Kurdish fighters walk through a street in the Syrian town of Kobani, October 19, 2014. (Reuters)
Ankara:
Turkey is facilitating the passage of Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters to the besieged Syrian border town of Kobane, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.
But he stopped short of saying Ankara backed a decision by the United States to airdrop weapons to the town's defenders.
Islamic State fighters have for a month laid siege to Kobane, on the Turkish frontier, and only intense bombardments by U.S.-led coalition warplanes have halted their advance.
The United States said it had airdropped medical supplies and weapons to Kurdish forces near Kobane on Sunday, provided by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq.
Ankara has been under mounting pressure to go beyond humanitarian assistance for those fleeing the violence, but has up to now refused to send its own military across the border or allow arms to flow through its territory into the town.
The Turkish authorities view those defending Kobane with deep suspicion because of their links with the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), outlawed in Turkey as a terrorist group after fighting a three-decades long insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in southeast Turkey.
"We are facilitating the passage of peshmerga forces to Kobane to provide support. Our talks on this subject are continuing," Cavusoglu said at a news conference on Monday.
He said Turkey did not want Kobane to fall to Islamic State and had been in "full co-operation with the international coalition over Kobane".
"THREATS"
But on the issue of airdrops, Cavusoglu said Ankara viewed the move in the wider context of all regional threats, in an apparent reference to the view expressed by President Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday that the Syrian Kurdish PYD, which controls Kobane, is "no different" to the PKK.
"We want the region to be cleared of all threats. We assess the military and medical materials aid provided by our Iraqi Kurdish brothers and airdropped by the United States to all forces defending Kobani in this framework," he said.
"For as long as the PYD maintains these aims, it will not receive the support of the FSA and Turkey," he added.
A foreign ministry official said Turkish airspace had not been used during the airdrops.
Turkey's relations with the region's Kurds are complicated. Ties with the KRG are close, and the autonomous region of Iraq is one of Ankara's few remaining regional allies.
The government wants a definitive peace with the PKK, but that process has faltered in recent months, particularly as Turkey's failure to intervene militarily in Kobane has provoked fury among many of the country's 15 million Kurds.
Ankara in its turn has criticised the PYD for not joining the wider struggle to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, something the Turkish authorities have been demanding for years.
But he stopped short of saying Ankara backed a decision by the United States to airdrop weapons to the town's defenders.
Islamic State fighters have for a month laid siege to Kobane, on the Turkish frontier, and only intense bombardments by U.S.-led coalition warplanes have halted their advance.
The United States said it had airdropped medical supplies and weapons to Kurdish forces near Kobane on Sunday, provided by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq.
Ankara has been under mounting pressure to go beyond humanitarian assistance for those fleeing the violence, but has up to now refused to send its own military across the border or allow arms to flow through its territory into the town.
The Turkish authorities view those defending Kobane with deep suspicion because of their links with the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), outlawed in Turkey as a terrorist group after fighting a three-decades long insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in southeast Turkey.
"We are facilitating the passage of peshmerga forces to Kobane to provide support. Our talks on this subject are continuing," Cavusoglu said at a news conference on Monday.
He said Turkey did not want Kobane to fall to Islamic State and had been in "full co-operation with the international coalition over Kobane".
"THREATS"
But on the issue of airdrops, Cavusoglu said Ankara viewed the move in the wider context of all regional threats, in an apparent reference to the view expressed by President Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday that the Syrian Kurdish PYD, which controls Kobane, is "no different" to the PKK.
"We want the region to be cleared of all threats. We assess the military and medical materials aid provided by our Iraqi Kurdish brothers and airdropped by the United States to all forces defending Kobani in this framework," he said.
As many as seven other groups are defending Kobane, Cavusoglu said, but he renewed calls for the PYD to co-operate with the wider Syrian FSA opposition and to give up its efforts to carve out autonomous Kurdish regions in Syria.
"For as long as the PYD maintains these aims, it will not receive the support of the FSA and Turkey," he added.
A foreign ministry official said Turkish airspace had not been used during the airdrops.
Turkey's relations with the region's Kurds are complicated. Ties with the KRG are close, and the autonomous region of Iraq is one of Ankara's few remaining regional allies.
The government wants a definitive peace with the PKK, but that process has faltered in recent months, particularly as Turkey's failure to intervene militarily in Kobane has provoked fury among many of the country's 15 million Kurds.
Ankara in its turn has criticised the PYD for not joining the wider struggle to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, something the Turkish authorities have been demanding for years.
© Thomson Reuters 2014
