The Turkish military has discovered the whereabouts of 33,000 truckloads of weapons given to terrorist PKK's offshoot the People's Protection Units
The Turkish military has discovered the whereabouts of 33,000 truckloads of weapons given to terrorist PKK’s offshoot the People’s Protection Units in Syria and is collecting them, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday.
Speaking in western Izmir province, Erdoğan said the Turkish military is chasing the terrorists in northern Syria as they are fleeing.
“We discovered 33,000 trucks of weapons given to the YPG terrorists and are collecting them,” he said.
The president was talking about the weapons given to the terrorists by the U.S, which has been a cause of great concern for Turkey.
Relations between the U.S. and the PKK’s Syrian affiliates have long been a concern for Turkey as the terrorist group’s presence on the Turkish border poses grave security threats to the country’s national security.
During the fight against Daesh, the U.S. opted to partner with the YPG despite its NATO ally’s security concerns and provided truckloads of weapons to the terrorist group. Some 22,000 truckloads of arms and ammunition have been given to the YPG so far. Some of the arms include cruise missiles, anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS).
The delivery of arms and equipment to the YPG, which is still poisoning bilateral relations between the two NATO allies, began in 2014 and intensified in subsequent years.
The presence of these weapons has caused concern in Ankara, threatening the stability of northern Syrian areas that were liberated from Daesh during Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch. There are also other serious possible threats to Turkey, including the possibility of the transfer of these U.S.-made weapons to southeast Turkey through the border controlled by the YPG to be used against the Turkish army by PKK terrorists. In recent years, U.S.-made rockets, anti-aircraft weapons, heavy machine guns and M-16 rifles have been seized, particularly on Kato Mountain located in Turkey’s border province of Hakkari, during anti-terror operations against PKK terrorists.