ANKARA (Dispatches) –
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sys a senior Biden administration official is “dispatching” and “managing” militant groups such as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Erdogan told journalists that Brett McGurk, the U.S. National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was very close to the PKK and its Syrian Kurdish offshoot, the so-called People’s Protection Units (YPG).
“He is actually supporting terrorism,” Erdogan said. “He is a director for the PKK and the YPG. Of course my statement will definitely concern some. We know it.”
Turkey has fought with the PKK since 1984, when the organization first launched its armed campaign to carve out an independent Kurdish state. The group now says it wants greater autonomy for Kurds in Turkey.
Relations between Ankara and Washington soured over several issues, including Turkey’s purchase of Russian defense systems.
Erdogan says Turkey will seek compensation for its removal from a U.S.-led stealth fighter jet program, which took place over Ankara’s purchase of advanced S-400 missile defense systems from Russia.
Erdogan made the remarks on his way back from Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday, where he held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier.
He expressed hope to meet Biden at the G20 summit in the Italian capital of Rome next month to discuss the cancelled F-35 project, including a $1.4 billion payment Turkey had made before its expulsion from the program.
“We made a $1.4 billion payment, what will become of that?” Erdogan said. “We did not - and do not - earn this money easily. Either they will give us our planes or they will give us the money.”