKK terrorist leader jailed in Turkey since 1999.

'The US is part of the deal'

Casin pointed out that the U.S. insisted on a solution in Raqqah with the PKK/PYD "although Turkey as a NATO member proposed to the U.S. president and top officials to do the Raqqah operation together with the Turkish army."

He reiterated Turkey's concern over the U.S. arming the PKK/PYD terrorist groups in the region.

Also speaking to Anadolu Agency, Can Acun, a foreign relations researcher at the Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), called the latest deal between Daesh and the PKK/PYD "no surprise."

"Previously, in the Manbij [Syria] operation, PYD elements cooperated with Daesh under American surveillance, and hundreds of Daesh members were transferred to Jarabulus in convoys," Acun said.

"It is impossible that the PYD could make such a deal without the permission of the U.S."

He said the U.S. was already controlling the region from the air and that they "could have easily eliminated the Daesh elements which were leaving Raqqah."

Acun underlined the U.S. permission for such a move, saying, "The U.S. is part of the deal."

Mehmet Akif Okur of Ankara’s Gazi Universty also questioned if it was "a deal only over Raqqah or sets of deals reasonable for the U.S."

Claiming that some geopolitically important oil fields were seized by groups led by the PKK/PYD in Syria, Okur said the issue goes beyond fighting Daesh.

"On the one hand, you want to fight the very end, but on the other, you find it reasonable to make deals with them," he argued.

Okur said Turkey was waging the most effective fight against Daesh in the field and warned against international efforts to create propaganda against Turkey.