Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s spokesperson, İbrahim Kalın, on Saturday accused Brett McGurk, the former US special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, of disseminating propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In reaction to an opinion piece by McGurk in The Washington Post which stated that Turkey was a not reliable partner in Syria, Kalın tweeted on Saturday that McGurk’s analysis was flawed.
“Your accusations against Turkey are complete nonsense, only a repetition of PKK propaganda. Turkey has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Syrian Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and others. You want to give new life to PKK. Won’t happen. @brett_mcgurk,” Kalın tweeted.
In his Friday op-ed, the former envoy said the areas of Syria that Turkey ostensibly controls, such as Idlib province in the northwest, are increasingly dominated by al-Qaeda.
McGurk further wrote that many of the Syrian opposition groups backed by Turkey include extremists who have openly declared their intent to fight the Kurds, not the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU, while the Kurdish armed groups in Syria are considered by many Americans as friends of the country for their assistance in the fight against ISIS in the region.