US should disarm terrorist YPG/PKK: Turkish PM

By Ramazan Ercan

IZMIR, Turkey (AA) - Turkey’s premier said late Monday that the U.S. should disarm the YPG/PKK terror group in Syria.

Speaking in the Aegean Izmir province, Binali Yildirim said YPG/PKK terrorists moving to the east of the Euphrates is not a cure-all.

"As there is a terror group equipped with heavy weapons, it is a primary threat to our country," Yildirim stressed.

"We cannot ignore this and the terror elements there must be dissolved, they should be disarmed of their weapons. The U.S. is the one that will do that," he added.

Turkey has complained of the U.S. supplying the YPG/PKK of weapons.

Yildirim said that if the U.S. does not disarm them, Turkey will do what is necessary for its own security.

"This is also our right stemming from international law at the same time," he said.

The YPG/PKK and PYD/PKK are Syrian offshoots of the PKK terror group, which has taken some 40,000 lives in its 30-year terrorist campaign against the Turkish state, including those of women and children.

Turning to Turkey's operation in Mt. Qandil, northern Iraq, Yildirim said the operation's ultimate goal is neutralizing the PKK terror group so that it can no longer harm Turkey.

"We are not eyeing the territories of others. Our aim is to destroy a terror group which disturbs our country from outside our borders and threatens the safety of our people’s life and property," Yildirim said.

Airstrikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq, where the terror group has its main base in the Mt. Qandil region, near the Iranian border, have been carried out regularly since July 2015, when the terrorist PKK resumed its armed campaign.