Erdogan: Free Syrian Army will join fight in Kobane
Erdogan: Free Syrian Army will join fight in Kobane
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that 1,300 Free Syrian Army fighters will join Kurdish forces in defending Kobane from the Islamic State group.
3 min read
Kurdish forces have been battling IS for Kobane (Getty)
Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) will be reinforced by 1,300 Free Syrian Army fighters to help defend the Syrian border town of Kobane against the Islamic State group(IS, formerly known as ISIS), according to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The two groups are currently in talks to determine the transit route, Erdogan added.
"I have just been informed that the number of [Iraqi-Kurdish] Peshmerga [to be sent to Kobane] was reduced to 150", said Erdogan.
Erdogan announced on Thursday that 200 Iraqi Kurd Peshmerga fighters would travel through Turkey to Kobane to fight militants from the Islamic State group.
There are an estimated 2,000 Kurdish fighters battling IS militants for control of the strategially important Kobane.
Erdogan has come in for criticism for his apparent resistance to arming the Kurdish forces fighting IS.
The Turkish leader has argued that any plan to fight IS must also include operations against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Ankara also views the Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD), the political wing of the YPG, as the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) whose three-decade conflict with the Turkish state has left 40,000 people dead in its bid for self-rule.
Erdogan on Thursday dubbed the PYD a "terrorist organisation".
He also spoke of the acute humanitarian crisis gripping Syria and the spillover of refugees into Turkey.
Some 200,000 Kurds have fled from Syria to Turkey to escape the onslaught on Kobane by IS militants.
Turkey is also hosting more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees who fled the civil war between Assad and rebels seeking his ousting.
"Where was the world when 300,000 people have been killed in Syria thus far?" Erdogan said on Thursday in Riga.
"Why are they so keen on Kobane, but not on the whole of Syria? That's a question to ask."
Erdogan was in Estonia on Friday, where he was expected to discuss Turkey's bid to join the 28-member bloc.
The two groups are currently in talks to determine the transit route, Erdogan added.
"I have just been informed that the number of [Iraqi-Kurdish] Peshmerga [to be sent to Kobane] was reduced to 150", said Erdogan.
Erdogan announced on Thursday that 200 Iraqi Kurd Peshmerga fighters would travel through Turkey to Kobane to fight militants from the Islamic State group.
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Where was the world when 300,000 people have been killed in Syria thus far? - Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish president |
There are an estimated 2,000 Kurdish fighters battling IS militants for control of the strategially important Kobane.
Erdogan has come in for criticism for his apparent resistance to arming the Kurdish forces fighting IS.
The Turkish leader has argued that any plan to fight IS must also include operations against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Ankara also views the Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD), the political wing of the YPG, as the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) whose three-decade conflict with the Turkish state has left 40,000 people dead in its bid for self-rule.
| What's in a name? | |
| Kobane, also known as Kobani, takes its name from a German train company which worked on the construction of the Baghdad Railway, upon which Kobane was a station built in 1912. Although Kurds mainly use the term "Kobane", local Arabs use the name "Ayn al-Arab", meaning "the spring of the Arabs", referring to the large number of springs in the area. The springs also gave the town its first Kurdish name, Kani. IS, meanwhile, refers to the town as "Ayn al-Islam" - or "spring of Islam", symbolising the change they believe they are bringing with their caliphate. Elsewhere in Syria, IS changed the name of Deir al-Zour province to "Wilayet al-Kheir", or "the blessed province". |
Erdogan on Thursday dubbed the PYD a "terrorist organisation".
He also spoke of the acute humanitarian crisis gripping Syria and the spillover of refugees into Turkey.
Some 200,000 Kurds have fled from Syria to Turkey to escape the onslaught on Kobane by IS militants.
Turkey is also hosting more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees who fled the civil war between Assad and rebels seeking his ousting.
"Where was the world when 300,000 people have been killed in Syria thus far?" Erdogan said on Thursday in Riga.
"Why are they so keen on Kobane, but not on the whole of Syria? That's a question to ask."
Erdogan was in Estonia on Friday, where he was expected to discuss Turkey's bid to join the 28-member bloc.
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